Folded Daito by Howard Clark

This is a forge folded katana by Howard Clark. What makes this very special is that Howard is no longer offering folded blades as an option. Heck, he's not even taking commissions right now but even if he were the folded blades are no longer available.

This robust 28.75 inch nagasa blade was made to be an excellent cutter as well. It is a fairly wide blade at 1-3/8 of motohaba (width from edge to back). It tapers down to about 1 inch wide at the mune (sakihaba). The thickness of the blade at the machi is about .315 inches tapering down to .2 inches at the yokote. So while it is a larger blade is also has some graceful tapering to help keep the balance more manageable.

Basically this is a robust blade, healthy, fairly wide, with a very well done and controlled hamon (from what I can see through the unfinished surface). I can even see evidence of the hada even at this stage. They usually polish up fairly subtly in the hada with a fairly bright hamon. Here's a photo I took at an odd angle trying to show the hamon.

The habaki is solid silver and was also forged by Howard Clark for this blade.

The fuchi kashira were made for the original owner for this very blade by Howard Clark as well. They are solid shakudo and worth quite a bit just by themselves as solid shakudo is an expensive material to make.

The owner of this set has decided to put the project up for sale as it stands now. So this sword is available along with the fittings. It is in my queue with a completion date of the first quarter of 2007 (maybe pushing into the second quarter). Since the customer is selling the piece I have been thinking of how I would mount it assuming I was to finish it. With a blade like this I would like to combine the simple polished shakudo fuchi kashira with an antique solid iron sukashi tsuba that would reflect the "old school" feel of this piece. I would likely make custom thick radiused edge silver seppa to set off the deep rich colors of the parts but also to match the existing habaki. The habaki could also be gold plated and then I would also gold plate the seppa to match. That combined with antique menuki which could be selected to fit the desires of the buyer. I would very much like to experiment with the saya finish and do something interesting in the finish. I would really like to mount this beautiful blade up to be a showpiece for the various things I've been trying in my polishing and mounting work..

SOLD

Please e-mail me if you have any further questions. First come, first served... I prefer a check or money order but can take paypal (which adds about 3% to everything since that's what they charge me).

SOLD!

Howard Clark Folded Daito.