Wooden Katana( Full Guide)

A wooden katana is a practice sword made of wood, typically designed to resemble a traditional Japanese katana but without a sharp edge. It’s commonly used for martial arts training, cosplay, decorative purposes, or as a safer alternative for practicing sword techniques.

Wooden swords or katanas are often crafted from durable woods like oak, maple, or ash and are shaped and balanced to mimic the weight and feel of a real sword. They can vary in design and quality, from simple and functional to highly detailed and ornamental. There’s a lot of fascination today with the katana and sword, and no wonder.

Swords are fascinating tools, hearkening back to when they were the ultimate weapon a soldier or samurai could own. In many cases, it was only the samurai, the royalty, and their knights who had real swords to use, as making one would take a high price and a considerable amount of time from a skilled smith.

Spears were the weapon of the infantry, as they were considerably easier to carry and, therefore, less expensive to carry, purchase, and fabricate. Commoners used other things as weapons, often tools they used daily.

History About Wooden Katana

Katana has earned a special place in history, partially due to the culture of the samurai, partially due to the artistry and precision that went into the art of making it, and partially due to the technology that went into the blade, something that was not known in other parts of the world.

Making a katana the original way involves the work of as many as 15 specialists, working over a period of six months. Some steps require weeks to complete on one sword, which is worked on daily. Today, a katana made by traditional methods sells for hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The general fascination with the katana readily in sports carries over into woodworking and martial arts sports, and kendo, as there is a wooden version of the katana known as the bokken, used for training in kendo movements, the Japanese art of sword fighting.

This bokken should not be confused with the shinai, a bamboo version of the katana used in skirmish practice sports, other martial arts training sports, and competition sports. While the bokken is made of wood, it can inflict injury, either bruising the person struck with it, cutting them if it is sharpened, or even breaking small bones.

This brings up an interesting possibility with a wooden katana: carrying one as a self-defense weapon. Carrying a katana falls under the same group of state laws regulating the sale and carrying of knives. Due to its length, it’s illegal to sell or carry in most states, although it’s not illegal to own.

However, the samurai bokken, made of wood and not metal, is not legally considered a weapon; therefore, it is legal to carry. While I wouldn’t want to face off against a pistol-wielding hood with a wooden katana or without one, I’d take a katana with one over a switchblade any day. The police and district attorney’s office would likely categorize using a wooden katana or the samurai bokken as using swords or a baseball bat in self-defense.

There are many different types of Japanese samurai swords, although the family and style of samurai swords we know today is based upon the samurai short sword, the katana. Three different samurai swords are in this category, all with the same basic design. The real difference between them is their length.

• Katanas were three to four feet long, with the hilt accounting for roughly one-quarter of the total length. Like the other swords, they had a full tang for strength. The blade must have a curve of more or less one inch. The katana was the main weapon of the samurai and was primarily used as an outdoor weapon.
• Wakizashi is the shorter katana version, measuring 11 to 23 inches long. The samurai always carried both the katana and the wakizashi, with this shorter sword used primarily indoors, where there wasn’t room for the longer katana. 
• Tanto—The tanto differs from the other two categories in that it may have a single or double-edged blade. Other modifications to the basic blade design can exist as well. This is a stabbing weapon, also always carried by the samurai, although it might be concealed where it can be easily reached.

The traditional bokken is made from a wood called hinoki, which only grows in Japan. Common bokken katana replacement woods are basswood, poplar, or alder, although any hardwood will work for making one.

Woods with extremely straight and fine long grains are especially good, providing a stable blade. Other parts of the bokken katana, such as the guard and the handle, can be made of other, more decorative styles of hardwoods.

Making the Katana Blade

Making a wooden katana can be a fun and rewarding woodworking project. Here’s a basic guide to get you started:

Materials Needed:

1. Wooden plank – Choose a sturdy and straight-grained wood like oak, maple, or ash.
2. Saw – A handsaw or a power saw can be used to cut the wood to size.
3. Sandpaper – Different grits are used to smooth the wood and round the edges.
4. Wood glue – This is used to attach pieces if making a two-piece katana.
5. Varnish or wood finish – Optional for protecting and enhancing the appearance

Steps:

1. Design: Decide on the dimensions and design of your wooden katana. You’ll need to determine the blade’s length and width as well as the handle’s length and shape.
2. Cutting the Wood: Use a saw to cut the wooden plank into the shape of the katana. You’ll need to cut one piece for the blade and one for the handle. You must cut the blade and handle separately to make a two-piece katana.
3. Shaping the Blade: Use sandpaper to smooth the edges of the blade and round off any sharp corners. You can also shape the blade to give it a more authentic katana shape, with a curved edge and pointed tip.
4. Shaping the Handle: If you’re making a one-piece katana, you’ll need to shape the handle from the same piece of wood as the blade. Use sandpaper to round off the edges and shape the handle to fit comfortably in your hand. If you’re making a two-piece katana, attach the handle to the blade using wood glue.
5. Finishing: Once you’re happy with the shape of your wooden katana, you can apply a varnish or wood finish to protect the wood and enhance its appearance. Allow the finish to dry completely before handling the katana.
6. Optional: If you want to add additional details, such as a handguard (tsuba) or a wrapping (tsuka ito) for the handle, you can do so using additional materials like metal or cord

Advices Making the Wooden Katana

The difficult part of this project isn’t making the wooden katana blade. It’s finishing out the real Katana sword.

The real sword and blade set should be cut out from one piece of hardwood. Some people make them out of plywood, but no plywood-carved sword set is going to match the quality of hardwood carved one set; the veneers will be visible, and if you discover there are any voids in the core ply, they will have to be filled, which won’t look good.

I recommend starting by laying out the blade directly on the wood. Make some marks to locate the ends and the one-inch curve required to fulfill the design requirements of a wooden katana and the handle, roughly ¼ the overall length.

This is formed by the tempering process in a steel katana, as the back of the steel blade shrinks faster than the edge, but we don’t have that advantage with our wood one. The edge can be done freehand, with a string compass, or with tape.

Ruling tape, the type used for laying out graphics for painting on cars, is excellent for this. There are two types: a flexible one for curves and a straight one for straight lines. Use the kind for straight lines, as it will allow for the little curvature needed for the wooden katana and blade. The blade should be about 1-1/4” to 1-1/12” wide, so make the tang slightly narrower, providing a ledge on either side.

Resaw a piece of 4/4 hardwood to create a board that’s roughly 3/8” thick. Run it through the planer, cutting off just enough to eliminate the blade marks, but don’t thin it out anymore. Then, cut out the blade on a band saw or with a jigsaw, cutting slightly oversize.

Then, move to the sander, smoothing the cut and bringing it to the scribed or taped line.

The next technique and practice step is to narrow out the blade towards the edge. There are several techniques and practice ways of doing this, but perhaps the best technique to practice is to use a table saw, with the saw’s blade set to an angle.

While the wooden katana’s blade is already curved, the table saw can still cut a consistent bevel, as long as the wooden katana blank is pushed through the table saw’s blade with the point being intended to cut always being the point of contact between the workpiece and the saw’s table.

If it doesn’t come out perfect, don’t worry. Imperfections can be resolved in the next practice step.

The remainder of the blade’s shaping takes place with power sanders. Depending on the woodworker’s preference and technique, hands, a belt sander, or a disc sander can be used for shaping, with a random-orbital sander used for smoothing the surface once it has been properly shaped.

It’s up to the woodworker whether or not to thin out the blade tang slightly. This isn’t needed, as the hilt will be able to catch on the corner created by making the sword tang narrower in comparison to the other direction. Since a handle needs to be attached to a real sword, the tang doesn’t need to be thinned out for grip.

Finishing Out the Katana

While the blade is the most important part of a samurai katana, other parts still need to be completed. These consist of a hilt or guard (tsuba), the handle (tsuka), spacers on either side of the hilt (seppa), and a pommel cap (kashira). To keep up with the nature of this project, these will all be made out of wood. For aesthetic purposes, it’s a good idea to use different kinds of wood with contrasting colors for the adjoining pieces, making them stand out.

The hilt of the weapon of a katana can either be round or square with rounded corners. It should be about ½” thick and usually made of contrasting wood on a wooden katana. Many are carved or have designs carved and cut in relief on a scroll saw.

The one real design requirement, though, is that a cutout that exactly fits over the tang of the katana weapon, all the way up to the shoulder at the end of the cutting portion of the weapon blade, be made in the center of the weapon hilt.

Two spacers must be made on either side of the hilt, with the same hole in the center. These should be about ¼” thick, and the spacers’ outside should equal the weapon handle’s outer shape.

To make the handle itself, start with a piece of wood resawn to ½” thick. That provides a handle that’s 1” thick. The handle’s height should be about ¼” more than the width of the whole real sword and blade, and it should set at an overall length of about ½” longer than the real sword and tang.

Before cutting out the handle pieces, hollow out the inset space for the real sword’s tang, making it a tight fit.

There are two different ways of making the handle on a wooden katana, specifically in dealing with the diamond pattern common for the handle of katanas. One is to insert diamond-shaped pieces into the material of the handle.

While this is possible, the people I’ve seen do this have used CNC tools to cut out the diamond inlays and the hole in the handle where the inlays are to be installed. As I don’t have the skills or access to such equipment, I’ve decided using the traditional “Ito” wrap used on real katanas would be easier.

With the groove for the knife handle routed out of the sword handle material, cut out the knife and sword handle halves and check them for fit.

It might also be a good idea to round the knife and sword side edges on a router table to minimize the amount of sanding needed when attached to the knife and sword.

Finally, cut a wood block for the pommel cap, making it slightly oversized. Aesthetically, it will look good if made from the same material as the spacers, contrasting it with the handle.

As with the handle pieces, round over the edges, which will become the outer corner of the handle on a router table.

But be sure not to round over the ends, as they will come into contact with the hilt spacers and the pommel cap. This needs a hole drilled in the middle of one side so that a dowel pin can be glued.

It’s time to glue everything together, using ample glue on all the mating surfaces. Start with one spacer, then add the hilt and then the other spacer. Clamp this all together on the shank of the short sword and allow the glue to dry.

Then, glue the two sides of the short sword handle together and clamp them tight against the second hilt spacer. Finally, drill a hole at the end of the handle for the dowel pin to hold the pommel cap on and glue it, aligning it with the handle and clamping it to the hilt to draw it in tight.

Once the glue is dry, remove all the clamps and check the handle. There will likely be glue that has oozed out in various places, and the parts may not fit perfectly together.

The handle, spacer, and pommel cap will need final sanding to align their exterior surfaces perfectly and smoothly. The hilt and other spacers may need some additional sanding.

Apply whatever finish is desired.

Wrapping the Katana Handle

It might seem intimidating to wrap a real sword around a wooden katana handle for the first time, but the process is fairly simple. The sort of wrap used for this technique is called “Ito” and is traditionally made of silk, but today, in practice, it is most often made out of cotton or sometimes leather. It is readily available online.

Find the middle of the Ito to start to practice the technique. The wrapping technique starts at the sword hilt and the handle, with both hands in the middle of the Ito.

Start by placing both hands in the center of the Ito on the side of the katana opposite the body, with the short sword side sheathed. Ensure both hands are flush against the hilt spacer, and then wrap both ends around to the other side.

The trick to the wrap, which creates the diamond pattern, occurs at this point. Take one of the two ends of the Ito and twist it 360 degrees.

Then, lay it against the katana’s handle and hold it there. Then, do the same with the other end, overlapping the twist over the first.

Wrap the ends around the handle to the other side, and then repeat the process. Continue wrapping in this manner down the full length of the handle until reaching the pommel cap.

Alternate which of the ends is twisted first with each twist. Maintain the Ito as tight as possible throughout the process, ensuring that each wrap is snug against the previous one. the Ito as tight as possible throughout this process, with each wrap snug against the previous one.

Once the pommel cap is reached, it is time to tie off the Ito. This essentially consists of sticking the ends of the Ito under the wrap in a particular manner. It is best to see a video of how this is done rather than try to understand it from my explanation.