Art Nouveau Iaito Re-Redo

This'll be (relatively) short, because this is an update/improvement of an earlier customization I posted here.

• The sword was bent at the tsuba, likely from a bad draw. Or, you know, a bunch of bad draws.
• Faint rattling in the tsuka made me pretty sure the tsukka was cracked.
• The saya was getting beat up & the paint job was harshed in several places.

I didn't document this one all that much, because so much of the process is the same, but some stuff worth is noting, in case anyone finds it helpful:

Straightening the blade:
It was bent at the nakago just under the base of the habaki. I clamped it between 2 x 4s with the nakago sticking out and banged it with a rubber mallet. Didn't work. Tried to bend it by hand. Yeah, no. I stood on the boards and carefully pressed down with a foot. No go. Finally I set a towel over it and whanged it a few of times with a 3-lb sledge. Yep. "If it doesn't fit, get a bigger etc."

Worth mentioning that if you do this, don't go nuts with the sledge. If you overcorrect, you'll have to bang it back in the opposite direction, essentially working a piece of metal back & forth, which reduces structural integrity. I won't be cutting or blocking with this sword, so I was less worried about introducing a failure point.

Saya:
I sanded the saya down to bare wood, used wood filler on scratches & scars, & sanded them smooth. I brushed on two layers of PVA glue thinned with water 1:1. I sanded that smooth and primered the saya with Createx Black Auto Borne Sealer.

Paint Scheme:
Here's the previous customization:




For V3, I wanted an antique gold with a more uniform finish that wasn't too shiny. I mixed Createx Gold Metallic with a few drops of Pearl Black. This darkens the gold but gives it a nice depth & luster. (It also adds a slight green tint, but that helps with the antique look.)

I airbrushed the antiqued gold onto the fittings over black primer and sealed with an automotive 2K Clear. I buffed with Maguiar's Scratch X and Ultimate Compound, and polished with Maguiar's Show Car Glaze and a rotary tool polishing wheel.

For the saya, I printed the ribbon design & "endcaps" on vinyl adhesive paper and cut masks with an X-acto knife.



I took advantage of the oportunity to render the ribbon design a bit with some shading & highlights, and added black keylines on the gold "endcaps" with striping tape, to make it more visually interesting than the previous verision.



I was okay with the fittings being shiny & glossy, but not the saya, because it would work against the antique look. So I finished the saya with four coats of Clear Ultra Matte polycrylic. It gave the saya a great matte-black finish and dulled the metallic paint so that it looked burnished and not shiny & new.



Tsuka Maki Me Crazy

I am nobody's tsuka-maki professional, but I've learned to do a job that I'm at least not embarrassed by. But this thing was a wrestling match from the first twist. It's the first time I've used cotton ito (real silk or synthetics before this), and I dunno if what I got was crappy, or if you have to go about it a bit differently with cotton, or if I'm just a lot worse than I thought. Let's just say that there was a lot of cosmetic surgery performed by the time I was done. I'm still not happy with it, but it'll do until I get better ito.

I brushed a coat of satin-finish polyurethane on the wrap. Wow, that cotton sucks up a lot more than silk or synthetics.

I polished the blade & reassembled everything.




I'm very happy with this latest version, but it's my third go-around with this design, and much as I like it, I definitely don't wanna do it again.

Thanks for reading!