This instruct able will teach you how to make a sleek looking katana and stand out of wood. Can be used for play or decoration.

Materials:

Wood 1x1 in. Beam, preferred length

Power saw

Sand paper (necessary) and/or belt sander (unnecessary)

Router (helpful, but unnecessary)

Step 1: Forming the Blade

first, designate where the end of your grip will be, from this area to the farther side of the beam, start sanding. You want to keep sanding down until you have a thickness that is sturdy but thin enough to not appear blocky, a good goal is about two millimeters wide at the top an inch from the grip. Also, remember that this is a katana, so naturally the width would gradually shrink to about a millimeter at most.

Step 2: The Edge of the Blade

This is where a router is helpful, you don't need one, but it will look better. If you have a router, just run it along the bottom of the blade until you have reached a sharpness you would like. If you don't have one, then you can do this same thing with a sander or sand paper, but it will take longer and won't end up as symmetrical.

Step 3: The Tip

to form the tip, sand away the bottom edge, then keep going over this in a curve until you have an ideal curve.

Step 4: Painting

now that the sword is done, it's time to add some color. Pick a color, and go at it. You can choose anything, silver for realism, black is the best slate for a gold or red blade, or if you wanna be exotic and fun, even a neon color would work. Don't worry about getting paint on the grip, it'll be covered up in the next step.

Step 5: Banding the Grip

you have your color, but this step has two huge benefits. 1. Cover up any paint you got on the grip. 2. You will feel so much more like a samurai. This is pretty self explanatory, simply take any scotch tape and slowly spiral it around the hilt, make sure to do it very gradually or it will bunch up and start looking messy. The reason scotch tape is better than electrical tape is its rough exterior, in turn giving you a better grip, and that it's a perfect canvas for almost all paint. If you pain this, use a brush so you don't get anything on the blade. Don't forget to paint the pommel the same color, ( the flat butt of the grip.)

Step 6: Blade Design

This is up to you. Put whatever you think would look best on there, heck you can skip this step entirely of you want to. Suggestions, dragon running down the blade, swirls, or gold Japanese inscription over a black blade.

Step 7: The Stand

the stand is fairly simple, take the other piece of wood and the two six inch pieces. Cut one piece with the power saw so that it's a perfect rest for the blade and the other for the grip. One piece will be fitted to the blade and the other the grip, so find a good length for them to be attached. First, wood glue, and before it's dry, drill it in from the bottom. Now, it should be ready for the sword.