Gun Thread: Katana Komplete Edition!

Howdy, Y'all! Welcome to the wondrously fabulous Gun Thread! As always, I want to thank all of our regulars for being here week in and week out, and also offer a bigly Gun Thread welcome to any newcomers who may be joining us tonight. Howdy and thank you for stopping by! I hope you find our wacky conversation on the subject of guns 'n shooting both enjoyable and informative. You are always welcome to lurk in the shadows of shame, but I'd like to invite you to jump into the conversation, say howdy, and tell us what kind of shooting you like to do!

As I predicted last week, it's now July. Bet you didn't see that coming! With summer in full-swing, many of you may be taking a vacation. Is that you? Are you planning a vacation and are you vacationing from the comfort of home or are you going somewhere? How about a shooting themed vacation?

With that, step into the dojo and let's get to the gun stuff below, shall we?

You can focus on fundamentals and still have fun at the range. As a matter of fact I would argue that it's quite a bit more funner when you have a methodology in place to measure your progress over time. After all, you're paying for the range time and ammunition, why not realize a tangible benefit as a return on your investment? Why not enjoy seeing results of hard work?

OK, you can find a free printable bullseye target here which I found online with a quick search and avoiding the more goofy alien and zombie targets for simplicity. There are approximately a zillion free targets on the internet, and you can buy more 'official' targets printed on heavy paper such as the one pictured above . I encourage you to document your progress as you practice, by shooting for score on one of these targets at the conclusion of each range session. Date the target and use the margins or back for notes if you don't have a little notebook in your range bag. Take the targets home, and maybe even record the results in a spreadsheet. Notes should include what you focused on during that particular range session and what, if anything, kept you from achieving the desired results. Over time, you will have enough data to paint a fairly good picture of the areas requiring attention, and it's fun to see how far you have come.

One thing we haven't covered much in our fundamentals discussion is dealing with malfunctions. Notice the guy in the video is watch-less so it's no wonder he's having problems.

Welp, the WeaselKatana restoration polishing is finished! I received this email from our pal and togishi Dave this week. Again, if you're late to the show and missed the WeaselKatana backstory so far, click here to get with the program.

So, I finally have your wakizashi completed! In the final pictures, you can see the kissaki (point) and the burnishing have been finished. Sorry it's been a few days since the last photos, but the home stretch proved very difficult and took a few extra days to complete.

This blade is what is known as a bit "tired". That is a Japanese sword blade that has been polished down over the centuries to the point where some of the features have been worn away or some of the core steel or interior welds may be loose or showing. I guarantee that when you are 300-400 years old, you will probably be a bit worse for wear as well.

In the case of this blade, the biggest problem proved to be the kissaki (point). It had been ground down to the point where it was very thin and not particularly well shaped. Unfortunately the lack of metal meant that we pretty much had to go with what was there with only moderate room for improvement of the shape. Since the point had been ground down, the boshi (temper line around the point), had been completely ground off. This is actually very common in older blades. Most of the Kamakura era (1185-1333) tachi that you might see in the finest museums in Japan will have the temper line gone from around the point. With your blade, it literally faded right off the bottom edge of the point. Luckily, I happen to be exceptionally good at using some very fancy stone work to create a fake boshi, one that will fool most professional collectors. Finally, there was a karasuguchi. This is a crack right at the tip of the point. These are very tricky to work with because it makes the last millimeter of the point want to flake off with any type of mishandling. Given what I had to work with the final results are extremely good. This is important because the kissaki is considered "the face" of the sword.

The final step you will notice to have been completed in this last round of photos is the burnishing. The upper surfaces, shinogi-ji and mune, of a properly polished Japanese sword are burnished. This is where super hard steel burnishing blades and needles are used to compress the steel and close the pores in the surface. This is what gives the shinogi-ji and mune its distinctive mirror like surface and also imparts some degree of rust resistance. It is tricky trying to create a mirror surface my rubbing steel on steel. The burnishing tools used, migaki-bo, are generally hand forged and come in a variety of shapes and sizes. To facilitate the burnishing process, a very fine lubricating powder called ibota is used. It comes from the waxy excretion of a large cidada-like insect! Burnishing is one area where bad or amateur polishers can be easily identified, because they either have very bad and scratchy burnishing or they don't actually burnish at all.

First I want to share some photos of the blade showing the state of affairs before I sent it to Dave.

And now for the finished product!

Were you able to notice a difference between before and after photos? The change is quite subtle and nuanced, but if you study the photos closely even an untrained eye will begin to see the difference the restoration and polish made.

Kidding.

Sweet Jumping Jesus on a pogo stick and Holy F'ing Atomic Shitballs!
I should have the blade back from Dave in a week or so, but even the pictures of the finished product are stunning. Quite frankly I did not know what to expect, but this exceeds my wildest expectations whatever they were. Given it's original condition I think I was hoping to simply stop the rust and maybe make it a little shiny, but this thing belongs on the damn Art Thread. I can only imagine what it's going to look like in person.

My plans for the blade? I'm going to have a display case made and put it on the mantle to enjoy. I am not a sword collector, but I very much appreciate fine work and history. It would look cool on display if it had been made last week, but the age and history and connection to my dad make it absolutely priceless to me. Learning just a little bit, really only scratching the surface, about these blades has been tremendously interesting and something I plan to continue.

Finally, many thanks to my togishi and new pal Dave Hofhine. Honestly I had a lot of choices when deciding what to do with the blade, and it was Dave's philosophy on restoring these treasures that sealed the deal.

From Dave's website:

I always take a minimalist approach to foundation polishing, always considering the long term well being of the sword as primary. From the most humble and worn out blade to swords of significant historic and artistic merit, I always approach with the attitude of "wanting to do something great", the first question always being, what would I want done if it was mine.

I absolutely 1000% agree with this. Maybe even 1005% agree with this, and the results speak for themselves. I am so glad I waited the three years to percolate to the top of the wait list and have Dave do the work. I am often guilty of making profoundly moronic decisions, but in this case, I think I very definitely made the right call. Thank you, Dave.

What do all y'all think?

Man dies when firework explodes on his head

Cigar of the Week

This week our pal rhomboid scores yet again with this excellent review of the Alec Bradley Texas Lancero

A lancero is a classic cigar size, long and skinny, usually something like 6 X 43. It's a vitola that (in the normal form) emphasizes the wrapper leaf and its flavors (without violating an AOSHQ no-math rule, just consider the volume of filler vs. the amount of wrapper, as a cigar gets longer and skinnier). Well, Alec Bradley's sense of ironic humor served them well when they named the Texas Lancero - a 7 X 70 monster (insert saying about the size of things in Texas here).

A handsome medium brown Nicaraguan wrapper encases filler leaf from Costa Rica, Honduras, and Nicaragua. It's fairly dense (though not heavy in the hand), burns slowly and mostly with a good even burn line. It's got a very pleasant flavor profile - I get mostly just a very nice tobacco sweetness, though other reviewers (of course) get more, and the buddy who gifted them to me always talks about the citrus note. It's on the mild end of the mild-medium category, and just easy smokin'. Set aside a few hours when you light it up, as it will last hours - but it's perfect for when you're inspecting brass, resizing brass, polishing silverware, or just doing nothing and relaxing. I can see Weasel burning this stick down on the farm-o when he's engaged in 9mm forestry, or driving his tractor, or shooting. The Texas Lancero's available online for around $7-8.

Excellent, rhomboid! Thank you!

Here are some different online cigar vendors. You will find they not only carry different brands and different lines from those brands, but also varying selections of vitolas (sizes/shapes) of given lines. It's good to have options, especially if you're looking for a specific cigar.

Cigarsinternational.com
Cigarpage.com
Famous-smoke.com
Cigarsdaily.com
Neptunecigar.com
Smallbatchcigar.com
Bobalu Cigar Company
Cigarbid.com
Nicks Cigar World New!

A note about sources. The brick & mortar/online divide exists with cigars, as with guns, and most consumer products, with respect to price. As with guns - since both are "persecuted industries", basically - I make a conscious effort to source at least some of my cigars from my local store(s). It's a small thing, but the brick & mortar segment for both guns and tobacco are precious, and worth supporting where you can. And if you're lucky enough to have a good cigar store/lounge available, they're often a good social event with many dangerous people of the sort who own scary gunz, or read smart military blogs like this one. -rhomboid

Anyone have others to include? Perhaps a small local roller who makes a cigar you like? Send me your recommendation and a link to the site!

Ammo Link-O-Rama
I'm really very seriously not kidding around anymore. Buy Ammo
AmmoSeek - online ammo search tool
GunBot - online ammo search tool
SG Ammo
Palmetto State Armory
Georgia Arms
AmmoMan
Target Sports USA
Bud's Gun Shop
American Elite Ammo NEW!

Please note the new and improved protonmail account gunthread at protonmail dot com. An informal Gun Thread archive can be found HERE. Future expansion plans are in the works for the site Weasel Gun Thread. If you have a question you would like to ask Gun Thread Staff offline, just send us a note and we'll do our best to answer. If you care to share the story of your favorite firearm, send a picture with your nic and tell us what you sadly lost in the tragic canoe accident. If you would like to remain completely anonymous, just say so. Lurkers are always welcome!

That's it for this week - have you been to the range?

posted by Weasel at 07:00 PM

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