The Thailand expat forum for Travel, Lifestyle and Fun.

dirtydog

Yep the Swordsman of Ayutthaya, now in using the word "swordsman" it has nothing at all to do with his sexual prowess, hell, he is an old git with a bigger beer belly than me, but he does sell swords and knives.

Obviously being in the weapons trade he does have to keep up a macho image, which I might add he does well.

Anyway onto the man himself, we shall call him "cozun", now he moved to Ayutthaya about 10 years ago, worked for a bit and then probably got bored with that so went onto becoming a weapons seller, yep he is the guy that gets your personal wife killing sword made up to your own specs, he also has a fine selection of skinning knives if you wish to skin your ex wife to be, actually I have to admit I was suprised at the quality, I did assume it would be like the Chinese junk swords and knives they make, but this stuff was more on par with the japanese stuff, ok not the folded stuff but I doubt if anyone does that anymore in Japan due to labour costs, more about the knives and swords tomorrow, lets get back to how macho he is.

Real men order their drinks by the bucket, a good starter is of course half a bottle of whiskey, a couple of red bulls and some sodas, all in the same bucket, obviously if you drink 4 or 5 of these it is probably advisable to get a taxi home.

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Gerbil

^ Why's he using a girls bucket then?

Here's a proper bucket:



But real men use one of these:

Roc

Whipperwill

Did you get any pics of his swords DD?

I'm not far from Auytthaya and might be in the market for one.

dirtydog

I certainly did several hundred in fact, have to upload them this evening.

Little Chuchok

Looks like a normal glass to me....

kingwilly

actually think i'd prefer the goat....

dirtydog

hmmmmm, anyway fast forwarding a bit, we can go backwards later on, onto the sword making village of Ayutthaya, well it's actually outside of Ayutthaya but I was sworn to secrecy, actually I cant remember the name but being sworn to secrecy sounds so much better

So we get to the main mans factory, got to admit this is quite primitive, the workshops consist of mud floors and really basic power tools, the steel is heated in a big open fire and then whacked with a hammer to harden it and then dunked in a water trough to cool it, so first off you need to cut a length of steel to the desired length, heat it till it is well hot and then start whacking it really hard with a great big hammer, sounds easy enough don't it



Once the steel is hard enough you can then cut and grind it down to the basic shape.



Next comes the hard work, you got to make these lumps of steel to actually look like knives or swords cos you aint gonna be able to sell them if they look like the above picture.

These ones are looking quite good now aren't they.

kingwilly

^ would do the job i imagine...

Gerbil

^ Just take a hand full of either from the pictures and chuck them at someone would sort them out as well

dirtydog

Here we are at the Ayutthaya's sword makers grinding bench, some knives and swords are grinded and some are just about to be grinded.



A bunch of Thai swords ready for the final finishing touches.

cozun

Correction!
The last/second picture shows rejected cheap practice swords to be either used by begginers in Krabi Krabong schools or for use during the December yearly Light and Sound show on Ayutthaya island ancient city.

The real stuff is done like this:

tempering

or to see more links about the sword making:

Making the swords

To start seeing finished swords go to:

Blades at coZun

--> practice swords are not yet offered on my site, but I plan to publish and offer those articles soon, among more diverse fighting gear as well.

Little Chuchok

cozun, do you make normally kitchen knives,cleavers etc?

RandomChances

http://teakdoor.com/the-captains-lou...-thailand.html
Thers more about cozon"s stuff on this thread. I really must go and have a look next time I'm down there

Whipperwill

Thanks dd.

Ajarn CoZun I may pay a call on you for a custom blade.

Spin

Cozen: this page: tempering

it loads very slowly....all the images are about 74kb in size. They are 283 x 213 pixels. 20 kbs is a better file size for this size of image! Its easy to adjust them..otherwise, great website!

dirtydog

Here we have some differant styles of swords ready to be finished.

Whipperwill

I mentioned this thread at my martial arts class this evening.
My instructor and all the higher belts new the name but didn't know there was a web site up. They all praised his work and said he had a good reputation for high quality workmanship.
Now I just have to swing the asking price for a custom katana past her indoors and I'll take a trip up to see the man and his wares.
A fellow student wants to come with me, he's in the market for a Thai style sword.

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Once a system openly and explicitly declares a willingness to ignore or abandon logic, then it forfeits any claim for authority over empirical studies of nature and the universe.

cozun

Yes, kitchen knives and cleavers are made or are available via other crafters as well. Contact me for details, telling me exactly wat you are looking for please ( cozun[at]cozun.com )
Several garden tools are made too, yet by different suppliers, but of low standard quality (and bloody cheap that is).

cozun

Glad to read my reputation preceeds me.
Now, to make a Katana, this will require some discussions with the blacksmith:
- he does not make folded steel blades, yet uses or recommends hard spring steel ( Japanese grade: SUP9 or Standard: JIS G4801; DIN 1.7176 or 55Cr3 ; chemically similar to 5160 ) for the samurai like swords he fabricate. No hamon line is made either as he uses the cutting edge hardening method without applying any clay - this said he did prepare 7 blades for me to reach 3 acceptable ones, meaning extreme hard edge with enough flexibility over the length of the blade. To say he has his own way and judjement to provide a proper sword, Japanese like. Parts like the Habaki and Tsuba must be discussed as well (the samurai like swords offered on my site have no Habaki for example). The entire handle construction shall be discussed for customization as well.

I am working to offer better products of this range for next year (don't ask when next year, this project is still ... in project). Yet if, the Hamon line will still not be done, but most of the other parts of this sword kind should be put on.

Regarding a Thai style sword, there should be no issue - just surf over my page concerning the blades at cozun.com - hand made crafts from Thailand (choose the blades links) to see what is feasible - my contact data is also available on the site.