Kikoku Nodachi project - aka how to cheat and dye a tsuka
Dec 4, 2017 21:46:34 GMT
Post by Pink Pummy on Dec 4, 2017 21:46:34 GMT
Hello SBG forum!
New member / ex lurkee Pink Pummy here!
First of all I want to say, I know most of you are more interested in historically accurate reproductions - I am as well!
But there's this one anime fantasy design that absolutely stole my heart.
It is the Kikoku, a nodachi worn by the the character "Trafalgar Law" of the anime "One Piece"
I've been on the lookout for a proper functional and affordable reproduction of it for quite a while and surprisingly I made my find right here in germany at "swords and more"s own forge! A nice beast of a sword at 140cm / 55 inch length in saya and 135cm / 53 inches without.
Full tang construction, heat treated 1050 high carbon steel, ready for cutting tests with it's 94 cm/ 37 inch blade weighing in at 1.78kg / below 4 lbs. And it's unique fluffy guard and saya!
What's not to love!
HOWEVER it had the wholly wrong tsuka-ito and samegawa colors along with some other minor differences (picture follows).
I knew I had to make some (a lot!?) of compromises, but seeing how I wanted a rather accurate representation the wrong color absolutely STUNG in my eyes! So I decided to take it upon myself and "fix" this replica.
(sorry for no better picture, somehow I didn't even think of taking much clear pics before I started, but you can clearly see the wrong tsuka-ito color as well as the red samegawa)
Original plan: Re-do the whole wrap.
Best plan, RIGHT!? I'll just watch a few youtube tutorials and have a go at it!
SO I bought several meters of purple tsuka-ito ...And then realized I am absolutely beyond awful at wrapping a tsuka-ito tightly even if I can get a decent pattern it would end up super loose.
So I scoured the forums and looked into ways on how to potentially re-dye the whole thing without unwrapping it. Most suggestions however (obviously) discuss the proper way of doing this and thus were impossible to apply to my case. Hiring somebody to do the wrap for me was astronomically out of budget (it'd end up costing more than the sword itself...)
However I did learn/realize that depending on the tsuka-ito material I could just use fabric / silk paint/dyes.
A NEW HOPE! So I started looking at fabric paints and the most foolproof way to apply an even coating of it. Did you know fabric dye makers love tie dye? THEY TOTALLY DO. It turned out incredibly difficult to find paint that is able to be applied evenly...and doesn't sparkle.
But then I found my solution -> fabric spray paint
Next up was trying to figure out what to do about the samegawa. I was pretty sure it's fake samegawa, but I really didn't know for sure and for all I know fabric dye likely wouldn't work on it. The forums in general seemed to suggest lacquer paints and since I figured I'll need accuracy I ordered some lacquer paint pens with varying tip sizes/strengths.
Aaand the fun began!
Spraypainting the tsuka-ito!
Lacquer painting the samegawa!
Here's the lacquer paint pens I used - they worked surprisingly well! Just requires some fine handling to not accidently stain the ito.
And here's an album with a lot more steps / shots of this process. With descriptions in case somebody may find this useful/entertaining!
imgur.com/a/MZ8U7
And then the final result!
After 24 hours of drying and application of a tennis racket grip wrap to simulate the original's bandaged part of the tsuka!
And a lot more pics are to be found in this separate album:
imgur.com/a/oVurU
So yeah! I think it was a success
so even if you are absolutely hopeless at tsuka-ito, I still think you can manage something to match your dreams with this method given similar materials!
Thanks for reading and have a nice day!
New member / ex lurkee Pink Pummy here!
First of all I want to say, I know most of you are more interested in historically accurate reproductions - I am as well!
But there's this one anime fantasy design that absolutely stole my heart.
It is the Kikoku, a nodachi worn by the the character "Trafalgar Law" of the anime "One Piece"
I've been on the lookout for a proper functional and affordable reproduction of it for quite a while and surprisingly I made my find right here in germany at "swords and more"s own forge! A nice beast of a sword at 140cm / 55 inch length in saya and 135cm / 53 inches without.
Full tang construction, heat treated 1050 high carbon steel, ready for cutting tests with it's 94 cm/ 37 inch blade weighing in at 1.78kg / below 4 lbs. And it's unique fluffy guard and saya!
What's not to love!
HOWEVER it had the wholly wrong tsuka-ito and samegawa colors along with some other minor differences (picture follows).
I knew I had to make some (a lot!?) of compromises, but seeing how I wanted a rather accurate representation the wrong color absolutely STUNG in my eyes! So I decided to take it upon myself and "fix" this replica.
(sorry for no better picture, somehow I didn't even think of taking much clear pics before I started, but you can clearly see the wrong tsuka-ito color as well as the red samegawa)
Original plan: Re-do the whole wrap.
Best plan, RIGHT!? I'll just watch a few youtube tutorials and have a go at it!
SO I bought several meters of purple tsuka-ito ...And then realized I am absolutely beyond awful at wrapping a tsuka-ito tightly even if I can get a decent pattern it would end up super loose.
So I scoured the forums and looked into ways on how to potentially re-dye the whole thing without unwrapping it. Most suggestions however (obviously) discuss the proper way of doing this and thus were impossible to apply to my case. Hiring somebody to do the wrap for me was astronomically out of budget (it'd end up costing more than the sword itself...)
However I did learn/realize that depending on the tsuka-ito material I could just use fabric / silk paint/dyes.
A NEW HOPE! So I started looking at fabric paints and the most foolproof way to apply an even coating of it. Did you know fabric dye makers love tie dye? THEY TOTALLY DO. It turned out incredibly difficult to find paint that is able to be applied evenly...and doesn't sparkle.
But then I found my solution -> fabric spray paint
Next up was trying to figure out what to do about the samegawa. I was pretty sure it's fake samegawa, but I really didn't know for sure and for all I know fabric dye likely wouldn't work on it. The forums in general seemed to suggest lacquer paints and since I figured I'll need accuracy I ordered some lacquer paint pens with varying tip sizes/strengths.
Aaand the fun began!
Spraypainting the tsuka-ito!
Lacquer painting the samegawa!
Here's the lacquer paint pens I used - they worked surprisingly well! Just requires some fine handling to not accidently stain the ito.
And here's an album with a lot more steps / shots of this process. With descriptions in case somebody may find this useful/entertaining!
imgur.com/a/MZ8U7
And then the final result!
After 24 hours of drying and application of a tennis racket grip wrap to simulate the original's bandaged part of the tsuka!
And a lot more pics are to be found in this separate album:
imgur.com/a/oVurU
So yeah! I think it was a success
so even if you are absolutely hopeless at tsuka-ito, I still think you can manage something to match your dreams with this method given similar materials!Thanks for reading and have a nice day!
! Thank you very much! I have plans for a followup project in the making as well! Likely to be finished over/after the christmas holidays!
I do think you're right, though, I think the Practical Plus has synthetic leather ito. So many sword projects I want to do, so little time! 
