My First Katana

Five days before Christmas I decided to make a Japanese samurai sword as a gift for a 10-year old.

 

 
For anyone attempting to do this I am eternally indebted and can't recommend highly enough the video series from DAPiratecaptain, Wooden Katana Tutorial. I unfortunately didn't have the time to make all the various components of the sword the way he demonstrates,  And while it was my first attempt and many mistakes were made, I nonetheless have four alternative methods to DA's that I would like to share



THE BLADE

For the Katana I wanted to mimic the folded steel with the wooden analog, lam ination.  I also wanted the blade to be stong but light. .  I chose to make it out of  two thin pieces of maple bonded to a walnut core.

  

Finished, but unpainted blade.

The process for making this was to first bond a strip  of walnut 1/4" to 1/2" thick, to a chunk of maple. I first cut off a 1/2" piece of the maple to use as the other side of the blade.Once the glue has set (Tightbond 3 is 24 hours), I ran the strip through a table saw to get it down to 1/8" or less (as shown below)..

Walnut bonded to maple.  I thought the width of the walnut was closer to the 2" of the maple.  If I'd had more time I would have laminated two pieces of walnut together to make up the gap.  As it was, this left me with not enough width to get the full curvature I was after.

I then ran the whole thing through a planer, walnut edge up, to take it down to its final dimension.  I was aiming for 1/16th, but it might be a hair less.  I then glued the reserved piece of maple to the walnut (reversing the maple so that the warping forces would be counteracted).

After it was bonded, I ran the whole thing through the table saw to get the maple down to rough final dimensions.  Then the whole thing through the planer to get the blade down to the final thickness.

This produced a light, stiff, tough blade that was not initially as straight as I'd expected, but after much sanding the blade seems to be stabilizing.


BLADE SHARPENING

The compound blade can withstand a lot of torque.  To get the edge I placed or clamped a full sheet of sandpaper to the bench, placed my left hand on the blade applying force as if I were trying to keep the blade parallel to the paper.  In the photo my right hand is twisting the blade counter-clockwise toward the sandpaper creating a very low angle and hopefully a uniform edge.

Since the blade is hardwood it takes a large grit and a lot of work to get an edge.  I think I started with 6o, then 100, 150, 220, 600.


 HABAKI
For the habaki, I used a scrap bit of 1-1/4" plumbing pipe.  It's chrome, but that comes off to reveal the brass and is easily polished.   I simply squeezed it in a vice till it formed an oval of roughly the right dimension.  Then I cut off the excess from one end and squeezed it into place.

SAYA

The saya is made in the 3-part method with a top, a bottom with the middle being a cutout using the  blade as a pattern.  However,  I prefer to glue the middle to one side, shape it and then cover it up instead of gluing all three pieces at once..  This has several advantages:

1. You can visually see the edge margin when getting down to the final form. 
2. There is the opportunity to sand the interior before final fitting.
3. The top can be cut to near the exact final dimension.

The sward is visible in the background.  The cutout is glued to the bottom piece of wood.  Wax paper is then laid over top and the cutout placed back in the center.  The glue won't stick to the wax paper.

ONE HAPPY SAMURAI

                                                                                                                                    

Civil War

Campbell has moved on to the Civil War and therefore so have I.

A 90-degree pipe elbow (45 shown), a stick of cherry wood, an old belt, some paint and time...

becomes....

Shields Up

Nothing happier than a well armed child.

Roman scutum.

Campbell admires his birthday gift.

The shield is made by gluing two 1/8" sheets of plywood together and then strapping them to a 55 gallon barrel until the glue sets. The shield will then hold its form.  The boss in the center is a hub cap I had to buy and rivet onto a scrap of sheet metal.  It's held in by 8 carriage bolts with acorn nuts showing.  The "rivets" around the outside are wood plugs.  The paint is the amazing Krylon 18k gold.  There is more in paint costs than any other material.  1 can black primer, 2 cans red, 1 can gold, 1 can clear acrylic. 

The pattern on the shield is drawn from real scutum elements. The bold riveted trim is greatly exaggerated for effect.  The wings were drawn on the computer from a scan of real scutum wings, printed, cut-out and temporary adhesive applied to make a stencil.  Then sprayed gold and then the black applied with a Krylon paint pen.

I'm only worried that I will have to top this by building a full sized catapult for Christmas.

Sword Play

I'm becoming quite the wooden arms merchant. Campbell wanted to be Steve Jobs for Halloween. I dutifully made him a fake Apple badge, changed his shirt color to black and added glasses in Photoshop. He loved it. But as October neared its end he decided to be a knight instead. With only days to spare I concocted this rather imposing sword.

The tiles are 6", so you can see it's about 42" in length. The blade is a shaped piece of vertical grain Douglas Fir.

The handle and hilt are a sandwich of oak, the fir blade and the two "horns" made of plywood. It has a magnificent feel in the hand, with outstanding balance and swift action that left homeowners begging for mercy and surrendering their candy in generous amounts.

Gun Play

Speaking to my brother Andrew one day, I learned that when we were young I apparently made him a toy gun with removable parts and a box to carry it around in. I have no recollection whatsoever of this. Andrew said it was near and dear to him and that he used to carry it around pretending he was Carlos the Jackal. Then he surprised me by asking if I would make something similar for his son Atticus, age 5. This was this past summer, but in September I started in on the project. I went overboard.

The scope, made of some scrap PVC, does not “work” per se, but it does have cross hairs. The handle and trigger from a seized up foam gun. The carrying handle from parts I kept from a bygone Shop-Vac. The cartridges in the handle are real, but filled with wooden “bullets.” The bipod, my most inspired element, is a pair of repurposed windshield wiper blades. The fitting that holds the barrel on is a standard “as is”, unmodified electrical conduit fitting. The clips are held in with rare earth magnets that also produce a satisfying “click” when engaged. The two halves of the body are reinforced with a ¼” – 4” long, stainless steel rod. The whole design was done on the fly without any drawings. All this bits I had just laying about in the shop. Even the case, made of plywood, but stained, was given to me by Pat or Roxy. The only items purchased were the foam and flashlight. I wanted to include a laser, but there is no such thing as an eye-safe laser. After building it, it was obvious that this was nothing to give a 5-year old who might point it out a Paris window. I’m giving it to Andrew; letting him decide what to do with it.

Peace on Earth,

Marc