"Butterfly" Tanto project.
This project started with a 10" tanto blade (hira zukuri, rather
thin) I got on ebay. According to the seller, it came from one of the early Chen
tantos, and was sold with original habaki, kurikata, storage bag and box.
Since it is so wide and thin, it sort of reminds me of a butterfly wing. So I
decided to call it "butterfly" and decorate the saya accordingly.
In the end, I ended up making one saya and two handles for this blade (one
aikuchi style, another full tanto).
Never mind the upper tanto in the first picture - this is just a Chen "Tiger" tanto where I made a new tsuka using original fuchi/kashira/menuki. No relation to this project.
First I designed the koshirae in the "dashizame aikuchi" style
(open same handle, no guard), though some details (like saya finish, see farther
down) are not
fully traditional.
The aikuchi (in the picture above) tsuka has poplar core, wrapped with same (with the seam on the
back, in the traditional manner).
All the fittings (fuch/kashira, koiguchi, kojiri) are made of polished
buffalo horn.
With the second handle I went for something more comfortable and
visually impressive (in the picture below). It is of a wakizashi size (almost
6" long), has a deep "waist" and noticeable curve to it.
Poplar core again, fully wrapped with lower grade black same (most of it
is not visible anyway), and wrapped with brown silk tsuka ito. The wrap style is
a kind of "katate maki" (if I'm not mistaken). I experimented with
this style for the first time and rather liked the result.
Fittings were also experimental. I made the kashira of buffalo horn, but
both fuchi and tsuba are brass, and represent my first attempt to make and
decorate metal fittings at least approaching Japanese style! They both started
their lives as plain KC Wakizashi fittings, and were completely reworked,
resized and decorated by myself.
The tsuba is 2 7/16" by 2 1/8", 3/16" thick. It is carved,
inlayed (with silver solder instead of silver) and textured to represent a river
flowing past a rocky shore with a fool moon and 3 stars above.
The fuchi is decorated with a textured band curving around it (it looks
the same on the other side) and silver dots. To me it looks like a road from the
side (like in this picture), or a bridge if viewed from the edge.
The seppa are copper, decorated with round file work.
I used a nice piece of wood that I had available for the saya, and
finished it with tung oil instead of traditional laquering. I'm not sure what
kind of wood it is, but it looks and smells like cherry wood to me.
The stylized butterfly design decorating the saya is my first experiment
with inlay decoration. It is executed with pieces of horn, stag, brass, nickel
silver, all inlayed into the wood surface, epoxied in place, and finally
polished flush with the surrounding wood.