Hey guys! Hectic Christmas-time for me this year, between work and the family. Once more, I apologize for keeping you waiting. So on to detailing this modification for anyone else who's interested.
So, as JLWilliams had said,
1) I started with Imacasa's 28 inch "Sable" Machete. Just by looking at the shape of the blade, you can already see where the blade's shape is similar to the curves of a saber, and it even has a slight, albeit superficial resemblance to a katana, if you minus the re-curved handle.
2)So I originally drew up this crude sketch with a drawing tool. Though I had actually drawn it on the shorter Sable on accident, it got my intention across. I brought this design to Ben at Baronyx Knives. (His website-
www.baryonyxknife.com/ - where you can pick up all sorts of machete and outdoor tools at good prices, and I can personally attest to how ludicrously sharp the blades come, if you choose to have him do his custom sharpening job on any blade you purchase on the site!) Message me for his e-mail address.
3) I came across Benjamin on another Blade forum under the tag FortyTwoBlades, where people had been showing off other projects that they had commissioned from him. He graciously took on the task of cutting my Sable down to size and shaping the tang for me, as well as putting on a nice, sharp Convex Grind on the edge. I believe he will take on more commissions if he is not swamped with jobs already. However, at the time, Ben did not have the proper tools to drill holes in the tang for me, so I had him take me this far with the Sable.
4) I ordered my Sable on Ebay, as Ben did not have any 28 inch Sables in his stock at the time, and had the vendor ship my machete directly to him. After about a week or two, Ben sent me this picture to confirm that the modification was to my liking. Voila.
5) There we have it. Since I had no holes in my tang, and didn't know or anyone personally who could drill them for me (not to mention I was anxious to get a handle on this thing to start swinging and cutting with it) I just went with a really tight under-wrapping of Gorilla-Tape.
-Once the gorilla tape was almost thick enough to be a comfortable handle, I put a single layered wrap of skateboard-style grip-tape over that. This did a well enough job of approximating the feel of Same, though it was obviously a bit rough on the hand.
-From there, I used the white paracord you see in my previous pictures to do a very crude version of a tsuka-maki. Surprisingly enough, this turned out to be a very solid, sturdy feeling "Tsuka", there is almost no play in the wrapping at all. Dare I say I have more confidence in it than the handle on my Hanwei Banshee or Musashi Bamboo, as there is nothing that will rattle or be knocked loose.
Though, yes... it is a very crude means to an end. I should just call this "Project Crude Waki". Especially since the "Hamidashi Tsuba" is just that skateboard grip-tape cut thin and wrapped in the top of the tsuka until wide enough!
Obviously none of this is anything you want to get really wet. Though, if you do, it is relatively easy and economical to replace.
I'm glad some of you like how it came out. Hopefully Ben, or someone else you can find, will be able to help you bring your project to fruition. In the future, I hope to maybe re-do the handle. It would be great to have something a little more official looking, even if it is only a 25-or-so dollar machete modification. The balance and handling on it has been great thus far, and the edge will cleave a bottle like nobody's business.
I hope you enjoy, guys!