Finished! Chang Dao that I named "snakey"

Update again, seller just offered to redo the whole thing (I actually offered to pay for the saya). Will see how it goes, I have redone my drawings.... If this is not clear enough, I will give up

On the side note, I have finally started to do Tongbeiquan, the guy does Piguaquan and miao dao too but not enough people to start a class for them so he suggested me to start with Tong Bei and learn so basics. Just as well, at least I am connected to a teacher who knows Miao dao, pretty chill guy, doesn't mind my Kendo/Iaido background (you have no idea how much grief some Chinese martial art teachers can give me over that, many of them are actually Westerners not old enough to have lived during WW2, what the hell). And it is the most hardcore martial art training I have done, because it is 8:30am on Sundays at a place with no parking spots, meaning I have to wake up at 6 to catch the train   The teacher said he may do Piguaquan at 7:30 if he gets enough students, no wonder why there ain't enough people hahahaha

Edit: another update, about 4 weeks for the new sword.... fingers cross.... 2 of my customer swords are being redone at the same time, no new blades to play with  

I don't stay out at night but still go to bed after midnight, so 6 am is harsh and morning training is not good for bonding with fellow practitioners as it is too early to get a cold one at the bar aftet haha.

I gonna do rattan wrap on this or may try 1mm waxed cotton strings. Will keep handle at 45cm, meaning I will have to weld an extension to give it full tang all the way and make it less tip heavy.

The handle fitting were done and the scabbard mount fitted. It was pretty hard as it goes inside the hard guard and there was only 1/2 mm of play. Next is to slim down the scabbard to accept the hanger before wraping.

Edit: got off work, worked the cheap $10 hand plane for 2 hours, went to Kendo, got home and plane the wood again.... finally got both hangers on, there are 2 spots very close to having no wood, but just as well, rattan will cover it up. Rough profile is done, now need to sand it smooth and the 15cm tang extension needs to be weld on before final wrap. Should be done this weekend (good thing my GF is away this week, more time to work on it  "Hello, do you miss me? What is that noise in the the back ground? Sounds like sanding and welding!" 

I collected 3 rubbish bags full of wood chips, I must have removed 40% of wood from the sacbbard/handle!

Progress pic:



Think I should post the final product on another thread and keep thread for the replacement chang dao blade later, 3.75 weeks and counting  

Man, that is pretty bad luck. Lame outcome and awful customer service. Who was the ebay seller by the way? Just so I know who to avoid if a similar project crosses my mind in the future.

I lol'd at the part where they couldn't make the right custom blade, but could make the wrong one. At least the wrong blade turned out to be a pretty cool sword though, still drooling over a kissaki-moroha zukuri odachi myself.

Second chinese sword build fail this year. The other one was "new forge" on ebay. They are better to deal with. Guy refunded me and asked to reorder if I still want one. I ended using the money to irder my storm bringer build from him which turned out great. Still.... no dao!

This thread is not dead yet, just going to sleep for a while a month or two (I just bought a Mauser Broomhandle, was gonna eat 2 min noodles for a month but the refund can now pay for proper food haha).... I have made, rusted and blackened the pommel, collar and disc guard. Ordered enough snake skin for scabbard too, gone to far to let it die. May ask Newforge for a quote in the next month or so, their TH stuff I got is pretty good (the failed one was DH) and the guy was far more upfront on some requests. Some of the stuff I asked he just refused to do.

Why did they say they couldn't make it less than 2 weeks ago and now came up with the sword exactly the way I ordered it, I don't know, but here are the pics. I told them to send me a Paypal invoice and I will pay for it. 

Oh wait, they forgot the brass collar, on well, I am not even going to mention, in case they get confused.....

Sweet! That is an awesome (and funny) turn of events. How they would have misplaced a sword like that is beyond me, but at least it's been found and is now heading your way. Guess it was just a blunder by someone in the CS department, new hire maybe.

The teaser shots of the sword itself are really cool. Very happy to hear that his project ended up working out for you. And that blade does look to spec...a very nice surprise. Look forward to hearing your first-hand impressions.

And hey, if you need a different kind of 2 min noodle, check out nongshim neoguri spicy seafood. Recently discovered it and that stuff is surprisingly awesome. Goes great with just about anything. Got back into ramen as I'm starting to tightly budget my other expenses to save up for a couple swords (another Hanwei Bushido, a custom odachi and an Arms and Armor Gustav Vasa)

Checked EMS progress and it was delivered while I was at work (lady next door sometime signs for my stuff), 5PM, ran into the car and pushed as fast as speed limit allowed, it was on my doorstep!!!!

Next thing was to rip the packaging open, the blade was packed in newspaper (too long to be in scabbard) PLUS lots of tape.... It is exactly the same length as the "wrong sword" exactly how I asked for. Tang was a little longer tho, 200g heavier as expected so about 1650g once mounted.




The got the shape right this time, not too Katana like neither, which is good.




The finish is much worse than before, they possibly couldn't be bothered as it was a replacement and the surface is wavy but as a working Chinese dao, it is still acceptable, the bottom half is sharper than the top half, which is odd but I can fix that. The spine is straight and the general shape is where I wanted it, so not bad. I think it is a bit too curved to be a Miao Dao but Ok for one of the historical Chang Dao

Haven't taken the Habaki out yet as it is very tight and haven't inspected it properly but here it is. Will be long weekend this week, I will see if I can get the handle mounted by then, happy days. I am going to Kendo now, I am so tempted to bunk class today, wanna play with blade

Will update soon



Edit: removed the habaki, the notches were done pretty well and they didn't grind more meat than necessary, actually the habaki is VERY tight. I have rounded the top of the habaki to give it a less Japanese look, also blackened it to match the black guard. Have enough 5mm steel bar left from the odachi build to extend the tang. Only need about 9cm extension to hit the bottom of the handle and I don't even think I will need it but then I need to attach the ring pommel so might as well. Whilst at it, I will try to off set the extension somewhat to make the handle more straight. Funny how we always complain about production katana handles not following the curve of the blade and now I have issues the other way around. I still need to open the slot in the disc guard to take the tang and to file the bottom of the tang to take extension. Then it is welding time, mate with welder can only help for 1-2 hours on Saturday so I better get it right. I think I should get a welder myself one of these days.