shinji Hirako
Shinji Hirako is the Defacto leader of the Visords. I was Commissioned by Tom Atkins to make his SHIKAI (Sakanade). Looking online for reference imagery, I found that at the time, only one other person had made the Sword.
Analysing the Photos and reference material I devleoped a full scale plan, which was approved by the client along with the Tsuba design.
I started by selecting appropriate material, sections of Pine for the blade and handle of 39mm x 9mm, I asked a friend of mine who owns a workshop if he could plane to Handle sections to a thickness of 5mm.
The Tsuba, due to its Detail was planned on AutoCAD and printed into a template and traced and cut out of Sintra with 2 relief layers and a center whole section.
The Pommel/Hoop was cut out of a section of 2cm thick Pine Board.
The handle was a lamination of 3 sections od 4cm wide, being 5mm, 9mm, and 5mm. The 9mm thick section extendend all the way up to the end of the blade. The Lamination could not be viewed due to the Pommel section as well as the Handle wrap.
All section was sanded smooth and painted with an undercoat of White aerosol paint.
I prefer Aerosol as it is easy to apply and provides a uniform finish.
I sanded smooth the undercoat and applied finish paint to the appropriate sections.
Gold, to the Tsuba and Habaki. Grey, for the Hoop/Pommel. The Handle was given two more coats of white paint.
The handle was wrapped in Dyed Cotton flat rope in the same manner as Aikawa but with less stress, after finishing Aikawa's I noticed that the Cotton had not lost much if any tensile strength.
The blade, due to having the Holes made through it became problematic, to use the ducting tape, as such I simply used silver aerosol paint.
I completed Final Assembly in England after waiting a day for the material to expand relative to the atmospheric conditions.
The Tsuba, due to its Detail was planned on AutoCAD and printed into a template and traced and cut out of Sintra with 2 relief layers and a center whole section.
The Pommel/Hoop was cut out of a section of 2cm thick Pine Board.
The handle was a lamination of 3 sections od 4cm wide, being 5mm, 9mm, and 5mm. The 9mm thick section extendend all the way up to the end of the blade. The Lamination could not be viewed due to the Pommel section as well as the Handle wrap.
All section was sanded smooth and painted with an undercoat of White aerosol paint.
I prefer Aerosol as it is easy to apply and provides a uniform finish.
I sanded smooth the undercoat and applied finish paint to the appropriate sections.
Gold, to the Tsuba and Habaki. Grey, for the Hoop/Pommel. The Handle was given two more coats of white paint.
The handle was wrapped in Dyed Cotton flat rope in the same manner as Aikawa but with less stress, after finishing Aikawa's I noticed that the Cotton had not lost much if any tensile strength.
The blade, due to having the Holes made through it became problematic, to use the ducting tape, as such I simply used silver aerosol paint.
I completed Final Assembly in England after waiting a day for the material to expand relative to the atmospheric conditions.
The client was very please with the prop as no one in the England Bleach Cosplay Group (MCM EXPO BLEACH GROUP OF AWESOME) had this prop. I handed him Muliple buisiness cards and during one day he ran out. He has also taken it upon himself to Tag me on Facebook into the comments on any person who is looking for a sword commisioner.