Fully Polished Clark San mai Tanto

This blade is an interesting piece. Howard gave me the blade a while back. Normally Howard would use Daryl Meier steel as the skin steel for his San Mai blades (which he no longer makes). This was an experiment, however. The "skin steel" (think the bread on a sandwich -- the skin steel is the bread, a solid core of homogeneous 1086 is the "meat") was made by Howard by folding up 1086 steel along with some wrought iron anchor chain. He folded it multiple times. The fact is that the 1086 is difficult to forge weld as it is. But Howard made it work. The other problem is the problem faced by the polisher -- making hada stand out on folded 1086 is difficult at best depending on the heat treatment. And this is literally the hardest blade (as in diamond like hardness hard) I have ever worked on.

The activity in this blade is subtle. But it is there. It isn't anything like traditional tamahagane used by the Japanese. Oh, no, this stuff is incredibly hard and tough. As such the activity is more subdued. People often complain that modern makers in Japan make blades that are hard. I've worked on those -- yes, they are. However, this makes them feel like a marshmallow in comparison.

This is about the toughest tanto you will ever find. Period. And it is basically Howard Clark pushing the limits of performance with a thoroughly modern, tough steel but still folding, welding, and working in a somewhat traditional manner. So the old craft meets in a head-on collision with modern materials and metallurgy. Along with Howard's incredibly precise heat treatment.

What surprises me is that this thing didn't shatter during heat treatment. The stresses must have been intense. But in the end what we have is a blade that was extremely difficult to shape and polish. That is subtle. But that is thoroughly unique.

The shot above was done to show the structures in the steel. The courser hada lines are the wrought iron chain. You can see the patterning in the "softer" folded 1086 steel. You can see hints of the transition zone between hard and "soft". Then near the bottom you see the harder line which is the intersection of the skin steel and the homogeneous 1086 core. Amazing, really.

The same area pulled back a little. You can see the turbulent transitional zone (habuchi - what forms the hamon). It is more subtle on this piece by the very nature of the tanto and steel, but you can see it.

And another angle above.

In the photo below you can see the weld line between the skin steel and the homogeneous 1086 core through the burnish as well as narume near the tip of the tanto (to the right).

The shirasaya is honoki I imported from Japan. I figured a blade like this should be in a fully modern shirasaya.

Habaki is work hardened sterling silver with a heavy 24k gold plating.

I went through multiple methods to finish this blade, both traditional and non-traditional. The steel is *so* hard it was difficult to bring up the hada without destroying everything else. As a matter of fact it was too difficult in many ways. And while I really like the blade, honestly I'm glad he isn't doing them like that anymore. They're just too difficult and time consuming to polish!

Howard Clark no longer makes san mai blades. And this one is quite unique as it was well off the beaten path for him as well. It was done to push the limits and it certainly succeeded on that level. It is unique, subtle, and not a blade intended to be a "show off" piece. It is all business.

Available: ~~$2,995.00~~

LIMITED TIME SALE: $2,595

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AVAILABLE

Howard Clark San mai Tanto -- Fully polished in Honoki Shirasaya