Up for your consideration today is a sword I completed it a few months ago with Longship Armoury, inspired ancient BC-era Jian blade shapes I've taken to calling a "double leaf". These blade shapes confused me at first, but during the process of making and testing the blade, I came to realize that the flare farther down the blade is very close to the actual blade node, the sweet spot in the blade that is used for cutting to transfer the most energy to the target.

Whether this is the historical purpose of the blade shape or not is of course impossible to know, but what I can tell you is that this sword is an excellent cutting weapon with great blade presence, but still retaining great agility. 

The blade was forged from crucible L6 tool steel, heat treated to approximately 58hrc. This is a material that I've been very impressed with the performance of. I've done extensive testing including chopping into mild steel (with little to no damage to the edge) as well as flexing it past 90 degrees in one blades, and sticking heat treated samples in a vise and beating them to the point of failure. Something that was much more difficult than I'd have ever anticipated. The toughness of the steel is higher than any steel that I've experienced, and its edge holding ability is on par with some of the best sword steels out there, leaving more common steels like 5160 in the dust in every application. 

The grip is a beautiful stabilized buckeye burl, the great section going through the lighter wood reminds me of smoke rising towards the pommel. 

The tsuba-like guard was hand forged from antique wrought iron, with the forged texture on the flats showing the character of the material. The guard and pommel have been blackened with a process similar to a traditional Japanese Sabi-Tsuke patina, which leaves a nice rich black color as well as a pleasing texture. 

The piece was assembled with high strength epoxy and a hot peened tang for a traditional construction and so that none of the pieces can ever come loose. 

Blade length: 19.5"

Blade Width: 2.1"

Grip length: 4.25"

Weight: 1.7lbs

We are asking $2350 for this piece, with free shipping anywhere in the Continental US. International customers to pay actual shipping cost as well as any customs fees, etc. Thanks!