Almost done - Replica Bill's Katana from Kill Bill

jblakey

Well-Known Member
I've almost finished this guy up, so I figured I'd post up a couple of pics. Built this one without a client lined up, so I went the 'keep it cheap' route. Picked up the base sword on eBay for around $20 dollars, it was an old, beat up tachi replica (Japanese make). Wooden handle, which was nice, and the fittings are pretty close to the originals. Not exactly correct, but so far I haven't been able to get any that are exactly correct, in any case.

The saya (scabbard) was a bit of a problem. It had a strange profile, and the mylar tape didn't adhere cleanly to it. Kept wanting to bunch up and lift a little. So I grabbed one of my test saya from when I was doing the Bride's sword and added a little extension to the tip. It was about 3 inches too short (this tachi is long! about 30" blade). Filled/sanded/primed/sprayed and polished, and the saya came out pretty well (for zero bucks). Ordered some silver mylar tape to do the stripes with. The tape cost as much as the sword (but I do have enough left over for a lifetime supply:)).

Handle fittings got a matt black spray paint, saya kojiri (end-cap) got silver spray paint (wasn't happy with the color of the bare metal, not silver enough). Silver ring and koigouchi (saya mouth) reinforcement ring are CNC'ed ABS, hand finished, primed and painted.

Removed the cloth wrap from the tsuka (handle), carved some grooves for inlaying rayskin. Added the rayskin. Re-wrapped the handle using some not-too-bad leather-like wrap, which was actually pretty good for the price (8 bucks total). The leather I used on the Bride's sword was much more expensive, 4 bucks a foot, and I needed 12 feet. Much nicer stuff, though...and real leather.

Replaced the tachi-style tsuba with a correct Hanzo one. Had a set of brass seppa (washers) that I nickle-plated, keeping the silver (or at least silver-like) theme.

Added the sarute (bail) to the tsuka using 6 gauge half-round copper wire that I hammered / bent into shape. Went with the quick/easy finish (matt black spray paint). Added a hole through the tsuka, lined the hole with a small piece of brass tubing, then attached the sarute.

Turned out that I had a set of menuki (handle ornaments) that were pretty close to the correct ones, just really sloppy casts. Added a little gold paint to make 'em closer to the originals, and they were good to go.

Only two more bits to go, and this puppy'll be done. Add the Oni (demon) head design to the saya (got the art done, just need to spend some quality time with the CNC), and order in the hard to find black/white sageo (saya cord). It's not exactly correct, but it's pretty darn close, much closer than anything commercially available. Current total cost: Something like $50 bucks. Ordering the correct sageo is probably going to double that cost:)

Thanks again to Lunaman for heading down to the Hollywood museum to take some pics of David Carradine's stunt sword that was on display there. Really helped, man, thanks a lot.


Thanks,
jason
 

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