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Wooden Ninjato (Bokken)

Over the Christmas break I had some time to to do a bit of wood working, so I decided to make a katana (I now know it is a ninjato). After a bit of searching around I found a good piece of wood, my Grandpa said it was mahogany. I used a router and a belt sander for the blade, then I took a square piece of wood for the guard, cut it in half, then cut the blade shape out of the two halves. I glued the guard in place then sanded it to shape.

There are some imperfections in the blade that I am unhappy with, and I also don't like the discoloration on the guard, but I felt it was a good job for my first freehand project.

I plan to stain it, and wrap the handle but for now I felt I would just get pictures up.

13 comments

Jul 23, 2011. 1:37 PMzombie1212 says:

that is amazing

May 16, 2011. 4:15 PMMandolorianFan says:

I made a ninjato replika which i tried to use as a bokken which broke it.

May 16, 2011. 9:27 PMFrozenStar (author) says:

Aw that's too bad. Do you know what type of wood you used?

Jun 4, 2011. 6:29 AMMandolorianFan says:

I have absolute no idea what kind it was i just used some wood i found
that was thin.

Apr 19, 2011. 4:30 PMBennyhinn says:

i have a wooden buster sword :D lol wood

Jan 11, 2011. 11:55 PM

ancienthart says:

In Japanese martial arts, this is referred to as a boken.

Jan 12, 2011. 4:37 AMFrozenStar (author) says:

Isn't there two k's in bokken? Anyways, I didn't feel I should call it one because all the bokkens I have seen have rounded leading edges and I gave mine a sharp edge.

Still I will add it to the title because I guess it is still considered one.

Jan 12, 2011. 7:35 PM

ancienthart says:

Whoops. Anycase, for a practice bokken :) a rounded grip is more important. If you're at the other end of one, you're not supposed to let one touch you any way.

Jan 12, 2011. 9:14 PMFrozenStar (author) says:

The grip is rounded but it is a bit too smooth so I need to wrap it.

Jan 12, 2011. 8:48 AMeygen says:

Well yes, but then you might as well get "are" right; there are two k's in 'bokken'.

Nice project by the way.

Jan 12, 2011. 12:27 PMFrozenStar (author) says:

I'm assuming you were referring to the beginning of my comment where "Isn't there" should have been "Aren't there"? I was a bit tired since I just got up.

Thanks.

Jan 12, 2011. 10:01 AMhg341 says:

not a katana...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katana
but still cool
it looks more like a NinjatM
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ninjato
as it has no curve

but i still like it and it looks a lot better then mine...

Jan 12, 2011. 12:30 PMFrozenStar (author) says:

Ah thanks, I didn't think there was a name for a curve-less katana so I assumed they were both katanas.

I'll change the name now.