Saya question

Brock Cutlery

Brock Cutlery

Joined
Jan 10, 2015
Messages
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I'm going to be working up a saya for my latest gyuto and have an idea I want to float to see if anyone has tried it, or has an opinion about it.

I really don't care for saya pins. I don't like the idea of a knob sticking out the side. It just seems in the way, and could get lost.

What I am thinking is embedding a magnet inside the saya, something like they do with the knife racks these days.
Anyone?
 
should work. i had thought of it but there are a few things I thought of.
1. If it's in the saya, and a piece of stray steel gets to it, it will scratch your blade.
2. must be embedded, or it will scratch your knife. We had a saya 2 KITHs ago that had a magnet to retain the blade at the mouth of the saya. It scratched the blade.
3. even if it's embedded, I would fear that since it attracts the blade, as soon as you insert the blade it will be riding the magnet side all the way in and out of the saya, did I mention my concerns about scratches??....

I had thought that one way to avoid all of the above would be to embed the magnet at the tip of the saya. choose the distance from the tip/ strength of magnet so it is just enough to keep the knife secure. This might avoid all the issue I mentioned.
 
Kevin McGovern said:
should work. i had thought of it but there are a few things I thought of.
1. If it's in the saya, and a piece of stray steel gets to it, it will scratch your blade.
2. must be embedded, or it will scratch your knife. We had a saya 2 KITHs ago that had a magnet to retain the blade at the mouth of the saya. It scratched the blade.
3. even if it's embedded, I would fear that since it attracts the blade, as soon as you insert the blade it will be riding the magnet side all the way in and out of the saya, did I mention my concerns about scratches??....

I had thought that one way to avoid all of the above would be to embed the magnet at the tip of the saya. choose the distance from the tip/ strength of magnet so it is just enough to keep the knife secure. This might avoid all the issue I mentioned.
Click to expand...

Thanks Kevin, I think your points are good advice.
I'm toying with a few ideas, but might incorporate the magnets and see how it goes.
 
I'd also be curious, it seems that making saya's is a bit of a secretive thing, I have made a few that I purposely made tight enough that they didn't need a pin, I dislike them as well, I am currently toying around with the idea of a metal pin with a retaining ring cut into the pin, to hold the blade as well as a friction fit, but I still dislike the pins in general, I am leaning toward the making of all of mine with enough of a taper that the blade is a press fit into them--the two I've done like that have not had issues scratching the blade--yet at least.
 
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