Naval Diplomat Tanto (walk-through)

For a while I'd wanted to do a tanto that was navy blue with realistic marble panels and gold trim. I thought it'd look kinda naval, kinda classy. A friend's birthday was coming up, so I decided to do the project as his present.

The tanto is one of my trusty Dojo Pro scratch & dents. The damage (if any) never bothers me, since I'm gonna do a lot worse to them.

When I tried to disassemble it, I learned that it had been glued like crazy. I broke my makeshift tsuka-nuki hammer banging it apart.

I made a new hammer from a piece of leftover African mahogany a friend gave to me. It's a very hard wood, and so far it's worked wonderfully.

The habaki was glued to the blade. I didn't think I could get it off without damaging it or the blade, so I left it on.

The seppa were glued to the tsuba:

The tsuba was glued to the tsuka:

The tsuka was glued to the nakago:

And the kashira was glued to the tsuka:

The wrap was functional but definitely improvised, with the ito going under the kashira. The knots ... well, they resembled finishing knots. Basically it was just tied off wherever was convenient and cosmetically ok.

The tsuka was cracked (they almost always are; I suspect they crack when they're forced on) and had been glued to the nakago:

The same was kinda ugly and in two pieces on one side, which was gonna make the rewrap really fun:

Okay, so we're off! Crack-repair first:

I widened the crack with a knotting tool, put wood glue on a piece of dental floss, and flossed the crack to work the glue well into it:

I wrapped it tight and clamped it overnight:

I went to town on the glue-covered fittings with a razor blade, a dremel, sandaper, a wire brush, Krud Kutter degreaser, and Jasco Metal Etch (to prep for painting):

I airbrushed the fittings with black Createx Autoborne Sealer and then Wicked Opaque Jet Black. I brush-painted Liquid Leaf Classic Gold on the fuchi, kashira, menuki, and shitodome:

I tried to get good detail, but the molds for these things are either so off or so worn that I have no idea what they're supposed to represent:

Tsuka-maki time!

Even though they take less time because they're much shorter, I find tanto handles a lot harder to wrap. A lot less grabbing room & leverage. I used a blue synthetic ito (pic's kinda dark, sorry). The wider ito and two-piece same meant some finagling to get everything to line up. There were a lot of do-overs on this wrap:

Quick tip: If the kashira has shitodome (I think they're called maki-dome), don't reattach them and then do your wrap; it's a serious pain trying to get the ito through the little openings. Instead, slide the maki-dome over the ito when you get to the end, then pass the ito through the kashira and attach the maki-dome. If you pull tight as you need to, you'll probably pull them off. Instead, glue them on (I used E6000), put a soft cloth over them, and clamp them overnight, *then* pull the ito tight.

The blade had what I'd call a satin finish. I wanted it more glossy, so I polished it and the habaki with a Dremel and Peek polishing compound, then with Mother's Aluminum Polish:

I'm glad I did! Here's a comparison with an identical, unpolished tanto:

I filed the glue & curled metal off of the nakago. Just for yucks I signed the nakago. Thank god for Dremels, seriously:

I painted the seppa metallic gold & the tsuba Metallic Midnight Blue (it looks awesome in sunlight):

I clear-coated all the fittings and put them up to dry:

I put the polished blade in folded paper and sandwiched that in cardboard, for safety and to keep it clean:

Now for the saya!

I sanded off the lacquer & paint and degreased with Krud Kutter. It had two dents at the bottom. I filled these with water-based wood filler, sanded them smooth, and sprayed with water to wipe off the excess:

I primered with black Autoborne Sealer, then sprayed a base of metallic gold. I taped off with 1/8" & 1/16" striping tape where I wanted gold trim:

Here's my step checklist for the design. I've made a habit of this after forgetting a step one too many times:

I'd really blown it the first time I tried to do a marble design, on my Improvised Tanto (here's the walk-through), and I really wanted to try it again.

This saya was going to be a deep navy blue, with a blue-veined marble panel on each side. I painted the areas to be veined with phthalo blue. I wanted a gold vein running down the design as well, so I put a metallic gold line down the panel:

Here comes the fun part. An airbrusher trick for getting a marble pattern is to dry out a baby wipe (don't use Huggies) and stretch it in all directions, working it as it gradually begins to tear. I wrapped it around the saya and secured it tightly with a chip clip:

I sprayed opaque white over the whole saya, using the baby wipe as a stencil:

I pulled off the baby wipe. There's always strands left adhering to the paint; I lifted those off by carefully dabbing with a length of masking tape.

I love how this looks, but it doesn't look like realistic marble. I muted everything with another pass of white. If you look carefully, you can see the muted gold vein running down the center, too:

In order to paint the navy blue trim, I needed to mask off the marble sections. I set paper over the main panels and did a pencil rubbing to mark out the striping-tape border:

I cut that out and taped it to the striping-tape border with masking tape. I masked off the upper band and kurigata as well.

I sprayed the saya deep navy blue...

...and pulled all the tape. You can see where the tape lifted some of the paint, mostly from the gold trim:

I masked off the gold trim sections where the paint had lifted and repainted (I forgot to document this part). Then I used an Xacto knife to scrape off overspray and neaten up lines. (I've since learned that mixing some Createx 4050 UV Gloss Glear with Createx metallics helps adhesion a lot. Lesson learned; these repairs are a pain.)

Nice & neat now:

I sanded very lightly with 1000 & 2500 grit. A stronger grit would've evened out the paint more efficiently, but the little ridge lines left from striping tend to flake off and mess up the paint job, so I played it very safe. (I actually planed down those lines with an angled razor blade and was relieved that it worked pretty well. Still, I held my breath a lot.)

I clear-coated everything with three coats of automotive 2K clear. This stuff is super toxic, and you have to wear a full breather mask and gloves. I use a foldable paint booth that I made with foam core & Gorilla Tape, velcro'd LED light strips, and attached a 6" duct fan to ventilate out my window (I don't have a garage). I've often wondered if people see it and think I have a little meth lab.

I reattached the shitodome with E6000. I like it because it's clear and it stays a bit elastic, so you can remove things without the damage that superglue can cause.

I covered with a cloth and clamped overnight:

Everything reassembled very nicely! No matter how much I plan this, I never really know if it's all gonna come together -- literally and artistically -- until this moment. I was delighted that the tanto looked even better than I'd thought it would.

A friend of mine said it looked like something you'd see on a diplomat's desk, so that's how it got its name.

I try to do something new to me with every one of these projects. It means I'm always working at the edge of failure (and sometimes going well past it!), but I think the reward is greater for the risk, and the failures are always educational. This may be my favorite so far, though I admit I'm always gonna have a soft spot for my River Koi Tanto.

My friend Gigi has become a pretty good product photographer, and she offered to take the final showcase shots. Hellyeh! Here they are. Thanks, Gigi! And thank you for coming along on this little journey with me!