Open to members and table holders only: Friday April 13, 2012, 10 am – 7 pm.
Member signup or renewal AFTER 2:00 pm

Open to all: Saturday 8-5 — Sunday 9-3 (1 hour earlier to members)

Thank you Joe for your diligent efforts producing this great documentary.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Brings your blades to be sharpened while you shop the garden center. Receive a coupon for $5 off of a purchase of $20 or more at Drakes 7 Dees with a purchase of on-the-spot sharpening!

Drake’s will also be hosting various gardening classes throughout the day including one’s Rose Pruning, Edible Salad Bowl, and Fruit Tree Pruning & Care. Drake’s is also offering vouchers for free pH & NPK testing.

A “gentleman’s tantō” of 6 and 1/8 inch nagasa, cable construction, hira-zukuri, with silver habaki.

Overall length of 10 and 3/4 inches.

In a simple koshirae, in a style similar to most kwaiken, only slightly larger, with black and red lacquer-work. Fuchigashira of buffalo horn. Silver mekugi-ana fittings with buffalo horn mekugi. Silver ring for sageo on saya in flower design. Comes with black silk sageo and handmade sword bag.

By Michael Bell.

FOR SALE AT REDUCED PRICE

$2,200

Handmade Portraits: The Sword Maker from Etsy on Vimeo.

Student’s may reserve a place in the class of their choice online through our school website, tomboyama.com with deposit payment via PayPal. The deposit is refundable up to 60 days before the scheduled session. Space in our classes is limited, and reservations are made on a ‘first come, first serve’ basis.

We are eagerly awaiting another enjoyable year of sword-making classes.

Dragonfly Forge will soon be attending the Oregon Knife Collectors Association (OKCA) annual knife show in Eugene, Oregon.

The show, held at the convention center at the Lane County Fairgrounds, will be held April 8-10, 2011. Friday admission is open to club members only, but Saturday and Sunday the show is open to any who enjoy “things that go cut.”

A large variety of lectures and live demonstrations will be held throughout the weekend, including a presentation by Michael Bell, master swordsmith of Dragonfly Forge, scheduled on Sunday of the show at noon. Entitled “Origins: The Evolution of Blade Technology”, the talk will focus on the metallurgical development of blades worldwide, from around 1000 BC to present day.

For more information on the annual show, please visit the OKCA website.

The tsuba is the reproduction of a missing piece from the mid-1800′s and is an true masterpiece.

Enjoy the video and have a Merry Christmas!

We have added two new courses for the 2011 school year: the Intermediate Forging Course and the Tsuka Course.

For more detail on our class please visit our school’s website tomboyama.com

This blade forged from a single piece of forge-welded cable has a 23 inch (59.7 cm) nagasa. Blade is tori-zori with chu-kissaki. Well-controled gunome hamon with usturi.

Mr. Nakajima referred to similar swords as “castle swords”, because the somewhat shorter length could be more easily wielded in confined indoor combat. A blade of this size would also have been similar to those carried by merchants and others not of the samurai class, who were legally allowed to carry one sword shorter than a katana during the Edo period.

The blade in mounted in black koshirae, also by Michael Bell. Tsuka of full-wrap same, wrapped with black silk ito. Dragon menuki of shibuichi. Silver shitodome. Buffalo horn kurigata, koiguchi, and kojiri. Black silk sageo. Copper habaki and seppa.

Tsuba is a collaborative work by Michael, Anna, and Gabriel Bell of Dragonfly Forge. It is forged antique wrought iron, pierced and carved in an openwork floral motiff.

Other measurements:

nakago nagasa: 9 1/4” (23.5 cm)
sori: 1/2” (1.27 cm)
kasane at habaki: 1/4” (64 mm)
motohaba: 1 3/16” (3.02 cm)
sakihaba: 7/8” (2.22 cm)

$8,600