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Things to consider when choosing your blade

Here are a list of things to consider when choosing what kind of blade you want.

Blade Type.  There are three main types of Japanese blades.

*  Katana.  The Japanese long sword.  Traditionally considered to be any sword over two shaku (roughly 2 feet).

*  Wakizashi.  Traditionally from one to two shaku.  (1 to 2 feet)

*  Tanto.  Traditionally less than one shaku. (under 1 foot)

Blade Profile.

The katana is generally constructed in the shinogi-zukuri style -- meaning that it has a ridge line.  But that's not a hard and fast rule.  If you want a blade exclusively for tameshigiri contests, it may be that you would prefer ridgeless construction.  Likewise tantos are generally constructed in the hira-zukuri fashion, with no ridge line.  But there are a wide variety of common tanto profiles including shobu zukuri, moroha zukuri, ken, and others.

Steel.  I work in a variety of steels including 1050, 1075,  1086M,1095, W1, W2 and 01.  I also make blades of various composites ("forge-welded" or "forge-folded") including san-mai laminates, cable damascus (forge welded wire rope), and high-layer laminates.  I've also recently started working with tamahagane that I smelt myself.  I'm happy to discuss the advantages of various steels.

Curvature.  Generally functional blades should have only mild curvature (a matter of an inch or so of curve on a katana).  In special cases -- for instance copies of very old blades, tachis, etc., a larger curvature may be desired.