Kill Bill "Bride" Katana Replica (Hatori Hanzo Style)

[Frybo]

This is my first Thread in forever so I hope I don`t dishonour myself too much with Nonsense and No-go`s (Not that I have to ask my Kaishaku-nin to assist me with Seppuku... altough then I could use my selfmade Katana which would have some style)

My goal is to modify some pre-existing Katanaparts into a Screen accurate Replica of Quentin Tarantinos 2003 Movie "Kill Bill". I was heavily inspired by the awesome Jason Blakey who is well known in this Forum and the Sword he made for Adam Savage of "Mythbusters" fame (

). His Article (Hattori Hanzo Sword Build) helped me to find the courage to finally try and fulfill my Dream of owning this awesome Katana myself - a thing I desperatly wanted since I watched the Movies back in my Teenage years! It`s fascinating how some dreams persists over the years and even decades!

I will follow his process for a large part with the little exeption of not using CNS for the engravings - I will try and make them by hand. The reason for it being that I`m not savvy enough with the CNC machine and that after I checked the hero Prop I came to the conclusion that they did it traditionally by hand for the Movie.

My steps are as follows:

1. Analysis of the Hero Prop
2. Tsuka (Handle ): Tsuba/Fuchi/Kashira/Menuki/Seppa
3. Saya (Scabbard): Engravings / Tape / Ring / Koiguchi / Sageo / KoJiri
4. Blade: Habaki / Engraving

I will most probably jump around in my Steps as it is always a matter of when some part arrive, when I learn some particular skill and what I`m in the mood for.

I`m SO excited!!!

 

[Frybo]

The Analysis of the Hero Prop was thankfully already done perfectly by Jason back when he made his Version. Which brought me to the following conclusion in regards of my own building process:

a.) I only need to make the Tsuba, the handle with the Rayskin, the Koiguchi, the Ring, the engravings and the KoJiri myself
b.) All the other parts can be bought/modified

I still have problems getting my hand on the Leather Wrap for the handle and there are problems with the original Size of the KoJiri. Jason in his awesomeness gave me access to some 3D Files tough and I try to have some larger pieces produced made out of brass. We`ll see how this turns out at the end.

 

[Frybo]

I started with one of the simplest parts: the Tsuba.

There are several options out there to buy but I honestly didn`t like them too much. They either are made from cheap material or the form is just not right. I decided to draw my own Version, based on the one from Jason and my own study. I had them professionally cut from metal with Laser.

For Reference in regards of weight, material and overall Quality I used a Tsuba I already own.

To the left is my Vector I draw and to the right is the Piece as it came before and after I worked on it (polishing and edges rounded)

 

[Frybo]

Next I tried to blacken the Piece since the original appears to be painted dark Black. First I tried "browning" as this probably would have been the traditional way to blacken Metal.

I liked the result quite a bit because it looked so structured and kind of "battle damaged". Unfortunately tough it didn`t look like the original at all.

 

[RobertMuldoon]

Depending what they're made of; you could try heating them and applying oil, like linseed oil. That should give a good traditional black.

 

[Frybo]

Depending what they're made of; you could try heating them and applying oil, like linseed oil. That should give a good traditional black.

Thank you very much for your Input! I just tried to spraypaint it with gloss paint (see post below) and I`m very happy with the result

 

[Frybo]

I tried again to blacken the pieces. Since the browning didn`t produce the desired result, I sprayed some metal primer on it and then coated it with dark black gloss paint (if that`s the correct word in english ). I absolutely love the result since the color has a very elegant matt gloss. it works very well with the other pieces which I try to blacken next. I expect those to be more difficult but we`ll see...

 

[Frybo]

The one aspect I try to conciously divert from Jasons Version is in the engravings on the Saya itself. He produced some georgous results by CNC-cut his Sayas but unfortunately I`m unable to do that myself because I don`t have Access to a machine at this time.

Additionally, I checked the Hero Prop and it seems, the orginal engravings are thinner and look more "handmade" - I guess they went for a more traditional look as if Hatori just scratched it into the wood with a Knife...

I`ll try and use a Dremel with the thinnest Tool available and "draw" it direct on the Saya. A first attempt went pretty good and I`ll make some more "accurate" engravings soon. Only when I manage to produce a couple of good results on some random Woodparts I will go and engrave my Saya... I can already imagine how nervous I`ll be the whole time when I make the final attempt! Imagine every single Mistake could either ruin your Saya or at least forces you to re-paint the whole thing... . But that`s still in the future

 

[DONW999]

Good luck!

 

[Frybo]

Finally I made some progress in my Katana Project! Just got my Brass Kojiri for the end of my Saya (Scabbard) which is one of the most difficult parts to get right. Can't wait to paint and attach it to my Saya! I am thinking about making casts out of the piece because the 3D printing is quite expensive to be sure. We will see if I find the time for that...

 

[doubleh87]

Finally I made some progress in my Katana Project! Just got my Brass Kojiri for the end of my Saya (Scabbard) which is one of the most difficult parts to get right. Can't wait to paint and attach it to my Saya! I am thinking about making casts out of the piece because the 3D printing is quite expensive to be sure. We will see if I find the time for that...

wow nice. i've been wanting to make one myself too except i still have no idea how to get there. So far I only got menukis, fuchi, kashira off eBay. May I ask you how you got the kojiri? It's really impossible to get.

Also, I was told that usually saya is made fit into kojiri, not the other way around. or did you have it made custom for your saya?