The "Ask Nathan a Question" Thread

AR-Trvlr said:
Or a micarta saya to match the grip material...
Click to expand...
I think the grips will be Tero-tuf, which is actually better for the saya because (I think) it is lighter. But it would be more expensive and tougher to machine, than, say, bamboo. I'm honestly not sure who is making saya for something like this. There are obviously traditional saya makers, but they are few and far between, and I'm not even sure they'd look at doing saya for a nontraditional sword.
 
madcap_magician said:
I think the grips will be Tero-tuf, which is actually better for the saya because (I think) it is lighter. But it would be more expensive and tougher to machine, than, say, bamboo. I'm honestly not sure who is making saya for something like this. There are obviously traditional saya makers, but they are few and far between, and I'm not even sure they'd look at doing saya for a nontraditional sword.
Click to expand...
Anything's possible, if you're willing to pay enough 😉
 
madcap_magician said:
I think the grips will be Tero-tuf, which is actually better for the saya because (I think) it is lighter. But it would be more expensive and tougher to machine, than, say, bamboo. I'm honestly not sure who is making saya for something like this. There are obviously traditional saya makers, but they are few and far between, and I'm not even sure they'd look at doing saya for a nontraditional sword.
Click to expand...
I'm not thinking of something terribly complcated. Three layers of tero-turf. The middle layer is roughly equal to the thickness of the blade. Cut them out like layers for a leather sheath with a welt, and glue them together to create a rectangular saya. Can you use a router to round the edges?
 
AR-Trvlr said:
I'm not thinking of something terribly complcated. Three layers of tero-turf. The middle layer is roughly equal to the thickness of the blade. Cut them out like layers for a leather sheath with a welt, and glue them together to create a rectangular saya. Can you use a router to round the edges?
Click to expand...
This is what I'll do out of wood for mine. I'll probably wrap leather around the wood too.
 
AR-Trvlr said:
I'm not thinking of something terribly complcated. Three layers of tero-turf. The middle layer is roughly equal to the thickness of the blade. Cut them out like layers for a leather sheath with a welt, and glue them together to create a rectangular saya. Can you use a router to round the edges?
Click to expand...
Except you'd want the saya to friction-fit the blade, otherwise it'll not retain at all and just rattle around inside the saya, which means instead of just rectangular Tero-tuf sammich you'd need to contour the interior to match the blade bevel and sori. Plus you'd want it lined with something, because having the edge bashing against Tero-tuf all the time would be hard on the Tero-tuf and hard on the edge.
 
madcap_magician said:
Except you'd want the saya to friction-fit the blade, otherwise it'll not retain at all and just rattle around inside the saya, which means instead of just rectangular Tero-tuf sammich you'd need to contour the interior to match the blade bevel and sori. Plus you'd want it lined with something, because having the edge bashing against Tero-tuf all the time would be hard on the Tero-tuf and hard on the edge.
Click to expand...
Come to think about it Tero tuf saya lined with hinoki sheets for retention and contact may not be a bad idea. I started thinking about making a traditional wooden saya but the idea of not being able to use sand paper had me reconsider. Lining with thin wooden sheets on the other hand may not be that bad, I've tried shimming a nihonto once or twice and so far it has been good
 
Nathan the Machinist said:
Knowing what I know now about sword production, I planned to sell this K20 for what we sold the K18 for in 2019, which was $1,175. That is $1,400 today with inflation. That's based on the actual ~ 20% I'm seeing in my materials and other hard costs not the "consumer price index" you might hear about on NPR. I'm also adding a weighted pommel which was not figured into the original K18 or K20, which adds about $100. This will give you excellent one handed balance and additional power in your cut, it's a no-brainier. This lands me at $1,500 for this upcoming pre-order. I apologize for getting this wrong when I was asked about it earlier, I spoke too soon.

Except for international orders, I'm not going to take full payment in advance like we normally do on our pre-orders. We'll take a 50% deposit to start the project and we will take the other 50% once the blades are successfully through heat treat and it is clear this project can move forward.

If the project is scrapped (and, collaborating with Dan, we have a body of knowledge here, this is a risk) the deposits will be refunded and I will take a bath. Achieving the edge stability of a simple steel in this alloy is very challenging but very desirable for this application but it does not come without some risks. We're going to cross our fingers and hope these don't turn into bacon shaped objects. These are single edged and I'm making the edge pretty thin, which is risky. During that martensite transformation on the spine (which happens after the edge), the spine will grow and pull the center of the blade into tension (the center will see less stretching from the edge conversion and also less growth because it won't see the same quench rate as the edge or spine) which will bend the section forward and put the leading edge of the blade into compression. That leading edge will already have more growth than the rest of the section due to the higher quench rate that the edge will see. Sometimes, if these forces are high enough before the steel is through the tempering process (which relieves growth but occurs after cryo), that compression can result in a wavy edge. Perfect symmetry can reduce this risk and we're banking on our process to deliver this, but there aren't enough single edge Delta 3V swords in existence to know for certain that this is going to work. We know it can work, but we also know it can fail. It's not just the material and processing costs and the almighty pain that it is to process that make these swords expensive.

I can't recall where this question was asked so I'm posting this response in both places.
Click to expand...
$1500 is about $800 less than what you should charge...imo
 
No such thing as a dumb question right?lol...

but Is the weighted pommel an "add on"? Meaning some won't have it and some will? You said the K18's didn't have weighted pommels? or that they weren't added into the cost?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top