Saya - making it my way.
Mar. 29th, 2018 09:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
madmaxthesniperLittle post written in English, since I will share it on Facebook among all of my friends, and some of them does not read in Russian.
Recently I had 3 (!) samurai swords in dire need of the new sayas. First one was that wonderful 17cc Masahari of Hizen (hi Gennadiy!), second one is my Kami Yoshimichi waki and the third one is a katana from early 16cc with no may I picked for $600 on some remote gun show in PA long time ago.
All 3 were restored the same way - classic black semi-gloss. I used Miniwax brush-on Laquer and... Rust... ye, Rustoleum brush-on black paint. So that's the story on how did I do it.
First of all, since there's no magnolia wood available anywhere in the vicinity for the reasonable amount of money, I used a simple wood from Home Depot. Pine. Worked great on all 3.
Marked the blade shape and future saya shape free-hand on the board, then used table band saw to cut off the pieces.
Then stop - chisel time! marked the contour of the blade +1mm on each side.
Extremely important - make sure you continue the blade lines to the edges of the wood to make sure the ends will align perfectly during the gluing process.
After that - chiseling the wood. It sounds time consuming, but in fact surprisingly fast, like 1h per side.
Put the blade down during the process to make sure that the mune sinks in evenly (spine of the blade)
You do not have to make an absolutely perfect well in the wood. In finished saya, the sword contacts it in 2 places - habaki at the entrance and kissaki (the tip) at the end. And it must not rattle, I'll tell you how it's done later.
So now the habaki side should look like this:
Blade slides in easily while both sides are being clamped hard. Time for habaki fitting.
This takes surprisingly a lot of time, because you have to cut wood extremely carefully, assembling and disassembling parts every 5-6 cuts.
But in the end sword fits perfectly. Nice tension, nothing falls out even when you shake it, perfect. Too bad I have no pic of it.
Time to glue. I swear, if in medieval Japan the Titebond II would be present, they would use only it.
30 minutes later you can start your grinder and shape the initial form. Be very careful not to take too much from the bottom, unless you have a grinder with free-floating narrow belt, which will cut you a few hours in the future hand sanding.
Next comes koiguchi, a small reinforcement... thing... around the saya opening. Usually made of something hard, like buffalo horn, I made this one of Gabon Blackwood. Trace the habaki, drill a hole, use the jeweler's saw, insert with the sword into the saya, draw a contour of the saya on the outside, use the jeweler's saw again. If you know what I mean. Glue it in.
Now the fun part. Sandpaper: 100gr, 180gr, 320gr, 600gr. This takes hours.
Kurigata is cut off using the same wood and the same techniques (jeweler's saw for opening, files to finish).
After that the things are trivial - 2 coats of paint (does not matter gloss or flat) and 5-8 coats of brush-on laquer, in my case semi-gloss.
Let the lacquer dry overnight and sand it carefully, not to overheat, to a flat nice surface. Then polish it with liquid automotive compound, works great. My workshop host, Yelena VERY POLITELY said, that if it will happen one more time when I left the lacquer sits overnight without a proper ventilation, MY FUCKING DAYS WILL BE OVER AND I WILL BE OUT ON THE STREET IN NO TIME, thank you very much. Sorry ma'am, never again, I admit it is stinks to High Heaven.
So this is the result.
IMO, do not try to remove all the scratches and make it a flawless mirror - you can spend 2 weeks and fail. Be careful not to overheat the lacquer - use wet-o-dry sandpaper and water. Small imperfections will only add to this hand-made look you are after.
Please feel free to ask any questions, here or on FB. Again, I'm not a master, I'm just to begin to walk my path and sharing my very humble experience.
Sincerely,
M.
Recently I had 3 (!) samurai swords in dire need of the new sayas. First one was that wonderful 17cc Masahari of Hizen (hi Gennadiy!), second one is my Kami Yoshimichi waki and the third one is a katana from early 16cc with no may I picked for $600 on some remote gun show in PA long time ago.
All 3 were restored the same way - classic black semi-gloss. I used Miniwax brush-on Laquer and... Rust... ye, Rustoleum brush-on black paint. So that's the story on how did I do it.
First of all, since there's no magnolia wood available anywhere in the vicinity for the reasonable amount of money, I used a simple wood from Home Depot. Pine. Worked great on all 3.
Marked the blade shape and future saya shape free-hand on the board, then used table band saw to cut off the pieces.
Then stop - chisel time! marked the contour of the blade +1mm on each side.
Extremely important - make sure you continue the blade lines to the edges of the wood to make sure the ends will align perfectly during the gluing process.
After that - chiseling the wood. It sounds time consuming, but in fact surprisingly fast, like 1h per side.
Put the blade down during the process to make sure that the mune sinks in evenly (spine of the blade)
You do not have to make an absolutely perfect well in the wood. In finished saya, the sword contacts it in 2 places - habaki at the entrance and kissaki (the tip) at the end. And it must not rattle, I'll tell you how it's done later.
So now the habaki side should look like this:
Blade slides in easily while both sides are being clamped hard. Time for habaki fitting.
This takes surprisingly a lot of time, because you have to cut wood extremely carefully, assembling and disassembling parts every 5-6 cuts.
But in the end sword fits perfectly. Nice tension, nothing falls out even when you shake it, perfect. Too bad I have no pic of it.
Time to glue. I swear, if in medieval Japan the Titebond II would be present, they would use only it.
30 minutes later you can start your grinder and shape the initial form. Be very careful not to take too much from the bottom, unless you have a grinder with free-floating narrow belt, which will cut you a few hours in the future hand sanding.
Next comes koiguchi, a small reinforcement... thing... around the saya opening. Usually made of something hard, like buffalo horn, I made this one of Gabon Blackwood. Trace the habaki, drill a hole, use the jeweler's saw, insert with the sword into the saya, draw a contour of the saya on the outside, use the jeweler's saw again. If you know what I mean. Glue it in.
Now the fun part. Sandpaper: 100gr, 180gr, 320gr, 600gr. This takes hours.
Kurigata is cut off using the same wood and the same techniques (jeweler's saw for opening, files to finish).
After that the things are trivial - 2 coats of paint (does not matter gloss or flat) and 5-8 coats of brush-on laquer, in my case semi-gloss.
Let the lacquer dry overnight and sand it carefully, not to overheat, to a flat nice surface. Then polish it with liquid automotive compound, works great. My workshop host, Yelena VERY POLITELY said, that if it will happen one more time when I left the lacquer sits overnight without a proper ventilation, MY FUCKING DAYS WILL BE OVER AND I WILL BE OUT ON THE STREET IN NO TIME, thank you very much. Sorry ma'am, never again, I admit it is stinks to High Heaven.
So this is the result.
IMO, do not try to remove all the scratches and make it a flawless mirror - you can spend 2 weeks and fail. Be careful not to overheat the lacquer - use wet-o-dry sandpaper and water. Small imperfections will only add to this hand-made look you are after.
Please feel free to ask any questions, here or on FB. Again, I'm not a master, I'm just to begin to walk my path and sharing my very humble experience.
Sincerely,
M.
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no subject
Date: 2018-03-30 02:45 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-03-30 03:15 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-03-30 05:48 am (UTC)Я тут в гараже немного попилил/построгал/пошлифовал так пыль повсюду была
Меня бы жена этой же секирой и зарубила бы нахрен))
no subject
Date: 2018-03-30 12:11 pm (UTC)