# Saya ventures!



## RoanRoks29 (Oct 14, 2012)

I wanted to get some practice in with wood working, so I decided I would try to make a saya. So I started making one for my 8" shun. 





Traced it out , then cut it




Then retraced it to see where I need to carve out to fit the knife!Hours of work later, I lined it with some smooth maroon felt then glued it together sanded it down and cleaned her up a bit .



So after making that one I had some small peices left over and figured my little petty need one too. This time I changed the design a bit an add in two little notches in order to make it easier to pull off. The two sayas with the felt fit like gloves and I orginally planned on putting in pins but they were unnecessary.


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## Taz575 (Oct 14, 2012)

Get some 1/8" thick wood from Rockler or WoodCraft. I find 1/16", 1/8" and 3/16" BassWood (or another soft wood to be easy on the edge) work pretty well as a spacer and the 1/8" thick woods work well on the outside  Soooooo much easier than carving it out! WoodCraft also has a bent chisel for like $15 that I found that will let you chisel something like that out easier than a straight chisel supposedly, but I haven't tried it out.

Also, watch the felt. I have some Dexter blade guards with the felt on the inside. I put some of my cheap carbon Green River kitchen knives into them and they rusted a lot after a few weeks. I had dried them, so I don't know if I missed a spot or if moisture got in there somehow. I only use them on SS knives now, or for transport and then take them out for storage.


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## GlassEye (Oct 14, 2012)

I would worry about the felt holding onto debris and scratching the blade, and also the rust from ambient humidity. Better than my saya, since I have only bothered to cut magazines to size for my blades that need a saya.


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## RoanRoks29 (Oct 15, 2012)

Herd ... I get ya on the felt I wish I thought about it picking up moisture before hand, but as they say hindsight is 20/20 aye hahaha. The wood is basswood and it was pretty easy to carve out. I was thinking about doing the spacer piece but was feeling a little ambitious, plus I want it to fit snug. A friend of mine has a saya with a spacer and it wiggles so much in it. I am gonna make another one now though and leave the felt out.


GlassEye said:


> I would worry about the felt holding onto debris and scratching the blade, and also the rust from ambient humidity. Better than my saya, since I have only bothered to cut magazines to size for my blades that need a saya.


 I used to do something simular I used cereal boxes, duct tape and some plastic bottle pieces to help from the knife cutting through!


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## Taz575 (Oct 15, 2012)

The spacer method is much easier IMHO and I get the basswood in a few different thicknesses. You can always sand down the spacer to make a tighter fit, too. 

I did the cardboard and duct tape sheaths years ago, too!!!


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## Marko Tsourkan (Oct 16, 2012)

It might be a little easier to carve the cavity on one side only, so you don't run a risk of wood shifting during glue up and affecting the fit.

M


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## Don Nguyen (Oct 16, 2012)

Marko Tsourkan said:


> It might be a little easier to carve the cavity on one side only, so you don't run a risk of wood shifting during glue up and affecting the fit.
> 
> M



This is exactly what I was doing. Glad I'm on the right track...


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## RoanRoks29 (Oct 26, 2012)

So I just made a new one with the carving one side technique and I am very pleased with the results and it was soooo much easier!!!


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## Marko Tsourkan (Oct 26, 2012)

RoanRoks29 said:


> So I just made a new one with the carving one side technique and I am very pleased with the results and it was soooo much easier!!!



Yes, it is.


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## Mike9 (Nov 2, 2012)

I learned a good lesson today. I made a saya out of three pieces of Italian bending poplar which is nominal 1/8" for my Honyaki gyuto and the slightly blade is thinner than the middle ply. It worked out quite well with even a little side to side play. Then I figured WTH and made one for my Kiritsuke. What I learned is measure the tang at the ferrule!! While the blade is thin it gets wider at the tang and I had to fiddle with making something with sand paper to widen that part of the saya . . . Doh!!! This is where calipers are handy and barring that one could make a go/no go gauge for a particular knife. Oh well - learn something new every day even if it's the hard way. :lol2:


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## heirkb (Nov 6, 2012)

I think if I was doing a 3-piece sheath for a knife that got really fat at the ferrule, I would actually carve into the 2 side pieces of the sheath a bit near the top of the cavity to allow the last little bit of the emoto/tang to get through. The cavity in the sheath might end up looking a bit weird as a result, but I'd rather do that than have the middle piece of wood be really fat to accomodate the thickness of the emoto/tang. Not sure if that made any sense in writing.


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## Taz575 (Nov 6, 2012)

I agree with you! Much easier to carve out for the fat tang than to try to thin down the spacer at an angle or use a really fat spacer and have all of the play inside.


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## RoanRoks29 (Nov 13, 2012)

Mike9 said:


> I learned a good lesson today. I made a saya out of three pieces of Italian bending poplar which is nominal 1/8" for my Honyaki gyuto and the slightly blade is thinner than the middle ply. It worked out quite well with even a little side to side play. Then I figured WTH and made one for my Kiritsuke. What I learned is measure the tang at the ferrule!! While the blade is thin it gets wider at the tang and I had to fiddle with making something with sand paper to widen that part of the saya . . . Doh!!! This is where calipers are handy and barring that one could make a go/no go gauge for a particular knife. Oh well - learn something new every day even if it's the hard way. :lol2:


hahaha I feel that`s the best way to learn!! I had to break my latest one apart because I was a little to hasty with glue and didn't carve enough out. But noty only did you learn what not to do you figured out how to fix it if it gets done!! that A TWO for ONE deal right there!!


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