Bio (shamelessly ripped from knifeart.com) -

"Bailey has been recognized as one of the best new makers in the country. His work is easily recognizable because of his high quality workmanship and traditional styling, "I started because of the fascination I had with knives since I was a boy, and I have always enjoyed creating with my hands. I try to put the best quality workmanship I am capable of into each knife, and offer it at reasonable prices." Each one of Bailey's knive are strong, lightweight and well balanced as well as having a very smooth action and tight fit and finish.

Bailey's Awards include: Best Handmade Knife, '98 Riverland Knife Club show; Best New Maker, '98 Blade Show; Show Award, '99 Riverland Knife Club show.

Bailey has recently been awarded the Master Smith rating from the American Bladesmith Association."

Bailey's website, with pictures of some of his previous amazing work is here - www.bradshawcutlery.com

The Project

This is a project that Bailey pitched on bladeforums - an extremely well appointed tachi blade, decked out in shakudo (gold/copper alloy) fittings, with a theme of leaves in fall. It's something that'd he'd wanted to do for a while, but couldn't afford to commit the time and money on something that he might not be able to sell quickly due to the high price point. After talking with him, and hearing his great ideas, I bought it, based on his amazing track record, his clear vision and obvious enthusiasm for the project.

Note: A tachi is a Japanese Daito, or long sword. It is an older brother to the more famous katana style of sword. The tachi has a curved tsuka-maki (handle), and is worn slung from the waist edge down, as opposed to the katana which is worn edge up, tucked into a belt. It is more military and ceremonial in nature, as opposed to the katana which was a more civilian weapon.

Here's the vision, in his words:

"As for the Tachi. The photo I sent is a basic outline of the koshirae in tems of overall style. The tsuka maki style would be either hoso jabarito or tsumami (that is what is in the photo), and would continue onto the saya as in the picture. I have thought of several themes for the fittings, but keep coming back to leaves in fall for all the fittings except the tsuba, which I have several ideas for. I have a couple of books full of tsuba, but one in particular keeps grabing my attention. It is a hawk with several smaller birds carved in a very interesting manner. I attatched a picture of it from the book. It is unique, bold and very powerfull. I would like to make most of the piece very elegant and make a very bold statement with one fitting. Kind of an underlying sentiment of the elegant nature of a refined warrior, but not to the point that his strength isn't still very evident. The kojiri, semegane, fuchi, kashira and koiguchi would be the overlaping leaves done in shakudo with gold, copper and silver overlays to get 4 colors of the fall leaves, and the tsuba done in shakudo with gold birds, and silver talons and gold eyes on the hawk. There has to be an elegant flow over the piece, and the colors used would have a lot to do with that. I really like lighter colors on the tsuka-ito. Even white, which would really make the fittings stand out while giving a refined feeling. The saya I would like to do in a darker color, maybe a very dark blue, with a candy blue over some foil leaves to give the appearance the leaves are under water. Not too many, just enough evoke the feeling of tranqulity. The fittings should have a lushness to them that makes a statement of wealth and fullness, while the tsuba pulls off the final impact of a powerfull spirit."

The blade would need to be classic tachi of the koto period. Long, shinogi zukuri, not too wide, with gracefull koshi-sori and end in chu-kissaki. The piece would be folded of course to produce a bold but not garrish hada. Probably 1500 layers. Much higher than that and the hada becomes too fine for my taste. The hamon I would like to be powerfull and active, but again, not really wild. I again want the elegant feeling with the hamon making the power statement. A wide toran style hamon would be nice. Maybe one that starts out suguha that turns into toran at the monunchi.

On the note of blade length, I was thinking 31". Is this OK? Some people don't care for blades this long. I also never mentioned the habaki. I am actually undecided on it. Perhaps one with gold foil. or silver with the leaf theme carried out with piercing or carving? Any thoughts on that? I could make a two piece with shakudo and silver..."

Here are the pics associated with the above, showing the style of fittings he intends to create:

First update from Bailey on the progress of the tachi. He's started by forging the blade. In his words:

"The blade looks awesome. 1280 layers of W-2, 1084 and a little 5160. masame/itame grain on the side I ground into to see the hada. The back side of my folded blades usually have more mokume than anything

Anyway, the first photo, poor as it is, is the blade after forging with the scale ground off, and ready for normalizing. Second shot is during one of the normalizing cycles in the forge, and last is the blade with the clay on and drying just before I heat treated it. Since it is essentialy to shape now, I must say it is my finest blade to date. Very elegant yet strong. Just the way I like a Japanese sword to look. I studied several of my favorite photographs of blades, and found a couple of details I had been overlooking. One was the appearance of strong koshi-sori on the mune, but not so much on the ha side. It gives the blade a very nice flow into the habaki and tsuka, but is subtle so if you don't really look for it, it just adds to the feeling of the piece. Second was the slight amount of saki-sori in conjunction with the koshi-sori. I find it makes the blade look longer, but not gradualy straighten out from the center of the koshi-sori. I implemented both on your tachi, and am happy with the results."

Pics of the blade after forging, during normalizing, and clay coated ready for hardening:

Second update from Bailey on the progress of the tachi. Has started working on the fittings, in particular carving the tsuba out of shibuichi. In his words:

"I attatched a picture of the tsuba as I began the carving. I have made more progress after the picture by cutting the profile of the tsuba to the lines you see cut in the picture. I will overlay a copper branch with gold leaves being held in the falcon's lower talon. there is a lot of material to remove as the metal is 1/4" thick. I will use the full thickness as it will present a very bold and strong feeling to the carving."

Third update

From Bailey, "First is the progress on the tsuba. I have the depth set on all the parts, and the basic contours on the wings, head and legs. from here I will refine the shapes, and add the texture of the feathers. Last will be applying the gold for the eyes and talons. I will also apply the nickle silver branch with copper, gold and silver leaves at the same time. I wish the picture could relay the depth of the carving. It really is a bold piece already.

Second picture is a punch and die set I made to punch out the leaves for the other fittings. They are a lot of work to cut out individually, and I was concerned about the size orientation from piece to piece. This makes all of those problems go away. I will use gold, copper and silver leaves on the shakudo background, so there will be four colors of leaves on the fittings. ( some leaves will be carved in the shakudo)."

Final update

Here's a pic of the finished piece. This turned out just amazing and the photographs really don't do justice either to the incredibly carved tsuba or the very elegant, yet strong blade.