Golden Wing Katana

Overall length: 45"
Blade length: 32"


My lasted pride and joy. This is my first attempt to make a realistic katana, as inspired by chioky and piratecaptain.

The blade and tang are one piece made out of a beautiful, smooth, and easy to work with exotic hardwood known as padaouk. The tsuba is made out of craft plywood, and the scabbard is made out of some wood I found in my workshop...it's probably either pine or soft maple....didn't really look at it... The end cap is also made out of pine.

I cut everything out with a table saw and a band saw. I did most of the shaping work with files, rasps, a plane, a spokeshave (every sword maker should have a spokeshave, trust me...), sandpaper...etc. I did cheat a bit with my stationary sander. I used a router for the fuller and other power tools like a spinsaw and rotary tool for the smaller parts and details. The handle is covered with 'artificial fake ray skin' aka textured and painted paper.... and then wrapped with cord in the shonai zuka style....(yes... I looked that up just to appear knowledgeable....). The menuki is just a little wing charm thingy. For the knots on the scabbard and tsukamaki I didn't trust myself to do it properly so I settled with glue and my own imagination.

Sooo......that is my first foray into realistic katana making....any thoughts?