Katana Fittings, the Making of a Simple Fuchi
Jun 28, 2021 11:17 · 1265 words · 6 minute read
should really clean up the shop getting caught on everything well today i’m working on some sword parts remaking some katana fittings got the old fittings hermetically sealed in this plastic container so they don’t get dirty or messed up this is the suka took all the wrapping and stuff off just had this real synthetic ray skin got some nice real ray skin to put back on there got the old suva here less cast aluminum didn’t even bother cleaning up the brake out here when they made it replace that got the old fuji here more cast aluminum doesn’t even properly fit let’s see what else we got in here the old kashida fits fairly well but also cast aluminum didn’t clean up the casting marks got the replacement here still needs finish and of course the old ito just i think polyester and some shiny vinyl and there’s some sepa down in there yeah i already got the nutsuba basically made i have a few things left to finish out on it nice rustic finish gonna go with a darker finish on the iron i’ve got a smoother finish for underneath compare that to the old one get it in focus less decorative but you know really nice look i think this one also has a raised rim unlike this one compare the two fushi no the kashira come on come on iron aluminum should be a lot stronger with the new iron and come on come on come on focus the new future part it’s braised together don’t have the hole cut out yet but still working on it i was testing some other parts i had a silver soldered version i wasn’t too happy with the silver solder is not quite as strong as the brazing was for me brazing was a lot stronger so i wanted that it’s going to turn out pretty nice so i’m going to get back to work on this okay so i got my rotary tool all set up hung up on the ladder beside me to get some tight can’t see it it’s over there though but i’m gonna need a carbide burr because i’ve got a good bit of brass probably can’t see it in there but some leftover braising i need to take out there you go switch over to a carbide so i can take off a good bit of material without it taking me forever and this is just a rotary tool on a flex shaft from grizzly it’s been really really nice so far way better than a dremel and no cost a lot less than a fordham i think it was like i don’t know 200 or so something like that fordham’s like 800.
05:36 - but you do need some height you don’t want to bind up the flex shaft a whole lot but just trying to grind off the majority of the stuff without taking up all of it you want to leave some structure bad thing about this thin steel is it gets real hot real easy i’m trying to use this to hold a little better let’s see that’s looking pretty good take it down a little bit more uh a little more tiny tiny bit more okay that’s the majority off that side hot other side has a lot less but might as well clean it up while i’ve got the rough cutting bit in there don’t want to do a lot with the diamond okay that side’s good i’m gonna catch either edge on the other side get that powder out of there all right the way that this flex shaft is bending at the bottom here causing a little bit of heat i’m going to move the motor base to the other side so it won’t bend if i don’t pull it off the table or knock the camera on the ground that’ll be good all right oh yeah that’s much better less of a bend okay okay that’s cleaned up nice let that cool off while we switch bits here clean up i don’t get full of splinters a little metal splinter yeah the only two complaints i have about this flex shaft is one whenever you’re getting up in your grinding sometimes you know hit your hand or your finger on this jacob’s chuck here with the gearing and kind of uncomfortable burning your hand a bit hitting it and then this gets a bit hot but probably because we’re not hanging up the motor like we should supposed to be hanging up above your head you know on your bench but don’t have it hanging yet moving around a bit all right so the idea with this bit they’ll go around the inside and get a nice radius on this brass from brazing that way it has a good bit of contact keep it together but it’s all cleaned up and it’ll sit nice and flush on the handle go ahead and do that i wish i had a little carbide or high speed steel nib for this and one second i’m going to look for one okay found a burr i think it’s high speed steel and it’s smaller than the diamond but no i was thinking about switching to a smaller one anyway should cut a lot faster anyways switch her out all right let’s try this out all right looks like it’s working this is just going to take a little while to clean up so i’ll be back when that’s done okay so i got the inside all cleaned up for the most part in the bead blaster now i’m gonna blast the inside and get it all smoothed out and even so let’s see if i have any more to take off it’s going to be allowed in just a second i’m going to run the vacuum to keep the dust down in there so so so hmm all right it’s looking pretty good you can see most of the it’s mostly smooth in there just got some little extra little bits to clean up back to the bench all right so i went back and used the burr on it again cleaned up any stepping that i saw be blasted some more and i went ahead and etched it to get a closer look at it it looks pretty good all the stepping is gone i’m gonna start to grind the outside a bit this is a 120 grit belt then go nice and slow hey switch your position a bit and see this is fairly thin metal so we’re trying not to sand too much but enough i’m debating on whether or not i want to try out a hammered finish on it i think it might look nice we’ll see all right it looks good on to the next grit and this is a scotch-brite finishing belt it’s a gray which i think is a fine grit i’m not exactly sure i don’t use it a whole lot should give a nice satin finish on this piece looking pretty shiny for a set i went up to 400 grit before this belt i’m probably gonna be blast this part before i patina it oopsie i’m just trying to get a fairly even finish break the edges off a bit yeah this part gets pretty slippery once it’s shined up like this gotta make sure not to drop it in the vacuum tube there all right the next stage you.