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Post by Croccifixio on Sept 11, 2015 9:13:14 GMT
Thank you mods for the title change!
Re Saya:
I think $80 is decent enough for a saya that's customized in terms of shape. Just imagine the rate per hour, compare that to your job rate, and to the time it would take someone like you (unless you do it for a living) to do the basic stuff, and I think it's actually pretty decent.
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addertooth
Member
Working the tsuka on two bare blades from Ninja-Katana, slow progress
Posts: 458
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Post by addertooth on Sept 11, 2015 13:10:39 GMT
Rolling it back to (the now retitled "Ebay Swords") sayas. You typically pay an additional $45 for the "top tier" sayas. Some swords which are $300+ may include a "free" selection of the top tier sayas. Thus far, out of the top tier sayas, I have only had one disappointment. It arrived with dings and "orange peel" in the glossy finish. It has the largest "step" from the horn fittings to the wood. It also arrived from the vendor who had the best execution of the blade. Thus far, the nicest saya has surprisingly been from Lyueswords, there is very little "step" from the yellow horn to the black lacquer finish of the wood, without too much wander of the lacquer to the yellow horn fittings. On the one RyanSwords received, all the fittings are horn, with the exception of the Koiguchi, which due to it's complex shape to support the cut-outs for the Kozuka and Kogai (small knife and pick), is plastic. The brass ring which is put on the saya, which re-enforces the entry for the knife/pick was paradoxically covered with clear lacquer, which has crazed due to differences in thermal expansion. One odd note, I did get the free non-top-tier sayas with a couple swords, and although all the fittings were plastic the overall finish was quite good.
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Post by MessengerofDarkness on Sept 11, 2015 13:11:00 GMT
Woke up and saw that i had been quoted in the "eBay Katana Thread". I was like, "Whaaa? I don't remember that thread!" ...And then I saw that the name of the Ryan Swords thread had been changed. XD
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Post by Kiyoshi on Sept 11, 2015 13:25:08 GMT
It's a much more fitting title at this point. On my st-nihonto sword, there isn't much of a step between the horn and saya. That does bring up a question I have. I heard that the horn should be polished but I believe mine has a blackish clear gloss coat instead. Is this normal or is it a shortcut?
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addertooth
Member
Working the tsuka on two bare blades from Ninja-Katana, slow progress
Posts: 458
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Post by addertooth on Sept 11, 2015 13:32:24 GMT
It's a much more fitting title at this point. On my st-nihonto sword, there isn't much of a step between the horn and saya. That does bring up a question I have. I heard that the horn should be polished but I believe mine has a blackish clear gloss coat instead. Is this normal or is it a shortcut? ******************************************************* It is very common Kiyoshi. It saves them from the polishing phase of the horn. In many cases the black lacquer is covered with a glossy clear coat as well. For some reason, I feel polished horn makes a nicer presentation. A bit of grain in the color of the horn is attractive to me.
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Post by MessengerofDarkness on Sept 11, 2015 13:43:20 GMT
That's part of the reason I want with Sheng's saya S-24#: With the brown fittings, they (hopefully) should actually be polished instead of painting.
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Post by Kiyoshi on Sept 11, 2015 14:27:58 GMT
I don't think it will be. The clear coat on it showed the horn well, but darkened it a tad. It looked good until the paint started to chip. It was definitely black horn though.
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Post by MessengerofDarkness on Sept 11, 2015 15:27:12 GMT
I don't think it will be. The clear coat on it showed the horn well, but darkened it a tad. It looked good until the paint started to chip. It was definitely black horn though. Well, since he knows we're going to be publicly reviewing them, maybe Sheng'll have the horns polished? Here's hoping, anyways. (And I could always polish them myself down the line, if they're not already - I like working with my hands on that kinda stuff.)
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Post by Cottontail Customs on Sept 11, 2015 16:21:58 GMT
Just to note, there is no $80 saya available as far as I know, it was a mix up in referencing Horn parts are often lacquered on Japanese saya. I haven't seen many(nihonto), as far as I can remember, that were left bare. It is a nice look to have them highly polished in my opinion but I really only see this on modern saya made outside of Japan. I suppose in many cases it would be hard to tell the difference unless it was a very close pic or seen in person. Properly lacquering with urushi is much different however than the one or two passes with acrylic paint(or similar) that the ebay saya often receive so while the finish on Japanese saya could theoretically last a hundred years or more, the ebay finish could begin to chip and flake in days, weeks or months. Probably better to leave them bare and polished. By the way, Lyueswords is Ryanswords. I know it comes up often but does anyone have any actual proof of which companies are the same and which actually have factories/forges and which just buy and sell? RinC, you've mentioned that you think Jacky is a smith but is this just your impression or did he claim this? This whole industry can be very confusing and deceptive and it would be amazing if some of the mysteries could be solved
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Post by danmasamori on Sept 11, 2015 20:58:22 GMT
God, I wish you could get a fully finished saya for $80, I just dropped $600+ for a new saya for a Nihonto....
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Post by MessengerofDarkness on Sept 11, 2015 21:41:37 GMT
God, I wish you could get a fully finished saya for $80, I just dropped $600+ for a new saya for a Nihonto.... Ouch - at that price, I'd try making a saya for it myself. A few years back, I made a relatively unprofessional, but still perfectly serviceable, shirasaya set for a nihonto wakizashi of mine, and it wasn't as hard as you think - power tools are your friend, and the only hand-done bits wee in the internal planing and glueing.
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Post by danmasamori on Sept 11, 2015 22:10:28 GMT
I've done tsuka and I'm relatively sure I could manage a saya. Problem is my RA in my hands flaring up, makes any use of hand tools pretty painful. I still manage small projects, habaki, tsuka rewraps, ect. on good days. But I'd rather save myself the pain on larger projects...
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Post by MessengerofDarkness on Sept 11, 2015 22:59:28 GMT
I've done tsuka and I'm relatively sure I could manage a saya. Problem is my RA in my hands flaring up, makes any use of hand tools pretty painful. I still manage small projects, habaki, tsuka rewraps, ect. on good days. But I'd rather save myself the pain on larger projects... I've actually got Arthritis in my spine and hips, so I know full well what it can be like, though I'm fortunate enough to have a medicine that helps. Sorry to hear about that. :(
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Post by Kiyoshi on Sept 11, 2015 23:07:44 GMT
I have the unique ability to make some sexy woodworking projects right up to the very end where I make one mistake, try and correct it, and I mess up everything else along the way. Needless to say, I'd rather pay for one. lol
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Post by MessengerofDarkness on Sept 11, 2015 23:17:04 GMT
I have the unique ability to make some sexy woodworking projects right up to the very end where I make one mistake, try and correct it, and I mess up everything else along the way. Needless to say, I'd rather pay for one. lol Also, just curious, in your previous ST-Nihonto saya, did it have same reinforcements by the koiguchi? And if so, then did it flow nicely, or did it look awful, something like this: I'm just wondering of the quality of his same-wrapped sayas.
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Post by Kiyoshi on Sept 11, 2015 23:20:31 GMT
Mine was just a plain matte coat, not even ishime. I have seen a review of one with it somehwere and it seemed a lot more flush than that. That just looks terrible. I'll check around to see if I can find the review.
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Post by MessengerofDarkness on Sept 11, 2015 23:21:57 GMT
Yeah, that was from an old review of someone else's katana, I just borrowed the image to make my point clearer - if you can find the review that would be much appreciated. :)
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Post by Kiyoshi on Sept 11, 2015 23:27:49 GMT
Both this and this have images of the saya where it appears to be flush but none of them are close ups like that. If you zoom in though, you don't see a transition in the surface. Since one of these is dan's we should ask him.
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addertooth
Member
Working the tsuka on two bare blades from Ninja-Katana, slow progress
Posts: 458
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Post by addertooth on Sept 12, 2015 0:20:51 GMT
As a reference, here is the same shot of a Hanbon sword with the same ray skin wrap.
Attachments:
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Post by Kiyoshi on Sept 12, 2015 0:57:11 GMT
Well, thanks to jussi's thread, I've looked into sheng's stuff and it comes from his own forge called either Sheng's Sword Factory or Shengtang Swords depending on which directory I found.
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