Peace Wakizashi

The new Peace Wakizashi was designed by Keith Larman of Summerchild Polishing as both a companion piece to the very popular Peace Katana, but also as a stand-alone sword on its own merits.

Keith requested that the wakizashi be of the hira zukuri form. Hira zukuri blades are flatter without the ridgeline and defined kissaki (tip) of a more common shinogi zukuri design. Shinogi zukuri is the overwhelming choice in longer blade forms such as katana because it offers a balance between strength and resistance to bends along with proper sharpness. Hira zukuri blades being taller from back to the edge has a sharper edge angle and are, as a result, aggressive cutting blades. Users will often comment that they are as close to a "lightsaber" that you're going to get in the modern world. However, in longer lengths with their thinner cross section they can be more prone to taking a set (a permanent bend) due to the forces involved in actual cutting. As a result, hira zukuri blades are very rare in longer lengths but more commonly seen in tanto and sometimes in wakizashi. Keith has long told us he wanted to do a hira zukuri wakizashi but only as long as it as done in a quality steel with a quality heat treatment. The Peace Wakizashi is that sword.

Bugei asked the forge to fold the steel an extra time to get the finer grain that is distinctive of the Peace Katana. Bugei has them do a subtle suguha (flat) hamon on that steel giving them a very subtle but incredibly interesting interaction with the steel when looked at closely. The elegant suguha also follows the profile of the blade itself, lending itself to an understated elegance that is so distinctive of Japanese historical swordcraft. Keith's designed included specifying the larger size of the blade even though it is wakizashi length. The overall nagasa is 20 inches from the machi to the very tip with subtle sori. This length reflects the larger feel of the mounts for today's larger hands.

The koshirae (mounts) reflect the Peace Katana but, as is traditional with daisho, there is some intentional variation. Matched sets (daisho) shouldn't necessarily be "photocopies" of each other. The Peace Wakizashi features a hamidashi tsuba (essentially a "low profile" tsuba) design. These were common on shorter swords such as tanto and wakizashi. The fuchi kashira and menuki match the Peace katana and of course, the saya (scabbard) is decorated similarly with blades of golden grass reflecting the original haiku which was the inspiration for the Peace Katana. The tsuka is built for one-handed use as is traditional with blacked samekawa (rayskin) wrapped in real silk tsukaito.

Details:
20 inch blade
6 inch tsuka

The tsuka is wrapped in brown silk ito and brown same. Each blade is individually hand forged from Swedish Powdered Steel.