TLDW #19 - Bladesmithing at the Museum Swordsmith Forge @islandblacksmith

Uploaded July 2017 | Updated September 2026, 1 hour ago

**WARNING: This is the longer process version intended for serious students of knifemaking.
The sunobe stage is at 4x speed as the hammering was fairly inaccurate due to a blister on my palm from the seam of the yellow gloves...starting material was a harrow tooth, finished blade is hirazukuri, iori mune, 140mm / 5.5" nagasa, 6.5mm motokasane...more info below...

0:20
1. the harrow tooth is first forged into a sunobe, a blade preform, that has a rectangular cross section with the proper thickness and distal tapers for the spine and tang as well as a small notch where the mune machi will be...(dead battery zone)

2. then the iori mune, the peaked spine, is forged...

3:00
3. then the bevels are forged in, working from the machi towards the tip and then back down again, followed by the forging of the tang in this case...during the beveling stage the spine tends to curve upwards so a stump between the anvil and forge is used to make downwards adjustments in advance from time to time, the wood will not mar the peak of the spine...also during this stage water on the anvil keeps the scale from building up and being forged into the surface of the steel...

7:19
4. the nakago (tang) is also shaped and beveled using the same techniques as the blade...

9:11
5. some final planishing, adjustments, and straightening along with a hot stamp "signature" on the tang bring the hizukuri stage to a close...the finish will be tsuchime (hammer texture) so there was no filing/polishing before yaki-ire...

10:16
6. yaki-ire (quenching/hardening) was done at my own forge for the dim and consistent light conditions, allowing the colour to be seen more accurately...

11:10
7. yaki-modoshi (tempering) is a slight reheating to remove some of the stress and increase toughness after hardening...

islandblacksmith.ca/process

TLDW #19 - Bladesmithing at the Museum Swordsmith Forge

$Soulsmithing: adventures in hitech/lotech part 5 - chopping and sorting charcoal Pierre Nadeau of soulsmithing.com prepares to light his new forge in Canada. The focus of this video is sumi-kiri, charcoal chopping, screening, and sorting techniques, and will offer some valuable details for astute observers. The charcoal is chopped and then processed through four sizes of screen, the largest is for tanren, the second for hizukuri, his third size isnt highly useful but may be used in mini forges or crushed into fines, the fourth is the fines for lining the bottom of the forge, and the remainder is dust used for mixing into yaki-ire clay or for brasque refractory. See the rest of the series here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpmPJRiiS-E&list=PLBJ5AOs7cMwCSinW7foaiHFZKbZDkasQL&index=14 I met Pierre several years ago in Japan where he spent almost a decade working as a swordsmith apprentice. I am very grateful for his advice and assistance over the years. He is now continuing his research into traditional Japanese swords and historical crafting techniques. Soulsmithing channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/Soulsmithing An interview of Pierre: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNKymP1QF4M Read about apprenticeship: http://islandblacksmith.ca/2015/05/on-swordsmith-apprenticeship/ Pierre also specializes in making hempcrete mixers and custom wood-fired ovens on the side, the pizza was so good that unfortunately there is no footage! http://soulsmithing.com$

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