Sometimes things go smoothly, sometimes they don't. This work log is about the latter.
First however, lets take a look at the sword before muggle-mits here got hold of it.
(This story ends happily, don't worry. Leave all that to me :) )
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Lovely curves!
And that was how the sword started out.
We're keeping the fittings, the tsuka simply needs to be reshaped and rewrapped. simple, right? Yeah. Not so much.
Firstly, the ito I had for it folds in the centre _very_ easily. I discussed this with the client (herein known as Stefano) as well as asking about the ito with other members of the community, and the general consensus was that it was a bitch to work with.
For this reason, Stefano bought new Ito, hand dyed it and sent it to me. It got lost in the mail. :/ Fortunately it was returned to Stefano and he sent it on to me. I then proceeded to do the wrap after tidying up the tsuka core again. It was about this stage that I realised I'd made a mistake. A bad one.
 |  agh!! menuki!!! |  |
The menuki, FYI were in my tsukamaki bits box where I put them for safe keeping. *facedesk*
But on the plus side, the profile of the sword looks kickass! Totally loving the look of this. Very curvy; and after having a grip on that sword for a while, the balance is undisputedly amazing.
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Unfortunately, I noticed a discrepancy in the thickness of the ito. 2mm doesnt seem like a lot, but it is. I fixed this with differently sized and shaped hishigami though so all is well once more :)
But yes. Those menuki were the biggest pain in the proverbial to fix. It took careful tensioning of the ito, determination, expert subduing of panic. Because obviously, catastrophic failure of the ito because of the tensioning would be.. well. catastrophic, I took around half an hour per side, making sure that everything slotted into place as best it could.
I succeeded but I found another issue that would of occurred anyway, which was because of the ito as well as the width of the tsuka at the end, making the round part of the menuki sit roughly where it should was problematic. smaller diamonds and all that. Right, well after all that, I eventually got it finished; and this is the finished product :)
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Anyway, this is my mistake and it should be a lesson to everyone. Your best work probably wont happen if your mind is elsewhere, even if you think you're on the ball. Be honest with yourself. If you need to wait, then wait. Get it done when you're awesome, not when youre stressed and tired.
Also, pay bloody attention. I am bloody meticulous in my planning of these things and _I_ fucked up something this simple. I expect this is the same with everyone and if we were expecting it, then it wouldnt be an issue, so clearly I wasn't. Check and double check everything.
Fixing mistakes afterwards isn't the perfect solution, the best thing is to not faff it up to begin with but just take a breather, a break and then reassess. Nothing is insurmountable.
Yeah, and hope you had a good laugh at my expense :)
Stay cool peeps and have a bloody awesome day.
S
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