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Post by Kumdoalan on Nov 10, 2012 22:55:43 GMT
way back in 2005 I made a sword rack to hold 4 swords based on the Hattori Hanzo sword rack seen in the movie Kill Bill. ... re=relatedLately I wanted to try to make another to keep or sell just for kicks. I'm not sure I will be able to finish the rack soon, but felt it might be interesting to talk about, and share a few few photos as I go along. With luck I will finish this little project before Christmas....but we shall see..... I went out today and had a little walk in the woods to look for dead sticks with fancy curves in them, yet straight enough to hold swords parallel with each other. I took a few photos, and plan to post them as i go along to try to keep track of how I do this project and look for ways to do it better next time. Attachments:
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Post by Kumdoalan on Nov 10, 2012 23:00:34 GMT
Its a tricky art project, as to make he rack look cool I have to find sticks that have curves, yet the two sticks I pick out have to more or less line up with each other at the places that will be where the swords will be positioned. Im not an artist, so this is tricky. I found a few sticks that I dragged out of the woods and lined them up to see how they relate to each other... The above photo shows that this branch has been rubbed on by a Whitetail buck, and a lot of the bark is already stripped off. This save me some time sanding. Time to pick 2 sticks from what i dragged out of the woods. Attachments:
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Post by Kumdoalan on Nov 10, 2012 23:15:56 GMT
Just started snowing, so I raced to pick out the 2 sticks that will be used to make the sword rack, and cut them down to the correct size. Attachments:
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Post by Kumdoalan on Nov 11, 2012 3:34:53 GMT
I picked out 2 sticks to serve at the rack's vertical posts. They have some nice curves, but are not so wild that I cant find some places to position the swords later. The first thing I did tonight was strip off all the wet and frozen outer bark...took way longer than i planed by the way. I then started to sand the wood to get down to the lighter white wood underneath. 2nd post has the bark removed and both of them now are ready to begin the hand sanding. Attachments:
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Talon
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Post by Talon on Nov 11, 2012 5:44:05 GMT
This looks like a really nice way to make a rack,even with my poor wood skills i think i could pull this off and get a pretty cool organic looking rack,yeah i like this idea
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Post by Kumdoalan on Nov 12, 2012 0:15:30 GMT
I just finished putting on a coat of light oak stain. I think the posts of the movie prop are left in a more natural state, but I think that also made them look a bit like plastic. I wanted to bring out a bit of the grain. It was hard to take a good photo of all 3 sticks, but you can get the idea. I hung them up to stain and dry in the basement.... Tomorrow i start to varnish Attachments:
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Post by Kumdoalan on Nov 15, 2012 11:17:29 GMT
here is a link to the video that is what we are attempting to replicate: I have a question about the metal hangers used on this movie prop and how i can fabricate my own. Please stop the video at the 2:20 moment and look closely at the metal rack/shelf that the Bride has exposed. How would I make something that will have the same look as this movie rack, yet will not have bare metal laying against the wood of the sword's Saya? I know I have to make some type of metal hanger, but how should I pad the metal to protect the painted finish of the Saya?
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Post by aussie-rabbit on Nov 15, 2012 15:35:03 GMT
Look at the foam weather strips with the sticky backing at your local hardware, if you cut them slightly smaller than the metal you would hardly notice them.
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Talon
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Post by Talon on Nov 15, 2012 18:14:57 GMT
why dont you use wood dowels,just drill the holes at an angle so the pegs will point upwards slightly,that will prevent the swords from falling off the rack and will give a more natural organic look compared to metal hangers,then you could stain them the same colour as the rack
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Post by Jussi Ekholm on Nov 15, 2012 19:23:47 GMT
This is very neat project. I would suggest using wood instead of metal. Maybe using a wooden dovel pins placed somewhere between 45-90 degree range. That would give a nice support for the sword. So basically the desing would look like this => I/ to this I_ depending on the angle you want. Well that was a bit lame but I think you get the idea, making a V, U or L-shaped base where you lay the sword down. If I remember correctly someone used to make katana kake bit similar to this. Using straight wood for the base, and adding various amount of pins depending how many swords you wanted to be on the rack. But basically drill a hole for the small wooden pin/dovel then insert it in the angle you like. I would link a pic of those stands, but I can't remember who made them, and can't find them on quick search. But look this thread for similar stands, there are at least couple pretty similar designs what I mean in here: www.swordforum.com/forums/showth ... ck-project *EDIT* Dang didn't know it took over an hour to type the reply as Talon had the same idea. I usually get carried away when reading multiple threads at the time, I'm too good at wasting time.
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Post by Kumdoalan on Nov 15, 2012 23:37:37 GMT
I will keep that idea in mind, but the idea behind this project is that Im attempting to make a copy of the Kill Bill sword rack.
From the movie clip it sure looks like metal little shelves to me...But how to protect the Saya from scratches?
So while wood pegs or shelves would not scratch the saya, the idea beind this project is to reproduce the movie sword rack as close as i can.
So I ask you to have a look at the clip, and see if you can find a way to have a rack that looks the same, but has a design that protects the sword?
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Post by Kumdoalan on Nov 15, 2012 23:53:18 GMT
Yes I think that a sword stand made out of some weird sticks is way more interesting than most all the traditional sword stands I see for sale. The only real time I like the look of a normal stand , is when they drape some soft cloth like satin over the normal stand and then place the blade on it.. (see example - www.ipernity.com/doc/wil/454770/ ) The most ugly sword racks are the ones that appear to me to be just typical gun racks that a guy set his swords in. (see example - www.swords24.eu/product/descript ... H2321.html ) They do what they are designed to do, hold a huge load of swords, ...but...they just dont have any "spark",,,no "pizazz" I think that is also what the people behind the Kill Bill movie prop must have thought too. they could have had just a normal looking rack like is sold to us in the movie. The bride could have opened that hatchway and there in front of here would have been a sword rack sitting on the floor with a bunch of sword on it...( see example - fearlessmma.com/2010/06/8-sword- ... ord-stand/ ) yes it holds a lot of swords.... But normal sword racks are for normal people with normal swords....and they dont need a soundtrack.... (see example - )
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Greg
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Post by Greg on Nov 16, 2012 2:32:01 GMT
I think your best bet to help protect your saya's from being scratched is to get some rubberizer dip, dip the metal in it, and then as it dries, texture it to look like cast metal. The first way I thought of to texturize it would be to use a thin brisseled brush and lightly tap the rubber while it's still moldable, but not yet dried.
It's only the first thing that came to mind, there may be other options.
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Post by Kumdoalan on Nov 16, 2012 2:43:54 GMT
....I was up all night long last night and that is an idea that i came up with, BUT I also came up with some issues you need to help me with.
My idea was to just make little metal shelves, but then get some of that stuff you dip things like pliers and screwdrivers into to make handles for.
The problem is that I think that coating is red...or green....
I need black....AND the coating or the paint over the coating can NOT EVER, EVER stain or rub off onto the saya over years and hears of heat/humidity.
Thats where I see a problem. | have to paint the rubber coating, and thats always going to be at risk of rubbing off or staining whatever is put on the shelf and left there for years at a time.
I went over in my mind a few options on ways around this problem, and i soon started to think of other ways to do this.
right now Im leaning to a very simple solution:
IDEA #1 -I will make the litle rack shelves out of thin metal so that will appear correct to the movie prop. But then i will wrap the metal in padded sports handle wrap. This is the stuff you use to re-wrap a tennis racket handle.
It's padded....its got a sticky side to stick to the metal...the "up" side cant rub off onto he saya
IDEA #2 - The other idea I had was to get some thin padding and tape it to the metal shelve with black electrical tape.
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Talon
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Post by Talon on Nov 16, 2012 5:24:05 GMT
Two options are either self amalgamating tape or heat shrink tube,self amalgamating tape comes on a roll,it's basically a rubber strip that sticks to itself and whatever else you wrap with it,i have it on my crossbow stirrup to protect the metal. Or use heat shrink tube,it comes in all shapes sizes and colours,just cut it to the desired length,slip it over the bracket and use a heat gun,it will shrink to fit and give a night tight rubber coating,both these options are cheap and will prevent scratching. You could use leather strips and glue them on,you wont see whatever coating you put on,so as long as whatever you use protects the wood will work,there's no need to overthink it
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Post by Kumdoalan on Nov 16, 2012 14:52:33 GMT
Heat shrink!....an idea I had not thought of....
Very interesting......
I could still place some thin padding under the heat shrink too... very interesting idea.....
You give me an idea...........
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Post by raf2 on Nov 16, 2012 15:09:36 GMT
Heat shrink is a great idea... Many years ago my favorite sunglasses had the rubber falling apart on the arm/ear portion, just disintegrating!. I put on shrink wrap over the old rubber and now 7+ years later it still looks brand new!
Very durable as it is designed to handle moisture and heat and cold. Nothing transfers off.
You can also put self adhesive felt pads where the sword touches the stand. I do this on all of my stands that do not have this.
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Post by Kumdoalan on Nov 16, 2012 16:30:18 GMT
Ok,,,a question about the use of heat shrink in my situation....
When you watch the Kill Bill movie clip I have posted here a few times, you see that the outer end of the metal hanger is always seen from he front.
The question I have is how would heat shrink tube show up? I want a nice clean ending as we see in the video clip.
Would it look OK if I just clipped he end of the Heat Shrink tube that sticks out past the ending of the metal shelf?
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Post by raf2 on Nov 16, 2012 17:40:01 GMT
I think clipping it would be worth exploring. How about doing some sample parts to get a feel. It would not take much time nor cost much.
Try trimming it as close to the end rather than letting it hang over and see how it looks. You can also try different termination points before the end, or see how it looks overlapped.
Really it's going to come down to experimentation.
For my glasses i let the shrink wrap go past the metal and shrink to a point. I'll take a photo of my glass to show you. hang tight.
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Talon
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Post by Talon on Nov 16, 2012 17:41:01 GMT
Cant see why not,just cut it off flush and it should look fine,you probably wont even notice the hangers when they're full of swords.
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