Bloggaday: Bloggaday 207 – A Caption Narrative: Katana 4 pt 1

Bloggaday 207 – A Caption Narrative: Katana 4 pt 1

Alright folks. This is the first Caption Narrative as described back in 188 http://thebloggaday.blogspot.com/2010/08/bloggaday-188-captioned-narrative-intro.html. It’s where I take the caption to my various Craftspicable Me projects and make a Bloggaday out of them. I thought about rewriting it all so it transitions smoothly and actually IS a Bloggaday, but I have to put 2 of these together right now and then post 7 Bloggadays, so that’s not going to happen, atleast not right now.

So, if you want to follow along my journey of my 4^th katana, read on. The pictures can be found at either Facebook http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=28172&id=1840165438&l=a48ca4ea01

Or Photobucket

http://s1000.photobucket.com/albums/af128/daviddysart/Craftspicable%20Me/Swords/4%20-%20Katana%20David/?start=all

Katana 4

particleboard - $5. That strip is just cut off the side to draw the curve of the Blade

My sword is about 40" with a foot of it being handle. It's all one piece though.

I used the blade to draw the sheath/handle sides. Be sure to leave yourself enough room because you're going to have to sand it down and accommodate the strips to join the sides together.

Tsuba #1. 3" diameter.

this will be my Habaki. It's make the sword fit snugly in the sheath and keep the blade from getting dulled from the sheath. Mine doesn't multitask as well.

You can actually make the piece like this guy -> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OeQzznWId

c8&feature=channel , but I just shaped it and painted it to look like a separate piece.

To get this effect, I had to thin the blade at this point, which is where I ended up breaking it at when I was putting the sword together.

This is my sword resting on the sheath so I could draw its outline. That discoloration in the middle is because there was something weird in the particleboard and I had to sand it out. It ran deeper than i thought though. I was too lazy to recut it though

This is the Kurigata. It holds the sheath knot. I taped some 80-grit to a drill to do some of the final shaping.

To accommodate the Kurigata, I put two holes in the sheath and glued it in. You need to stab a dotted line to peel the surface off. From there, a combo of the knife, combined saw, and sandpaper to finish it

Awww, my sheath is happy to see you.

Tsuba #2. The first one I did, I cut in half so I could make the hole look good and just glue it back together... Did I mention I made a second one?

Using the same technique as the Kurigata, I cut the hole into the tsuba

The saw as mentioned earlier

Hey, it fits AND looks good!

Make no mistake. Bloggaday is coming. With all its glory… And all its horror

I sharpened the blade with my knife, so I had to smooth it out with some sandpaper.

Everything is sharpened or rounded, blade (both side), tang, and habaki. To rounds the sheath and handle though, I used a belt sander.

On the bottom and top of the sheath as well as the tip of the handle, I placed square pieces so it looks cleaner. This is me working on the top part of the sheath

This added piece also makes sure it's snug against the Kabak