# First Saya



## miketayl0r (Oct 20, 2012)

Poplar wood, hand cut, sanded and fitted. Roughly based off of Eamon Burke's style (thanks for the model)


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## Zwiefel (Oct 20, 2012)

Nice! No pin?


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## miketayl0r (Oct 20, 2012)

Not yet


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## Johnny.B.Good (Oct 20, 2012)

Nicely done.


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## stevenStefano (Oct 20, 2012)

I am thinking of trying this very soon so thanks for this. Did it take long? I think I'll try hollowing mine out though I have no idea how hard/easy it's gonna be


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## heirkb (Oct 20, 2012)

Nice! I just did the same for a Tojiro ITK bread knife. Will post pics soon. Edit: added pics

All I used was a saw, a Japanese saw rasp (Shinto brand), and sandpaper. The Shinto rasp is AMAZING for people without belt sanders. http://www.woodcraft.com/category/2082430/shinto-saw-rasps.aspx


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## heirkb (Oct 20, 2012)

stevenStefano said:


> I am thinking of trying this very soon so thanks for this. Did it take long? I think I'll try hollowing mine out though I have no idea how hard/easy it's gonna be



The hollow cavity method is much harder IMO unless you have some decent chisels. I hollowed out a cavity for a paring knife using a knife and it took way too long compared to the sandwich style. 

This probably took me around an hour of labor not counting all the time that things had to sit, etc. Maybe a little more, but I'm not good at paying attention to time with these types of things.


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## Lefty (Oct 20, 2012)

Looks great, Mike! I recognize that little guy.


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## Don Nguyen (Oct 20, 2012)

heirkb said:


> The hollow cavity method is much harder IMO unless you have some decent chisels. I hollowed out a cavity for a paring knife using a knife and it took way too long compared to the sandwich style.
> 
> This probably took me around an hour of labor not counting all the time that things had to sit, etc. Maybe a little more, but I'm not good at paying attention to time with these types of things.



Also helps to get good, soft wood for carving. I've had some bad luck with some soft woods with random doohickies that made carving very tough - the wood would want to crack and rip out instead of cleanly cutting.


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## sw2geeks (Oct 20, 2012)

Very nice!


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## miketayl0r (Oct 22, 2012)

Lefty said:


> Looks great, Mike! I recognize that little guy.



it's a great little knife. It has really become my go to line knife. I love it, thanks again.


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## Lefty (Oct 22, 2012)

That's great to read! It is an awesome little knife!


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## Taz575 (Oct 24, 2012)

If you guys need pins, look at Guitar Bridge Pins sets. I got 6 of the bridge pins, plus a huge End pin for like $6-$6.50, including Ebony with MOP inset and Rosewood with Abalone inset. The plain ones w/o insets are a little cheaper. Grizzly is where I got mine from and they even have a reamer to ream the holes so they fit the taper. I used a 3/16" drill to drill the hole for the pin, then reamed it.


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## RoanRoks29 (Oct 26, 2012)

looks good!!! great for a first try! I like the friction fit personally it saves me the hassle of trying to find a new pin after I lose the first one and the second one, and after probably choking on the third one (jk) hahaha but I cant imagine hollowing out one that seems really difficult!!


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