It was the very first sword in Jason Woodard’s Doomsday Series and it stretched the capabilities of Chris Palmer’s small family business forge in every capacity – creating these swords with longer blades that he specializes in. And over time, it became apparent that not every blade leaving his workshop was receiving the benefits of the heat treatment that was the foundation of the toughness his short bladed swords were famous for..
It was a rocky time as swords were recalled, refunded or exchanged. And out of the ashes it rises once again – the Badlands Katana Version 2.0
After learning that the longer blades were hit and miss in the heat treat department, Jason Woodard went back to the drawing board to redesign his flagship sword. Below is a picture of the original Badland Katana 1.0:
To ensure it had the same basic mass and cutting power, Jason widened and shortened the blade – optimizing it for the cut and creating a unique design that still keeps to the spirit and the cutting power he first envisaged.
After discussing the design features in detail, Chris went to work cutting out the basic shape that would be the template for all future orders of this design – grinding the beveled edge, drilling holes for the multiple steel pins that peg it all together and adding a shallow fuller to the blades spine.
From there it is given a proper heat treatment – something that proved difficult to achieve a consistently good temper with on the original Badland Katana, but is more reliable and predictable when making the shorter blade styles like version 2.0. Below you can see clearly how the steel looks very different where it has been tempered and where it has been left as is to allow for a shock resistant handle.
Once tempered, the sword is cleaned up, refined, polished, sharpened and mounted by pinning and epoxying in Black Mircarta scales on the handle, later bound with deerskin.
I think the end results speak for themselves..
Available to order below, the other previously discontinued swords in the Doomsday line are also in the process of being redesigned and updated, so stay tuned! But in the meantime, check it out below:
