Greetings Everyone!
After recently watching the video that Adam Savage had posted 2 years ago on Tested.com regarding his replica of the Bride's katana from "Kill Bill;" I was reminded that I too have a cheap, $60 dollar stainless steel replicate I bought back in 2008. After realizing how horribly inaccurate my katana was, I felt compelled to try to create myself a more accurate replacement for my collection. This led to hours of searching the internet.
Down the rabbit hole we go. . .
After searching, I realized that no one makes an accurate replica for sale. There have been some created here on the RPF, but that is about it. That led me to the conclusion that I will have to try to replicate what Jason Blakey had done for his replica. Going down his path though leads to some challenges. First, the fuchi kashira used on the screen used props appears to have been discontinued almost 10 years ago and are extremely difficult to find. Second, I do not have a CNC machine to complete the engraving myself on an accurate Japanese Iaito blade.
Because of these barriers to entry, I have to take a slightly different route. I would have to purchase an already created sword then modify it to be more accurate. After scouring the internet, I found one on eBay that I felt I could work with. It is a T10 spring steel blade that has been differentially hardened. This particular sword has many inaccuracies; but I purchased it for a few reasons. First, I liked the quality of the Foo Dog on the blade. Second, it had the most accurate fuchi kashira on the tsuka that I could find. Lastly, they let me modify the sword slightly by getting a real leather ito wrap and allowed me to swap out the inaccurate saya for a plain, gloss black one at no extra cost. I also liked the quality of the real hamon on the blade.
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My plan is to replace some of the fittings on the sword, and then do my best to create an accurate saya from the plain black one that will be coming with the sword. This means I will need to take a stab at trying to carve the imagery into the saya myself, by hand. These are the fittings that I was able to source for this build. The kojiri is a 3D print designed by Jason Blakey that I am having printed in brass, then chemically aging myself.
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I also purchased some mylar tape for the sides of the saya and a 6mm ring that I will need to shape to fit onto the saya.
My biggest worry is the carving of the symbols into the saya. I feel that replacing hardware on the tsuka itself won't be hard, unless I end up having to rewrap the leather myself to get the menuki on there. We will see once I get the sword within a month.
In the end, I hope I can get somewhere close to this.
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Wish me luck! I will post updates as all the parts show up and I start on my adventure.
