TLDW #14 - Carving a mekugi and Mountain Kotanto final assembly

**WARNING: This is the longer process version intended for serious students of knifemaking. Watch the overview edit here: https://youtu.be/Qi6RAGUvbsk Full knife build overview here: https://youtu.be/1VqXZgLwnRo

Drilling the mekugi-ana and hand carving a bamboo mekugi peg for the largest of the Tools for Satoyama kotanto. Final assembly and photos of the finished work.

The strongest part of the bamboo is the outer wall, this side of the mekugi is not really carved at all, everything else is shaped in relation to it. This keeps the strong fibers running the full length of the mekugi on one side. This side of the mekugi must be rotated to face towards the pommel.

The way to identify the outside of the bamboo in a finished mekugi is to look for the full length "lines" (fibers) along one side, or from the end grain view it is the area with the most "dots" (holes) on it. Carving and aligning the mekugi this way maximizes the strength and puts it where most needed, at the point where tang is forced against it.

http://islandblacksmith.ca/process/