Blade Configurations

As you can see below, there are several configurations. These shapes were inspired by the the Saya or Scabbard makers that I worked with some years ago. They use the various sized tips and bellies to get into the nooks and crannies when fitting a curved in all planes, 30" long blade into a wooden cavity. This is exacting work. The blade must fit securely with no rattling but release smoothly and quickly on the draw. This is important because in many instances in Japanese swordsmanship, the draw is the cut.

STRAIGHT EDGE	.062" RADIUS TIP	.250" RADIUS BELLY

5" RADIUS EDGE	.125" RADIUS TIP	.375" RADIUS BELLY

2" RADIUS EDGE	.190" RADIUS TIP	.5" RADIUS BELLY

JEWELRY WITH AN EDGE	.250" RADIUS TIP	1" RADIUS BELLY
JEWELRY WITH AN EDGE
Now, to confuse the issue even further, or should I say expand your range of choices, you can combine features on any knife. You can have a straight edge with .125" tip radius and a .5" radius belly radius. Obviously, there is no belly radius available for the 2" radius edge knife.	Want more choices? These knives come in right, left and double bevel. Right and left are defined from the perspective of holding the knife tip away from you and edge down. The above knives are all right hand. Double bevel has a bevel ground on both sides.	They way I figure it, that is 165 different blade configurations. Couple that with the four handle configurations and it comes out to 660 options.