the rum soaked fist: internal martial arts forum

The mantra I've had for 30 years:

Strong - Simple - Elegant

..when one of the 1st from west came to Japan to learn Zen, he realized, that under temple floor all village`s dogs had a hide out, and barkin` all the time.
So,
he asked - how do you practice in such noise?
...?
your Zen isn`t stronger than barking dog?, monk asked in response.

speakin` so, barking dog can be really annoying
I have Tibetan mastiff behind the fence, he is able to bark all night long,
My response, after some exercise:
I allow "barking energy" flow thru my body down into the ground, while I changing Jaffar (name of the dog) into the puppy.
Amazing effect of it - Jaffar is sleeping.

Building wooden temple is excellent idea, I just started such project in middle of the forest, this is for long run, 2 or 3 years, I suppose.
For this summer - I started sanding old, dark, 6x6m. deck in my garden .
I left some dark as the yin , sanded bright wood works as yang,
and come out, that bagua trigrams starting to appearing under my window.

Bruce, - nice work,
do you would consider some bigger blade, like Korean version of katana?

When are you going on Forged in Fire Bruce

wiesiek wrote:Bruce, - nice work,
do you would consider some bigger blade, like Korean version of katana?

wiesiek, I have made some swords in that 'style' many years ago. These three were forged from 5160 spring steel with my own twist on handle construction. The stands are made from an old headboard and some wooden dowel:

wayne hansen wrote:When are you going on Forged in Fire Bruce

Hi, Wayne

I'd have no business being on that show. I don't work fast enough and I'd have to have some level of confidence that I could beat Ben Abbot. I'm nowhere close to that, and never will be.

While I can appreciate the amount of skill/talent it takes to plan, change on the fly, think ahead and manage time efficiently in a timed competition, I don't do any of those things when I make blades. I'm in the moment and only that moment - doing tai chi with tools where every stroke is the only stroke. Neutrality Principle.

The things that end up being things are nice, but I'm just into forgetting myself/detaching through the process of their making.

At 2:15:00 of his interview, Will Willis sums up some the reasons why I would never be on that show:

BruceP wrote:

wayne hansen wrote:When are you going on Forged in Fire Bruce

Hi, Wayne

I'd have no business being on that show. I don't work fast enough and I'd have to have some level of confidence that I could beat Ben Abbot. I'm nowhere close to that, and never will be.

While I can appreciate the amount of skill/talent it takes to plan, change on the fly, think ahead and manage time efficiently in a timed competition, I don't do any of those things when I make blades. I'm in the moment and only that moment - doing tai chi with tools where every stroke is the only stroke. Neutrality Principle.

The things that end up being things are nice, but I'm just into forgetting myself/detaching through the process of their making.

At 2:15:00 of his interview, Will Willis sums up some the reasons why I would never be on that show:

I love the show but it is to blacksmithing what junkyard wars was to engineering.

Nice work Bruce,
If you ever dress up like Santa, don`t forget to drop it, when your sleds fly over Krakow.

Seriously,
Straight sword, which I use, isn`t designed for Kwan Um forms,
do you consider to sell one piece of your work?

Started meditating with a new mantra a few months ago - "negative space", repeated during the first few calming breaths while getting quiet and still.


I've read dozens of articles and opinion pieces over the years on negative space as it relates to art and architecture, and have been wanting to make something around it for a long time, but had no original or unique ideas of how to approach it. I just knew that whatever I'd make had to be curvy with a subdued but commanding symmetry in order for negative space to really work well as an aesthetic. Its center should be where the eye goes naturally so negative space emerges peripherally.

The new mantra doesn't work the way my old one does. Weeks of zero inspiration and lots of indecision with "negative space", so I said to hell with it last week and went back to "strong simple elegant". A few hours later, I had everything cut and milled and ready to prep.

The struts for the horns are canary wood - bent and laminated in 2 layers. The floating tips are purpleheart and the brow is red oak. The frame/mount is black walnut.












I've only ever made things that either serve a purpose, are functional, or have meaning. This has none of those. It's just 14 pieces of different woods joined together...and that's no-bull

wiesiek wrote:do you consider to sell one piece of your work?

Maybe some day, wiesiek. Before we get old

Nice work Bruce

Thanks. I had a lot of fun making it.

Had to make another one, just because

Playing with proportionality a bit (not quite there yet) and didn't pre-bend the struts prior to laminating them - just allowed the spring-back to occur naturally once they were released from the forms.

I didn't force a flat fit to the brow like I did with the first one. Instead, I shaped the brow-piece to match the contours of the horns in their relaxed state.



Lonely no more:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6uqPBZncL5Q

The struts for the horns are hickory and red oak laminated in 2 layers. The floating tips and brow are cherry. The mount/frame is fir:

Nailed it...to the wall

More proportional with a cleaner delineation of curves

Maple and black walnut for the horns with american walnut tips and brow

Gave the tips an equal presence by running them out to the terminus

The frame is birch

Pre-bent the struts before laminating them, like the first one, and and then fit them to the brow piece in the same way as the second one.
the cut-aways on the brow piece are a combination of the first two

Might have to make one that lends the negative space some energy and movement as these three are fairly quiescent. I thought the dramatic wood grain in the frames would provide each piece with some animation, but they don't quite cue the gaze as originally intended. That might seem a contradiction to the whole proposal of the negative space playing a dominant role in serving to shape perception, but in all its minor complexities the piece is/was a study in eliciting mu. And round, round we go....







without flash


with flash

This might sound dumb
Is it decorative or is it a longbow