Show Off Your Work!

[Arthur G]

Just a show off your work thread. Projects you are working on, etc.

One rule though:

It has to be something you've made from scratch, from the ground up! No re-lacing, "restoration" work, modifying things already made, etc.

I'd like to see some people in the community, regardless of their skill level or whether they're a professional or DIY-er, showing some of their work and what they're up to.

Here's a humble helmet I'm prototyping right now.

 

[Bugyotsuji]

Looking good, Arther. 

 

Thinking about it, everything I have done is restoration, addition or replacement of missing parts. I did make a complete base for a cannon barrel, but not sure if that counts! Hayago powder cartridges from bamboo. Oh, and a one-off project of a 'tachi' style holster for a matchlock long pistol, and a very special karuka ramrod, using ebony and ivory. Anyway, small stuff, nothing like all the projects that you have been attacking.

 

And duh............................... I've just noticed that you posted this in Katchu, so ignore! The only piece of armour I ever made was a leather tissue purse for the front of a dou, ...and my wife made that anyway. 

[Arthur G]

I'd like to see all of those! Those are some eccentric projects, that's right up my alley!

[Bugyotsuji]

Ah, ok, when I get a break I'll post some stuff here in between other people’s stuff. Thanks. 
 

Yours too please! 
 

Cannon before and after shots. Amateur time!!! 
 

 

 

[chris covington]

6 hours ago, Arthur G said:

Just a show off your work thread. Projects you are working on, etc.

One rule though:

It has to be something you've made from scratch, from the ground up! No re-lacing, "restoration" work, modifying things already made, etc.

I'd like to see some people in the community, regardless of their skill level or whether they're a professional or DIY-er, showing some of their work and what they're up to.

Here's a humble helmet I'm prototyping right now.

 

Arthur,

 

A start to another great looking kabuto. Do you think you could show some step-by-step progress shots of this one, as you go?  I love seeing the process, which is why I like seeing your work and your sensei's work. How did you get the lip on that mabizashi so tight? Just looking at that bottom edge gives me anxiety! Having tried my hand at making a few things I know how hard it is to get those tight curves and angles. That is masterful work. 

 

Good plan opening it up to the "hobbyists" since there are only two actual, trained kacchushi here; you and Andy (unless we have a few lurkers).

 

I'll see if I can post a photo of two of my very unprofessional projects.

 

Chris

[chris covington]

So, I am NOT a kacchushi. I was challenged by Arthur a while ago to take up a hammer and try my hand at it though. I don't have a formal teacher; I'm winging it on this project. I'm not sure my wife would appreciate it if I quit my job to become a kacchu deshi...  

 

This is my try at a mogami haramaki dou. I am in the early stages of shaping the plates and making sure it fits. Please forgive the duct tape holding it together. It is a little catawampus on me because the tape watagami aren't exactly the same length, but it gives you an idea of how it fits. The design is modeled off of older armors which is why it doesn't come up as high in the front and back. I can move freely with it and use various weapons with ease.

 

I cannot just copy an existing armor's dimensions because my proportions are very different from a mid-16th century Japanese man (I'm built more like a sumo wrestler). There is a lot of tailoring involved and I'm still not 100% happy with it, but I'm getting there. My next steps will be to make the hinges, kusazuri, and watagami. I will open the holes and then get to the urushi. I will be using real urushi, not car paint or cashew. I work more than 40 hours a week as a law enforcement officer and I have family obligations. I don't get a lot of time to work on this. I am expecting it to take a couple of years, to be realistic.

 

It has been fun so far, and it has really given me a better appreciation of armor and how it is made. Things that I took for granted before, I can appreciate now. 

 

I am open to critique. 

 

Best regards,

Chris

[Shogun8]

That actually looks pretty good, Chris! Except that it doesn't seem to have that really tapered look that early mogami do have. 

[chris covington]

4 minutes ago, Shogun8 said:

That actually looks pretty good, Chris! Except that it doesn't seem to have that really tapered look that early mogami do have. 

Thanks John.

 

Yeah... that taper doesn't work so well when you're built like a short yokozuna!  

 

I've loosely based it off of this armor, which was worn by Shimura Mitsuyasu. He had a similar build to me. 

  

 

A lot of guys who make armor will make exact copies of antique armors for museums and shrines. I have nothing but respect for them. Tailoring an armor to fit someone in the 21st century is a completely different animal. When Arthur was making the hachi on the okitenugui for me, he got tons of head measurements from me. My head is longer and larger than typical 16th century Japanese. Even if this dou doesn't amount to much the exercise of making it has been invaluable. 

[chris covington]

8 hours ago, Bugyotsuji said:

Ah, ok, when I get a break I'll post some stuff here in between other people’s stuff. Thanks. 
 

Yours too please! 
 

Cannon before and after shots. Amateur time!!! 
 

 

 

Not armor, but really cool! Thanks for sharing!

[chris covington]

One more project I'm working on. I am making a very small hotoke dou and kozunari for my daughter (she's 7 now). She is growing faster than I can work, so I might have to start over when I have more dedicated time.  This is the front of the dou, a few kusazuri and the mabizashi for the kabuto. I've made a little progress on the kabuto since this photo. When I get home I'll take a pic of where I'm at with it now. I'm making the kabuto a bit larger so she can grow into it. If my body type is challenging, a small child's is even worse. Her torso is shaped like a shoebox. I don't think my mabizashi is quite to the same level as Arthur's...

 

[Arthur G]

4 hours ago, Shogun8 said:

That actually looks pretty good, Chris! Except that it doesn't seem to have that really tapered look that early mogami do have. 

Oh it does, trust me.

We figured out a lot looking at original examples for Chris' project here. In essence you change the size by changing the degree of taper! A lot of people aren't fully aware of this.

When he took the last batch of photos there the camera was a bit close, which distorts it. There is more taper there than it appears. It's also apparent when laid out flat.

To make one of these in essence the muna-ita and waki-ita are going to be dictated by body measurements; the plates below are going to be adjusted in angle to fit the wearer.

If you set an original flat, you can actually figure out the angle/degree used to adjust it for the wearer. Think of the dou in essence as the outside perimeter of a large circle, with all of the edges of the gomai structure pointing inwards towards a central point. The angle can be found then at this central point measuring off two of the lines.

[Arthur G]

7 hours ago, chris covington said:

Arthur,

 

A start to another great looking kabuto. Do you think you could show some step-by-step progress shots of this one, as you go?  I love seeing the process, which is why I like seeing your work and your sensei's work. How did you get the lip on that mabizashi so tight? Just looking at that bottom edge gives me anxiety! Having tried my hand at making a few things I know how hard it is to get those tight curves and angles. That is masterful work. 

 

Good plan opening it up to the "hobbyists" since there are only two actual, trained kacchushi here; you and Andy (unless we have a few lurkers).

 

I'll see if I can post a photo of two of my very unprofessional projects.

 

Chris

Hahaha too kind as always Chris. And definitely will show step by step. That's actually what I want for this thread! I don't want someone coming in here and posting up something claiming it's theirs without being able to show how they did it from the ground up.

First you start with a pattern. Rarely would I show this much of my patterns with notes to boot, but I went ahead and did it with this one. You can see more photos on my page of course. When I make a pattern they always require tweaking anyways.



Next you start cutting stuff out. Sometimes you have to make some parts first and build patterns off them in the prototyping stage. That top plate for example, the pattern is cut ridicuously long right now. I'll cut it down to match the ring when it's formed.



So once they're rough shaped, you start refining things. You cold harden the plates with thousands of tiny hammer blows on an anvil, trying not to warp the shape too too much as you do it. It's endless tedium and correction. Lots of people seem to just get the plates into rough shape without hammer hardening and leave it at that. Or you'll see plates forced together with rivets or welding, rather than being shaped together and held with minimum tension on the rivets. It's half art, half science.

After this of course was the mabizashi. This thing took the better part of a week. The lines around the eyes are a tiny bit too exaggerated I think, and the overall shape and proportions could use some work, but, that is the purpose of a prototype afterall. 

I just went slow with it and gently. I have a few anvils and a bunch of random hammers. It's a matter of tinkering 'til I figure out how to get a shape. Lots of file cleanup. You can never own enough files... The inside should tell you a lot. One thing is these edges are more like a 45 degree angle than a 90 degree angle, but your brain thinks hard edge when you first look at it. You can see how the angle is somewhat shallow when you look from the inside.



The main thing is to go slow and not over power things. It's a very physical job and requires you to be really aware of subtle things going on with your body, but people rarely realize this. It's more like a martial art than anything I think, as silly as that may sound to some. There are rhythms and techniques you pick up as you go. My tenouchi with the hammer is not that different from what I learned with swords back in the day.

The best way to learn is to look at originals. I keep telling people, stop looking at decorations and surface level things. It's a trap that especially westerners fall into. Look at the base armor itself. Look at the geometry of the plates.

I think every single collector should take up a hammer and try making something, even if the results are bad. It's too easy to think of these armors as random or arbitrary things thoughtlessly put together and just coming from the aether. Every single square inch of these has been worked over by hand and thoughtfully done. None of the designs are random. ALL of it is very, very intentional. Once you understand the thought process, it is easy to see how different groups are related to each other. You'll start seeing the same paper pattern used by two armorers in wildly different places that you never would have thought were connected to one another, but you can't come to any other conclusion as cold hard technical evidence is sitting there right in your lap.

So I encourage everyone to give it a shot. Problem solve it, look at the original piece and try and do what they did. 

Never forget, it's armor. If it can't protect you, what's the point? Lots of fakes are not only non protective, but also poorly fit. This is something you can spot instantly once you've tried making something.
 

[chris covington]

Update on my zunari. The rivets are real rivets, not roof nails, just FYI. 😁

[rematron]

Just want to say this is a great thread and although I don't plan on making armor anytime soon, I do like to make things and like to see other people making things. It's inspiring.  I also appreciate the drawings and showing the works in progress.  Good job, people!

[chris covington]

22 minutes ago, rematron said:

Just want to say this is a great thread and although I don't plan on making armor anytime soon, I do like to make things and like to see other people making things. It's inspiring.  I also appreciate the drawings and showing the works in progress.  Good job, people!

Hi Jeremy,

 

I thought the same thing; yet here I am. Arthur isn’t the only person to suggest taking hammer to steel, to better understand armor. Many top experts from the Showa era suggested it. If you like making things give it a try. 

 

Chris

[Bugyotsuji]

Going slightly off-topic again for a moment, I mentioned a pistol holster above. Since the pistol is a one-off to my knowledge, I needed to work out what kind of a holster it might have once had, back in the day. The pistol itself is historically interesting in its own right, and some years ago I discussed some possibilities here and on another site. Suffice it to say that it was made by the father of Bizen gunsmiths, Yokoyama Tatsuemon Sukenobu. He was an established Bizen swordsmith first, before being ordered by the Daimyo of Okayama to take some disciples and start gun production in Bizen, in light of barbarian ship sightings off Japan's coasts.

 

This gun has a very long barrel (17 3/4", or 45 cm, a kind of Japanese Buntline special???). There is a silver seated hole through the stock just beneath the pan. No-one could tell me what it was for, so I finally decided that maybe it was something to do with the original holster. The gun has a characteristic knobble at the butt end, and most unusually it has a tsuba, a flourish from the swordsmith for a special order?

 

Taking those clues, I started to work on a holster in my mind.

 

One of the oldest types of Japanese swords is called a Kabu-tsuchi no tachi, and the butt reminded me of that. Did Sukenobu want to go back to Japan's roots? What if I could hang this gun at the hip like a tachi? I looked for images of kabutsuchi no tachi, and discovered the saya followed a pattern of three metal fittings, at the koikuchi mouth, in the middle and at the bottom of the sheath. Rather than creating metal plates, a project for another day, I decided to pay lip service to these fittings with paint/lacquer. 

 

I chose some thick leather and hand-stitched it to allow for the barrel and ramrod, up to the tsuba, but left a (rain) flap to come out and over the lockwork and shut with an ivory pin through the silver-rimmed stock hole. Finally I added loops to the saya sheath for it to fit to the koshi-ate on a tachi belt. 

 

Pics will gradually follow of 'Kabutsuchi no Tachi' images, my design drawing, and some shots of the process and the finished product. In an ideal world the whole thing could and probably should be refined, but at least the gun now has a safe and relatively waterproof holster to hang out in.

 

Kabutsuchi seems to be written in different kanji combinations.

蕪槌の太刀（かぶつちのたち） – 宮地嶽神社 (miyajidake.or.jp)

 

Kabutsuchi no Tachi 

 

The Bizen long pistol matchlock

 

 

[Brian]

Don't know about the holster yet Piers, but am droooooling over that pistol!

[Bugyotsuji]

Since as far as I am aware there are no examples of such a holster to work from, this was all a mental exercise using the above necessities and reference points.

 

My drawing and some early work.

 

 

 

[Bugyotsuji]

Still heading in the right (?) direction…

 

 

 

[Bugyotsuji]

And some ‘finished’ shots. (Yes it hangs balanced.)

 

I reckon this was a kenjō gun for the lord, and he would have wanted something unusual, both traditional, and flashy.

 

 

Also, using my own Tachi fitting

[Bugyotsuji]

Thanks, Brian. A collector and well-known member of the NKBKHK armo(u)r society has insisted that I never let it go, except to him. The problem is, he is also a friend, so I am unable to ask from him what I reckon it is probably worth. I feel somehow bound, hand and foot. 

 

Apologies for the interlude, and now, back to our regular programming!

[Brian]

Piers, your problem is easily solved.
Never let it go.
I wouldn't.

[Shogun8]

Wonderful work, Piers!

[chris covington]

12 hours ago, Bugyotsuji said:

And some ‘finished’ shots. (Yes it hangs balanced.)

 

I reckon this was a kenjō gun for the lord, and he would have wanted something unusual, both traditional, and flashy.

 

 

Also, using my own Tachi fitting

This looks really cool! Thank you for sharing your work!

[ROKUJURO]

And now to something completely different.

It is a looooong time ago that I started to work on this one. It will have a SAKURA flower in SUKASHI when it is finished.
With a total length of 230 mm and a max. width of 45 mm, it is thought to be a presentation YANONE. I have read that they were not used on arrows but as gifts among high ranking SAMURAI.

It is made of carbon steel, not just iron.


 

[FrenchBreadPrime]

This is a great thread, it's really cool seeing you guys do all this!

Isn't there something about every man should craft a Kabuto at some point in their life ?

I really like the holster too, it's awesome work, I really like Tanegashima Tanzutsu in general though.

All this makes me want to try my hand at it, I've only been doing digital art with armors.

[Arthur G]

2 hours ago, FrenchBreadPrime said:

This is a great thread, it's really cool seeing you guys do all this!

Isn't there something about every man should craft a Kabuto at some point in their life ?

I really like the holster too, it's awesome work, I really like Tanegashima Tanzutsu in general though.

All this makes me want to try my hand at it, I've only been doing digital art with armors.

If it's your own original work, go ahead and share some of your digital art if you want to!

[FrenchBreadPrime]

10 hours ago, Arthur G said:

If it's your own original work, go ahead and share some of your digital art if you want to!

Alrighty then, here's a work in progress, as of now it's only lineart as I am kind of hell bent on finishing each steps in one sitting when drawing, so I need to find time to do the coloring and shading but I have not been able to this week due to working overtime at my job.

I have been raised with Dragon Ball so my style is quite Manga but I go with realistic shadings, and shading is a part where I really shine, so the final look will be quite different. I like to draw female warriors so I went with an Onna Bugeisha here. The armor itself would likely be a frankenstein set of armor so to say as it's not inspired by a single set but rather by different individual pieces, I don't think it would be too shocking to see a Saika Momonari Kabuto matched with a Go-mai Dou but I can't say that I've seen one before so I took liberties.

I think there are things I could have done better like the haidate, or even the dou overall shape but we learn through failing.

The most tedious part to draw is usually Odoshi-ge, so I'd like to get better at it too. I will erase the Kusari when I'll start the shading and draw them properly without using lines.

As for the colors, I will go for red urushi, I'm unsure at what shading technique I'll need to use to get the feel of it, the last time I did it was too metallic/shiny but I also knew less. Unsure about the Odoshi colors. I might draw waki-date too, but again, unsure yet. 

Momonari Go-Mai Do are my favorite sets overall.

There's a lot of things I could have done better but I improve every time.

[chris covington]

16 hours ago, ROKUJURO said:

And now to something completely different.

It is a looooong time ago that I started to work on this one. It will have a SAKURA flower in SUKASHI when it is finished.
With a total length of 230 mm and a max. width of 45 mm, it is thought to be a presentation YANONE. I have read that they were not used on arrows but as gifts among high ranking SAMURAI.

It is made of carbon steel, not just iron.


 

Great yanone. Keep us up to date with your progress!

[chris covington]

1 hour ago, FrenchBreadPrime said:

Alrighty then, here's a work in progress, as of now it's only lineart as I am kind of hell bent on finishing each steps in one sitting when drawing, so I need to find time to do the coloring and shading but I have not been able to this week due to working overtime at my job.

I have been raised with Dragon Ball so my style is quite Manga but I go with realistic shadings, and shading is a part where I really shine, so the final look will be quite different. I like to draw female warriors so I went with an Onna Bugeisha here. The armor itself would likely be a frankenstein set of armor so to say as it's not inspired by a single set but rather by different individual pieces, I don't think it would be too shocking to see a Saika Momonari Kabuto matched with a Go-mai Dou but I can't say that I've seen one before so I took liberties.

I think there are things I could have done better like the haidate, or even the dou overall shape but we learn through failing.

The most tedious part to draw is usually Odoshi-ge, so I'd like to get better at it too. I will erase the Kusari when I'll start the shading and draw them properly without using lines.

As for the colors, I will go for red urushi, I'm unsure at what shading technique I'll need to use to get the feel of it, the last time I did it was too metallic/shiny but I also knew less. Unsure about the Odoshi colors. I might draw waki-date too, but again, unsure yet. 

Momonari Go-Mai Do are my favorite sets overall.

There's a lot of things I could have done better but I improve every time.

I think it is important to have artists draw people in armor, including manga style. Many old armors are in museums, locked away. It can be hard to imagine how they might have fit when they were worn originally!