Tomboyama Nihonto Tanren Dojo is proud to complete another school year. 2011 marked the year fourth since the construction and foundation of the dojo, and the sixth year that Michael Bell has offered scheduled swordsmithing classes here at Dragonfly Forge.
June was a busy month for a school, as we hosted two five-day classes within two weeks. First, we held a Basic Forging Course, which was attend by two students, Charles and returning alumnus Aaron. Aaron would also returned the following week to take our Kajioshi-Habaki Combo-Course.

Completing nearly our entire current curriculum, Aaron returned to the dojo in the month of July for two more weeks of classes. Continuing to learn, while bringing the katana forged in class further along towards completion, Aaron took our Koshirae Course followed by a five-day Tsuka Course.

The next class of the year would be our August Basic Forging Course. This class was attend by two students, Emerald and Fred. Emerald’s father is a knifemaker and wrote a short entry on his blog regarding his daughters experience at the dojo.

Our final class of the year was our September Intermediate Forging Course. The Intermediate Forging Course was a new additional to the school’s curriculum which explores the myriad shapes of tanto, as well as forge-folded steel. Dean was fascinated with the blade geometry of the kanmuri-otoshi style and choose it as his class project. His blade was forged from forge-weld and folded cable steel. Dean was able to stay for the weekend to attend a two-day Kajioshi, further refining his kanmuri-otoshi o-tanto/wakizashi.