Jeff fromNYC

Jon I would be happy to write something although I don't presume to have any particular expertise. I could certainly give some tips on what not to do! Let me know if you have any specific questions.

Thanks to all forum contributors whose advice and instruction were invaluable.

The hard part was spacing the design in a way that the sageo doesn't cover up the diamonds. Also it was tricky because its a curved surface, but I am fairly handy with an airbrush and Tamiya masking tape cuts an incredibly clean edge. I wanted to do something special out of respect for the amount of time and effort it took to forge and polish the sword.

Thank you Sunny I was going for simple yet interesting. Chose the diamond pattern because it echoes the tsuka ito and it apparently was a Japanese family crest.

It would be an honor.

And 3 medium coats of SprayMax 2k clear

Yes George - carved it and painted it. Shout out to Custom Shop airbrush paints!

Thank you Grey. Trying to get it perfect!

Should the saya circumference match the seppa or should it be smaller to match the fuchi or somewhere in between?

Mekugi and tsuba update

Ian - had exactly the same experience until I got out the calculator and stuck to the lines I drew..

Mark - I didn't use a stand, but I did have the sword in the tsuka mostly. I didn't make the ito as tight as I could because I wanted to have the correct (odd) number of wraps. Specifically I had 192mms and 25 wraps, and making it as tight as possible landed me on 24.

Here are photos of the fuchi & kashira showing that the ito will sit pretty flush with the edge. The tsuka is slightly fat but I think it will be OK