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Post by Deleted on Jan 6, 2008 4:11:52 GMT
Why is it I never see a steel Habaki? Besides it being a little harder to work than copper or silver alloys, is there some other reason?
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Post by Deleted on Jan 6, 2008 5:09:36 GMT
Not considered as precious or decorative as gold, brass, bronze, shakudo, mokume, silver. I would love to make a steel habaki, you can get some pretty impressive surface effects on steel.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 6, 2008 5:42:44 GMT
I plan on working on some cable steel blades in the short term and thought it may look nice to make a cable pattern habaki where the grain runs at a different angle from the blade may look interesting. Or at least be more distinctive.
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Post by themaster293 on Jan 6, 2008 6:08:04 GMT
That would be awesome.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 6, 2008 6:45:54 GMT
I plan on working on some cable steel blades in the short term and thought it may look nice to make a cable pattern habaki where the grain runs at a different angle from the blade may look interesting. Or at least be more distinctive. Damascus habaki opens up a WHOLE NEW WORLD of things you could do. Hastur, whatever you do get pictures please, preferrably with your gorgeous wife again! That cable idea, cable habaki with a cable blade would be AMAZING.
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Post by Dan Davis on Jan 6, 2008 14:51:16 GMT
Guys, the habaki serves a couple of design functions: - It is designed as a wear part. It is essentially a bearing that lies between the blade and the scabbard to prevent wear around the blade neck.
- It is a brace, designed to transfer lateral deflection forces across the blade and into the habaki.
As for making a habaki out of any ferrous material, it is not a good idea. If moisture gets between the habaki and the blade (even condensation from a cold night) and the surfaces begin to rust then the habaki will quickly weld itself to the blade, causing all kinds of issues. Habaki of elemental iron do exist on some older nihonto, but the practice was discarded long ago. When using a copper-alloyed habaki any corrosion becomes galvanic in nature, allowing the habaki to act as an anode and preventing or limiting rust on the blade itself. This is why the inside of your habaki will often turn dark brown or green while the blade remains clean and polished. A habaki of mokume-gane is about as close as I would go to a "damascus" habaki.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 6, 2008 15:02:53 GMT
That's what I was worried about. Perhaps I could make one for putting the blade in "full dress" and a copper one for storage. The other idea would be putting a copper sleeve between the two steels, do you see any problems there?
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Post by Deleted on Jan 7, 2008 6:40:25 GMT
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Post by Dan Davis on Jan 7, 2008 13:39:22 GMT
You might look into making a two-piece habaki where the inner part is bronze or copper and the outer part is iron or steel.
The habaki has to fit the blade on the inside and the koshirae on the outside, so in the case where a particularly valuable koshirae was made the blade would often be fitted with a two-piece habaki. This allowed for the blade to be repolished and a new inner habaki sleeve fitted to the existing outer piece, thus preserving the precise fit into the expensive mountings. For this reason you sometimes find very expensive two-part habaki on some rather mediocre swords.
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Post by swordboy bringer of chaos on Jan 7, 2008 13:55:21 GMT
that was insightful and answered one of more annoying questions I've been pondering
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Post by Deleted on Jan 7, 2008 16:01:48 GMT
Thanks Dan, that's exactly what I needed to know. I think I'll try giving the 2 piece habaki a shot when my new forge arrives. Thanks for the info. +1 karma for all your help.
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Post by swordboy bringer of chaos on Jan 7, 2008 17:45:08 GMT
what about reshaping a piece of copper pipe would that work for the inner layer
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Post by hotspur on Jan 7, 2008 18:28:07 GMT
Tom Maringer was doing steel habaki 20 years ago. www.shirepost.com/Cutlery.htmlOn katana, there are some things to take into consideration. A current thread at SFI but certainly not the only one that has discussed it is here. forums.swordforum.com/showthread.php?t=85927Some have been using copper pipe for stock, going back quite a ways. Cheers Hotspur; traditional Japanese swords are a whole system of engineering solutions
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