Michael, Anna, and Gabriel Bell of Dragonfly Forge are happy to announce the swordsmithing school’s schedule of classes for 2011.
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
I’m interested in the beginners sword forging class, but would like to make a chinese two handed Jian, not a Japenese sword. Would that be an acceptable project for the class?
Thank you for your interest in our swordsmithing school, Tomboyama Nihonto Tanren Dojo (Dragonfly Mountain Japanese Sword Forging School).
A two-handed jian is probably beyond the scope of most beginners. Most people believe that forging a double-edged sword is more difficult. The long length and thin cross-section certainly add to the difficulty. Also, the heat-treatment process is different than that of the Japanese sword, making it outside the general focus of our school (although my father has forged jian himself in the past).
Given these considerations, I believe we would maybe be hard-pressed to successfully execute such a project in the limited 5-day time period of the Basic Forging Course.