TimeWarp #8 - Carving a mekugi and Mountain Kotanto final assembly @islandblacksmith

Uploaded September 2016 | Updated September 2026, 1 day ago

Drilling the mekugi-ana and hand carving a bamboo mekugi peg for the largest of the Tools for Satoyama kotanto. (4x) Full knife build here: youtu.be/1VqXZgLwnRo
Serious students of the forge can watch the full process version here: youtu.be/m659YKUiu80

The strongest part of the bamboo is the outer wall, this side of the mekugi is not really carved at all, everything else is shaped in relation to it. This keeps the strong fibers running the full length of the mekugi on one side. This side of the mekugi must be rotated to face towards the pommel.

The way to identify the outside of the bamboo in a finished mekugi is to look for the full length "lines" (fibers) along one side, or from the end grain view it is the area with the most "dots" (holes) on it. Carving and aligning the mekugi this way maximizes the strength and puts it where most needed, at the point where tang is forced against it.

islandblacksmith.ca/process

TimeWarp #8 - Carving a mekugi and Mountain Kotanto final assembly

$Sumi-kiri - chopping charcoal for bladesmithing Read more about the museum project here: http://islandblacksmith.ca/2017/01/building-traditional-swordsmith-forge/ See more charcoal making videos here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBJ5AOs7cMwAi0VcrZt-tyGIsrOUrzhyj A sample of the sumi-kiri process; charcoal chopping, screening, and sorting techniques, and may offer some useful details for astute observers.** Traditional Japanese swordsmithing forges are fueled by softwood charcoal which is first chopped, screened, and sorted into several sizes for different stages of the forging process. The charcoal is chopped and then processed through four sizes of screen, the largest is for tanren, the second for hizukuri (I tend to use the largest for hizukuri as well and keep the second size mainly for yaki-ire), the third size isnt highly useful but may be crushed into fines or saved for tatara, the fourth is the fines for lining the bottom of the forge, and the remainder is dust for mixing into yaki-ire clay or for brasque refractory. Measurements for the screen sizes are given in sun-shaku and the type of charcoal they keep in is listed rather than what they allow to pass through. 3.03022 cm = 0.1 shaku（尺） = 1 sun（寸） = 10 bu（分） = 100 rin（厘） **Three things to note, 1. after setting up, i moved the camera orientation 180 degrees and rather than move all of the charcoal i moved only the chair to the opposite side, but for efficiency it is a good idea to have the charcoal at the left side within reach of the non-chopping hand...2. rather than chopping directly into a screen as i do, the normal procedure is to chop onto the tarp and then rake most of the largest charcoal off the top by hand before screening the remaining pile (https://youtu.be/3DdXdxSb3vE)...3. also, some of this charcoal is quite soft having been heated too quickly in the kiln or overcooked so it looks more crumbly than it should.$

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