4 Musketeers

Claudius came to me after searching for bladesmiths on the internet. His first words to me were: "I have chosen you from all the smiths to make me something special." This intrigued me. So here is the story.

Claudius is a Karma Kagyu Tibetan Buddhist. I must say I have tried Buddhism through the Shamballa Path of the warrior. After going to the Shamballa center in London I came away feeling that the people there were a bunch of lost-tree-hugging-gay-lesbians-for-the-whales group. The book was so inspiring, yet the people practising were so completely uninspiring. So as soon as Claudius mentioned Buddhism, I took him for a tree hugger. I was wrong! It turns out that the Karma Kagyu lot are a bunch of hard asses on a spiritual path. Fearless, dependable, proud, intelligent and compasionate.

There was a very famous Tibetan warrior called Gesar Ling. In Tibet there are many stories and songs about his exploits in his time. Now he is adored as one of the saints of early Buddhism in Tibet.

Where does this come into bladesmithing you might ask. Well, it's coming, don't worry.

The Tibetans believe that when a specialy enlightend person lives he passes some of his vital essence over to the things he owns. Some Tibetans today are lucky enough to have small pieces of Gesar Ling armour which they keep in a small box hanging around their neck, along with other pieces of sacred objects from their Buddhist teachers. What Claudius wanted was for me to take the small piece of Gesar Ling's armour that Claudius had and weld it into a piece of random pattern welded steel. I was to make four Tibetan tanto type tactical knives from the random pattern weld. Below you see a picture of a traditional Tibetan knife (it has a tanto shape).




The idea of making four knives for Claudius himself, his lama Ole and his close and beloved sangha friends, I felt was a great honour to undertake. I gladly accepted.


In the following photographs you will witness the production process for the 4 Musketeers. This drawing was aproved by Claudius when he came to visit me in the Summer.



The four blades are hammered to shape from the strip of random pattern weld. One of the blades is for a left handed person.




Blades are ground and ready for hardening.



Blades are hardened using a shamanic technique I have recently developed.



The blades are polished and received their spacers.



The four blades are finished with a guard of 1:2842 and hardend RH 62. The handles are made from black mircata. There is a small colored strip which is different on each of the the four blades. The but caps have a hardness of RH 62.

Hunting with a Jordan Maxknife

In contrast to idyllic camping in Sweden another friend sent me pictures of his latest hunting experience.

This is the Jordan Maxknife in action:


The knife I can say is now fully tested: 3 wild boars and 2 roebucks gutted, including cracking of the pelvis and breaking of the spine - and without sharpening. Below the picture of the ex-boar. Sorry for the gory details.



Jordan knives are not just collection beauties: you can actually get out there and use them! Again high carbon steel does not tarnish, rust or blemmish when you expose it to blood or fats whilst dressing game. And again high carbon steel holds an edge much longer than ANY stainless steels (ATS34, 440C, S30V etc.).

Camping in Sweden

My dear friend Paul sent me photographs from his outdoor camping holiday in Sweden this Summer. He is the owner of this knife set and has been using it for all his camping adventures in the last 8 years. If you look after a carbon blade properly it will not rust! I am fed up with people saying that high carbon steels are difficult to look after. There is one thing for sure: they bloody well hold an edge!





You can find more information on this knife set here.

Shinobe tanto

Katana kaji: Andrew Jordan

Blade: Sinobe Tanto

Total length: 49 cm

Length of blade: 37,8 cm

Depth at munemachi: 36 mm

Thickness at munemachi: 7 mm

This sinobe tanto is made in the style of Chikushu-no-Ju Sa (Meibutsu Kosetsu Samoji).This sinobe tanto has marumune, a stretched medium sized kissaki and a markedly high koshizori. The kitae in itame shows an admirable amount of ji-nie. There are yubashiri seen here and there as well as chikei, making the steel surface bright and serene. The hamon of notare mixed with gunome and ashi is admirably sprinkled with nie and is also embellished with sunagashi and kinsuji. Its nioiguchi stands out clearly. The boshi on the obverse undulates modestly and has a fairly pointed tip: it is wilder on the reverse and has an almost thrusting tip. The hi on the left side half way up the blade coming to a graceful tip in harmony with the point. On the right side two hashi hi a little shorter than half-way. There is one mekugi-ana. O-Sa, who is considered to have been one of the ten students of Masamune, is unique because his skill which went beyond the confines of Kyushu tradition by successfully taking up Soshu-den and combining it with this own. His new style features the ji and ha of exceedingly bright and clear appearance, which is what appeals most to sword collectors. Samoji left a relative large number of signed examples, most of them in tanto form.


There were three special knives that I took to the Solingen show: the Shield Maiden, the Mr K.'s spearpoint bowie (see earlier post) and Yvonne's sinobe tanto. This is the first picture I have of the tanto which clearly shows the 'hamon' I got on it. Ralph Oquendo polished it with a full Japanese art polish. It is just a wonderful blade to look at. Ralph has assured me that I managed to achieve something of the same quality of the best Japanse blades. He really brought the 'hamon' alive with his polishing. In his own words: it was one of the hardest things he ever polished in his life.

Old movies made new...

by bunnies.

Highlander was one of my favorite films when I was younger. I was fencing and the whole idea of the student/teacher thing was really important for me. I look back on that time when I fenced as an important time. Fencing gave me so much. I was actually doing something I really liked. Sabre fencing is so much fun! But you have to be very fit.

I did it!

The knife is finished now.

My first post...

Coming weekend is the Messer Macher Messe in Solingen, Germany. My workshop is a mess: trying to finish some nice blades for the show...