About the Menuki

What are menuki?

Menuki are small metal artworks that are placed under the ito-maki (wrap of the swords hilt) of a sword, sometimes it's for decoration, but often times it's used as a guide to the hand placement on the tsuka (hilt of the sword), most often when the sword is held the menuki will be situated on the opposite sides of the palm, however there are a few people who prefer a gyaku-menuki placement (gyaku - reversed), this all really depends on the ken-shi's (swordsman's) preferences and his ryu-ha (style of swordsmanship).

My Menuki

My menuki depict Japanese Sword blades (no koshirae for the menuki). They're made from simple nails, i use many different sizes, i cold forge them to shape (this is the basic shaping), then i file and polish them until i have the desired sugata (shape of a sword) (this is the final shaping), i then proceed to add the hamon and yasurime (file marks on the tang) with small files, and now i've got a sword... errr... menuki. I'll most often make doubles, however, i'll sometimes simply make 2 of the same size swords with different sugata, but with other similarities; hamon, yasurime, etc.

Lengths, sizes, shapes, etc.

Length: I can do any length desired, although it would be best to keep them under 3 inches and over 1 inch, these are only menuki afterall, the "chibi-shinken" can be longer if desired. Learn more about the "Chibi-Shinken".

Sizes: The thickness can be adjusted to make a bigger or lesser effect when under a maki, but not by much, width can also be adjusted to create a broad-looking blade, however, these menuki are almost always thicker then the "chibi-shinken".

Shapes: I can do many different shapes and styles, as long as they fall under the historical examples of nihon-to, the shape of a Japanese sword is known as the sugata. Here's a list of the more common types of sugata; Shinogi-zukuri, Shobu-zukuri, Hira-zukuri, Moroha-zukuri, Uno-kubi-zukuri, etc. There are also many different shapes for the nakago (tang). I'll list the shapes of nakago i can create; Futsu, Funagata, Kijimomo, Furisode, Tanago, and Shiribari. There are also different shapes for the nakago-jiri (tang tip). I'll list the shapes of nakago-jiri i can create; Kuri, Haagari, Kiri, Kengyo, and Iriyamagata.

Hamon: I can do the basic types of hamon, but with the process i use to create them, it makes the more complicated types near impossible. I will list the types of hamon i'm capable of doing; Sugu, Gunome, Notare, Toran, Togari, and Hako.

Yasurime: I can create the following types of yasurime (file marks on the tang); Sujikai, Taka no ha, Gyaku-Taka no ha, Kiri sujikai, Kiri, Kesho, Katte-Agari, Katte-Sagari, and Higaki.

As for the hataraki (activities in the hamon) and the hada (grain pattern in the blade), i'm not able to do much with, those details only come from true hamon (the hamon on these little guys are merely filed on) and from fold-forgeing the steel (i don't fold the nails), so it would be impossible to have any such activites in these blades.

Ok, now that you've read through this you can get one made.