# Communities > Bladesmiths, Blacksmiths, Artisans and Professionals > Japanese-Style Sword Makers Cafe >  Engnath naginata/wakizashi/whatever

## Keith Larman

Yeah, another cross post from the general forum...

The discussions on this forum and others on naginata/nagimaki blades got me inspired to finally go out and finish an Engnath blade I've had on the rack forever. I've long threatened to finish it but over the last 2 days I decided it was time to just buckle down and do it to see what was lurking underneath. 

Very typical Engnath hamon. Super active. Super bright. And lots of nie up in the kissaki. 

The blade is a wakizashi length, kinda naginata shaped, with a longer nakago than a wakizashi. Part of the reason I've never finished it is that I've never been able to decide what to do with it once I polish it. Mount it as a naginata? As a naginata naoshi wakizashi? Argh. I still don't know. I'm open to suggestions. Hell, I might just sell it as a bare blade if someone out there has their own mounting ideas. Or maybe just a shirasaya with wood habaki. Hmmm, maybe some sayagaki as well.

Anyway, with no further ado, a blade by the late (great) Bob Engnath in 1050...



Gotta love his stuff.

I still haven't decided if I'm going to leave the shinogi-ji as it is. I got in there with jizuya to clear it out because it was so wild with his trademark mune-yaki and just things everywhere. Maybe I'll burnish it lightly later. Don't know...

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## Keith Larman

Oh, sorry for all the dust on the photos and no real glamour shots. I just wanted to document the blade and decided to post the picture I created.

Oh, and those horizontal lines you see are very typical of Bob's stuff. Maybe someone into metallurgy can explain it, but they appear on a lot of his stuff if you carefully polish it out. They are varied lengths of very fine lines of nioi running along the length of the blade. Almost always perfectly straight.

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