# first saya...for hiro



## andre s (Nov 27, 2013)

Hey all,
With members' insight, i recently bought a Hiro AS for my Father in law's birthday. I think it was the right choice. i'm quite pleased :doublethumbsup:. And, because I hadn't made a handle in a while, i was half hoping that the f&f on it would be poor. Since it was actually pretty good, i decided to make a saya for it instead. He doesn't have adequate knife storage, so I figured it would be a good opportunity to try my hand at it. He's getting it tomorrow. I'm pretty sure wood is padauk (holy splinters:scared4:!...). pin is walnut



























comments / critiques always welcome!


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## Brad Gibson (Nov 27, 2013)

so umm... yeah. that is awesome.


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## marc4pt0 (Nov 27, 2013)

I think it looks great! First one, eh? I like that the pin it's "attached"


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## Nmko (Nov 27, 2013)

marc4pt0 said:


> I like that the pin it's "attached"



+1 great work!


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## ramenlegend (Nov 27, 2013)

what a beaut, the tied on pin is a great idea. Where are the work in progress photos!!?? Seeing this makes me want to blow a ton of money at harbor freight on tools.


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## quantumcloud509 (Nov 27, 2013)

You did a really good job.


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## JHunter (Nov 27, 2013)

looks beauty! love the pin attaching


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## icanhaschzbrgr (Nov 27, 2013)

First class work!


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## knyfeknerd (Nov 28, 2013)

Looks great Andre. You made the pin as well?


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## Benuser (Nov 28, 2013)

Very nice, André


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## ecchef (Nov 28, 2013)

ramenlegend said:


> what a beaut, the tied on pin is a great idea. Where are the work in progress photos!!?? Seeing this makes me want to blow a ton of money at harbor freight on tools.



What he said! +1 Great job. You ought to enter the say challenge.


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## Lefty (Nov 28, 2013)

Dead. Sexy.


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## Dusty (Nov 28, 2013)

Hey! I made my first this week - for a hiro 210 as well. I'll post a pic later. Yours is nicer, mine is just a mock-up with ply-wood to see if I could do it with hand tools. 

That's really nice.


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## NO ChoP! (Nov 28, 2013)

Very nice shape. Looks great!


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## andre s (Nov 28, 2013)

Hey thanks for comments all!



ramenlegend said:


> what a beaut, the tied on pin is a great idea. Where are the work in progress photos!!?? Seeing this makes me want to blow a ton of money at harbor freight on tools.


One would think that, since i had a hard time finding saya WIP's on KKF, i would have enough presence of mind to document the effort...naahh. I decided saturday morning that i should try this and need to be done by sunday night. a bit of a rush job for me. In fact, i had so little presence of mind that i forgot that i actually took a picture. found this on my phone:




I found a dude on youtube who made one for his sword. basically had two pieces, traced the knife profile, scored it with a utility knife and then chiseled until spine and edge were flush to the wood. then glued, sanded etc. the saya works friction-fit. figured i'd add a pin anyway. big fan of belt & suspenders

This next one shows a vestige of the first piece i tried to shape. i guess a hole saw wasn't a great idea...:eyebrow:...imagine flying smithereens.. thankfully, that was my only setback. at least it gave me a scrap piece to make sure i could drill close to the edge without splitting the wood with finishing touches. apologies for not having more WIP's.







knyfeknerd said:


> Looks great Andre. You made the pin as well?


Thanks knerd! i did make the pin. took a 3/8 walnut dowel, put it in my bench vise and went at it with a file. here's a pic of what i did with a nogent sab "tenon" for it's ferrule. used the same crude technique for the pin. then used an itsy bitsy drill bit with my trusty corded drill to thread a shoelace through. again, sorry no real WIP's







ecchef said:


> What he said! +1 Great job. You ought to enter the say challenge.


Thanks. How i read it, it would be difficult for me to enter. The way i made the saya was very dependent on having the actual blade in hand. Even with every dimension, i wouldn't be terribly confident about getting it just right. to play it safe, i'd probably end up making the opening slightly bigger than the blade which wouldn't be great.



Dusty said:


> Hey! I made my first this week - for a hiro 210 as well. I'll post a pic later. Yours is nicer, mine is just a mock-up with ply-wood to see if I could do it with hand tools.
> That's really nice.


That's great! i'm eager to see it. myself, I think i'd have a hard time chiseling the plywood adequately. That being said, with proper sanding regimen, i think this project is totally doable with hand tools.

Except for the microscopic pieces of padauk in my fingers, i had a blast making this!

Thanks again for the comments, all


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## NO ChoP! (Nov 28, 2013)

I've used just about every wood under the sun for sayas now, and padauk is hands down my least favorite. Splinters like crazy. Also, bloodwood is up there because it cracks way too easy. It's a shame as both are very beautiful when finished.


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## Marko Tsourkan (Nov 29, 2013)

Good job!


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## pkjames (Dec 1, 2013)

wow, making the pin just with file is such an effort! i can't even imagine that if i am brave enough to attempt. Great work!


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## kannamaster (Dec 16, 2013)

Nice saya. I'm surprised you had so much trouble with Padauk splinters. Wenge and Zebra wood are worse IMO. What side wall thickness did you end up with?


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## NO ChoP! (Dec 16, 2013)

Hmmm, I find zebrawood to be incredibly strong and easy to work with...


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## andre s (Dec 16, 2013)

I just finished 2 handles with wenge and didn't struggle with it. I would consider it splintery, but not as much as the piece of padauk i personally worked with. Never tried zebrawood. I didn't take measurements on the saya so i don't know what thickness it is. It's now at my in-laws, so i'll try to get that info next time i'm up there. thanks again!
-Andre


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## kannamaster (Dec 17, 2013)

Thanks for the fast reply. I haven't worked with padauk in some time and maybe it was so bad the last time I used it, that I have avoided it for all this time  I recently made a door in Zebra wood and it was a bear - rowed, splintery, smelly, hard and awful dust. My impressions are based on making furniture so they may not translate to making handles. No worries about the thickness measurement. I was really just curious. And once again great job on the saya!


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## NO ChoP! (Dec 19, 2013)

+1 to smelly


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## ontheDL (Dec 27, 2013)

This looks pretty awesome.


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