![]() You may ask why are there wire mesh and wires wrapped on the blade? Christophe said to ensure that the clay would stick on the blade and would not easily crumble or fall off when they heat treat and quench the blade.Ī picture of their higonokami (a prototype).Īfter walking around the workshop, Christophe led us to the 2nd floor where they store the finished products. It needs to be dried for at least a couple of days. Pictures of blades after clay application. Here's a picture of a blade that just came out from the forge that hasn't been polished yet.Ī picture of the nakago showing the signature of the smith and below is the Citadel insignia. :-PĬan't remember what it's called but it's a local wood. I didn't bother to ask how much for the tsuba with an intricate design. Just look at the craftmanship on those tsuba! The cheapest tsuba (with a plain design) costs around US$120. They put the tsuba blank on it, and melt the wax underneath it so it will stay in place. I'm not sure what it's called but it's made of wax. The last photo shows where they do the carving. Here are a couple of pictures of 2 workers polishing a blade. What impressed me most is that when the blade comes out of the forged, it will be polished by one person who will also work on the koshirae! Wow! These people are really skillful! They use carbon steel imported from France. He told me that everything is hand made and they use machines as little as possible. I asked Christophe on how they make their swords. ![]() They only have 3 furnace as they only produce about 30-40 katanas in a month. Here's a picture of the furnace they use. Most of the people there were working on knives and just polishing swords. It was bad timing for us as they aren't forging any swords and no one was working on any koshirae. Since the local holiday will be on the next day, there were only very few people working at the workshop on that day. When we arrived at the workshop, we were greeted by Christophe. Catherine already warned us that since it's the rainy season, the area going to the workshop is flooded. We left our hotel around 9am and arrived at the workshop around 10:15am as our tuk-tuk driver wasn't familiar with the place and had to ask around. The workshop is located outside the city (near the airport) and takes about 30-45 minutes from our hotel. So here are some pictures of what they have inside the shop. They only sell knives there as they do not sell swords locally in Cambodia due to very strict laws. We were asked to go early in the morning around 9:30am where traffic would be less and the weather is not so hot. So, we decided to go on the next day, September 15. Since we're leaving early in the morning on September 17 for Vietnam, and the workshop will be closed on September 16 for a local holiday. She then contacted her husband, Christophe, who manages the workshop and asked us when we would like to visit the workshop. There, we met Catherine, the manager of the shop. 10 minutes after, my girlfriend and I decided to finally go inside the shop. So we had to spend 30 minutes more in a tavern beside the shop.ĥ minutes to 11am, we saw a lovely lady opening the shop. ![]() The shop was still closed and will open at 11am. ![]() I was so excited seeing the small shop with the signage of "Citadel". ![]() We arrived at the location at around 10:30am. On the very next day, September 14, we went to the address provided by Dominique. I received a reply from Dominique Eluere (the big boss) with instructions on how to go about visiting the workshop.Īfer spending 4 days in Siem Reap, Cambodia, we took a 6 hour bus ride to Phnom Penh and arrived on the evening of September 13. I immediately contacted Citadel and set up an appointment. So I excitedly included this in our itinerary. I was also very happy to know that you can visit their workshop (by appointment). I went to their website and discovered that their workshop is located in the capital of Cambodia: Phnom Penh. I know very little about Citadel katana and was curious about it so I made some research. A long time ago, there was a topic here about Citadel katana. We went to the following countries: Singapore, Malaysia, Cambodia, and Vietnam. My girlfriend and I had a 3 week vacation. I would like to share with you my visit to the Citadel workshop at Phnom Penh, Cambodia. ![]()
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