My first video in a series of videos on forging and finishing a japanese katana forged in the Hira Zukuri style.

Ok all this weather and everyone else at the forge has set the bug in me, so I have been forging and video taping my progress on a Hira Zukuri katana. Now I am not the best at video taping but I actually think this turned out better than I had expected.

And I know someo of you will say hey he is forging into the black heat, nope just the lighting makes it look like I am but it is still red heat.

The blade is W-2 from Don Hanson ( I love this stuff Don ). It looks a little thick and it is, as is wide. The blade as I get near the mune machi will be just under 3/8" and right now the width between the mune machi and ha machi is 1 3/4" the total blade length is is 32". I was not sure on my total demensions so I forged big and can file it down to the right size after forging. And sorry if it gets boring at some points but I like it.

All in All this has been fun my arm is killing me and I have used two bottles of propane so far. Here is the link to the first of 5 vides I did

 So go to my videos section and watch all 5 videos.

John