Interview with Dragonfly Forge
The art of fine swordmaking exists in almost every country. Sword making is a highly skilled craft and requires utmost attention to detail as well as precision and an artistic eye. The katana, traditional Japanese sword, is though of by many to be the most elegant and deadly of swords due to their incredible sharpness and fine balance. We were lucky enough to interview master sword maker Michael Bell of Dragonfly Forge. Dragonfly Forge. There are currently spots available in his swordsmith school.
What initially drew you to making swords?
Probably a childhood as an army brat in Japan, coupled with samurai movies in the sixties.
You mainly focus on traditional Japanese swords, are these created with completely traditional techniques? And what exactly are these techniques?
Over the years, I have used both traditional and Western adaptations with tradition in mind. My teacher Mr. Nakajima, while very traditional himself, nevertheless he also saw the necessity of using local materials. I continue today to use both approaches. In the traditional method, one begins with making a suitable steel. By suitable, the Japanese refer to a very clean charcoal carburized steel devoid of manganese and in proper carbon contents of anywhere to .20% to as high as 1.5%. Steel is sorted according to carbon content in various combinations and then forge-welded and folded repeatedly. The folding and forge-welding process serves to evenly distribute the carbon, just as kneading bread dough serves to spread out the yeast prior to baking.
I have also developed modern methods that also achieve great function as a sword as well as great beauty. Many years of experimentation and testing led me to the use of steel cable, also called wire rope. When forge-welded, I found that it made a very tough and aesthetically interesting blade that could be heat-treated in the same method as traditional Japanese swordsmiths. This entails hardening the edge, while leaving the back of the blade ductile.
How long have you been running your swordsmithing school? Do you have a particular message that you cultivate within your students?
In its current form, we finished our third year as a regular scheduled school. Prior to that, I taught on request as well as traveling as a guest instructor to various sites around the country.
While my principle effort is to help the student successfully forge a sword that is both technically and aesthetically pleasing in the Japanese form, I also believe that this must be taught within the context of history and use of the sword, its cultural and religious context. The school is referred to as a dojo, or training hall, where the iron as well as the smith are forged.
Is there a great interest for your school? Would you say that the art of swordsmithing is alive and well?
Thankfully, yes. We have already begun taking reservations for the 2009 school year.
Around the world, the art of swordsmithing is thriving like never before. While there are inexpensive commercial copies of varying, but generally low quality, professional Japanese smiths, as well a few talented smiths around the world continue to inspire and keep alive the highest quality swords in perhaps hundreds of years.
What features of the sword are looked at when deciding the quality of the sword?
Shape or geometry is considered first and foremost in judging the quality of a blade. Next is the metal from which the blade is forged, as well as the control shown in creating the hamon, or pattern of heat-treating.
How do Japanese swords differ from European swords or even Chinese swords?
Although the making of steel and composition of a blade were very similar in all parts of the world, Middle Eastern and European blades were heat-treated in a two stage process consisting of hardening and tempering (reducing brittleness). Many early Chinese and Japanese blades were made by hardening only the cutting edge and leaving the back soft. These blades were not usually tempered. The Japanese sword takes most of it elements from the Chinese models, which were then adapted and refined to make them the epitome of edged weapons.
What role do you think these swords play to the people that purchase them. Are these purely for decoration or for practical uses?
People purchase our swords for various reasons, but primarily I believe that people still want real swords that will cut, but find the art to be enjoyable in its own right. It is long been a human trait to lavish embellishment on one's weapons. Our swords are also sought by martial artists who, besides a stout blade, also appreciate subtle balance and attention to detail.
Do you work with steel in other ways besides making swords? (sculptures, etc)
While not steel, we use almost exclusively antique wrought iron for our sword guards (tsuba). We like to consider tsuba as form of sculpture (as swordsmithing really is too), and we enjoyed spending a great amount of time carving and shaping tsuba from wrought iron. However, our art is largely concentrated on swords and fittings.