Mizu's katana/naginata part two - getting the shape right
After 3 months I'm back in my hometown again and I can continue working on katana/naginata.
Firstly I reinforced connecting points with one or two layers of worbla.
Now when "functional core" of staff is ready and good working, all that left is to make it looks like naginata instead of plastic pipe with screws.
I had to decide how long the handle comparing to blade should be
So here are some useful info I collected:
The handle of katana is usually 1/3 of its length
The length of blade itself is called nagasa, and how much shaku (about 30cm) it contains determines the type of blade
Katana has typically 2 shaku, which is 60 cm so whole sword would have 90 cm, and I tried to follow these measurements
(for curious ones wakizashi has 1-2 shaku and tanto has below one shaku)
Good to know, but where exactly blade ends? On habaki or tsuba? I couldn't find this info now to confirm it but I remember I find somewhere that nagasa (blade length) ends where habaki starts, not on tsuba which surprised me a bit (look at photo below if you're not familiar with these strange names)
After taking million of screenshots I sketched how handle of katana should look and what dimensions each element should have. I had to adjust it a little because my blade is narrower than it should be, so habaki is also smaller to make smooth transition between thin blade and thicker tsuka.
This screenshot was the most useful for this part:
To make tsuka I glued pieces of polistyren to pipe and when the glue was dry and secured I carved it with tapestry knife until I reached desired shape.
Also my impatient flow arsty ass had to start learning some tricks during the process
Next step was wrapping tsuka in worbla, to make it stronger and then add leather. Oryginal tsuka of katana are made with ray skin which has very characteristics texture, full of tiny "bumps" that makes these skin really grippy, perfect for sword handle. I could buy real ray skin but I don't have a heart to put that poor ray on plastic, it'd be act of desecration. Luckily I had some fake leather with kind of similar texture.
I glued it on worbla and sew to be more secured.
And when I was done with this part I realized I'm not quite satisfied with my tsuka shape. After adding layer of worbla and skin it's cross-section became too much angular instead of oval. I predicted it'll add some thickenes so I carved tsuka smaller that I wanted it to be but I didn't predicted adding layers could change the shape.
It really bothered me for a while (ahhh my perfectionism) but this time I decided to let it go. Some imperfections aren't worth changing and accepting them are also good lesson 🙃🙃🙃
Well now its time to make tsuba, and all decorated elements so: habaki, fuchi and kashira
Soooo were going back to screenshots again, I tried to capture Mizu's sword from every frame possible, I didn't recreate patterns 1:1 (I was carving worbla with soldering tool, and its tip isn't small enough to make all these fine lines, I had to simplify it a bit) but I tried to recreate its vibe and overall composition, see for yourself
I love how perfectly reverse the colors are at this point xddd
I reinforced the tsuba with worbla, it's the most standing out element to it could be damaged the most
I think it's a good moment to tell you about some interesting fact about Mizu's katana design, and her overall character design
Because as you can see the tsuka (handle) of her sword is just ray skin (samegawa) , traditionally it's also this cord thing wrapped around (tsuka -ito). We can also see the little dents on tsuba after hammering, which gives the effects of unfinished, not perfect and made improper, not following traditional rules.
(the oryginal concept art shows even better the vibe of this katana so I'm also showing it to you ^^)
For me, it fits Mizu so well omg.
But I also see it in her clothing, the way she wore her kimomo is also against traditional rules (it should be tucked in Hakama) which makes our Mizu fashion baddie of Edo I guess xdd
The last part was to get the shape of sticks, pretty simple just long rectangles of Eva foam ^^
And here we are, when we have functional base, now in proper shape, only thing that left is to get out katana some colour ^^ see you in part three
Btw, today I finished my summer semester, I'm extremely happy to be able again to work on my cosp again, I want to start painting katana tomorrow so I wanted to finish this post to do some repetition for myself xdd
