Modifying low-end katana has been a great, low-risk way to learn. I’ve made a lot of mistakes (still do!), but they weren’t $10,000 mistakes that ruined a work of art or piece of history, and they let me learn the hard way without causing much damage.

This was one of the first customizations I did, in 2021. I’ve always thought the elegant shape of a katana suggested Art Nouveau’s trademark curvilinears (unsurprising, since Art Nouveau was heavily influenced by traditional Japanese design), and thought it would be fun to make an Art Nouveau-themed iaito.

It’s a $70 ebay sword. I sanded the saya (scabbard) down to bare wood and primered it gray with two coats of Rustoleum 2x. The black was Design Master ubermatte Ink Tinta. I hadn’t got an airbrush yet; it was rattle-cans all the way.

I can’t draw worth a damn, so I found a Nouveau border I liked, elongated it quite a lot in PaintShop Pro, and printed it onto adhesive vinyl. I cut out the design with an X-acto knife (I hadn’t gotten a Cricut printer yet), and applied it to the black-painted saya. This may have been my introduction to the unique pain in the ass that is the saya shape, when it comes to attempting symmetrical design, straight lines, and applying adhesive stencils.

I wanted a curvilenear shape on the ends of the saya. I realized that the shape I wanted was basically a bell curve, if you unrolled and flattened it. I’m a bit embarrassed to admit that the graphic I found that best fit this was the CDC bell-curve graphic that was everywhere at the beginning of the pandemic when we were supposed to be flattening the curve. I printed it onto adhesive vinyl, cut out the shape, and applied it to the saya.

I wanted a slightly worn, antiqued look, so I brushed Rub ‘n Buff Antique Gold into the end-cap stencils, the fittings, and the tsuba.

I polished the 1040 steel blade with Peek metal polish. Back then I was afraid to disassemble anything, so I did all the painting & polishing by masking off areas. Nowadays I know better.

I lacquered the ito (handle wrap) with two coats of Minwax gloss polyurethane, clearcoated the saya with matte spray polyurethane, and was pretty much done.

Over time I discovered that the Rub ‘n Buff wears away pretty quickly with handling, and I subsequently sanded everything down again and repainted, this time using Liquid Leaf Classic Gold. Once I became more comfortable with an airbrush, I did it all one more time. I’ll post that version later. I love it.

As I said, this was an early effort, and I learned a lot. It’s been my go-to training iaito for a few years, and I’m very fond of the little guy.