The Ibara – 2022

The Ibara was commissioned as a bespoke Tier 3 Custom design in 2019 by Craig Douglas (SouthNarc) for his personal collection. Approaching Gavin Coleman, Craig’s initial brief was kept quite simple and open. The knife was to be a double edge blade under 7″ in total length, with a neutral handle design that could be used easily in any orientation, and lastly a Tsukamaki handle wrap. The rest was up to the designer…

Working with Craig allowed us to explore new limits with both materials and skills. What resulted was our most exquisite knife to date, documented in a series of articles titled The Craig Douglas Ibara Project. With the original having been well received by its patron, and with his blessing, we opened up the Ibara to order by our customers.

This is however a limited edition special project. We have limited numbers to just 10 units per year, with a small number of extras being made available to our distributors. The Ibara is made to the same specifications as the original in terms of the overall length, handle type and blade configuration, but there are some options you can choose from to make your Ibara unique.

The blade is made from Aogami #2 steel. This is a comparatively rare Japanese high carbon steel that is unique in that it has a very fine carbide structure once heat treated. We also harden it to 62 Rockwell which allows us to create a fine cutting edge but still keep a relatively tough point thanks to the hybrid flat grind. This means that we grind flat on the reverse edge, and convex on the other, allowing the blade to be thicker at the point for increased robustness. The blade is then highly polished by hand and given a classic blued finish.

The handle is given our Tsukamaki treatment. For the 2022 version we are offering a selection of handle options in terms of materials and colours.

Gaijin:

This handle is finished with jet black Samegawa, black silk ito and high polished carbon fiber fittings.

Ronin:

This handle is finished with Crimson Samegawa, black silk ito and highly polished buffalo horn fittings on a polished brass liner.

Shogun:

This handle is finished with Antique Samegawa, Brown Nubuck Leather Ito and highly polished bone fittings, with mosaic pins, on a polished copper liner.

Kamaitachi:

This handle is finished with Crimson Samegawa, Black Leather Ito and highly polished buffalo horn fittings on a polished copper liner.

Each 2022 version of the Ibara will ship with an accompanying blunt trainer, hand pressed kydex sheath, DCC HLR clips and Soft Loop mounting options.

IMPORTANT NOTE:

• This is a PRE-ORDER for this limited edition run of the 2022 Ibara. These special knives are scheduled to be completed and ready for shipping in July 2022.
• Images are of Pre-Production versions. Actual versions will be much better 🙂