Hand made sayas (Lots of pictures)

I just started making sayas as a hobby at home when im not busy cooking at work. I live in Napa and work at a Michelin starred restaurant. We constantly get wooden boxes holding fine bottles of wine, spirits etc... and that was the inspiration to make my first saya for my sujihiki. I made a second one for my sous chef out of poplar that I purchased, and I have plans on making more for my co workers. This has been very fun, so I thought I would share here. Thanks

Great work Frank!

Oh Yeah, and welcome to KKF!

Cool stuff. Thanks for sharing, and welcome!

Very cool, tank!

Awesome.

Welcome!

Pretty impressive intro, Frank! Welcome aboard.

I LOVE it Frank - this is great stuff! :doublethumbsup:

Nice shaping on that second saya. Did you do that with a plane?

Be well,
Mikey

Impressive... i am on the 5th piece and its not so nice.

The mistakes I did were.. ( so that yu dont hv to go thru it )

a) after clamping it on the sides .. it became too tight and on 2 pieces it wld not go all the way in. I learnt form Keris makers that they use rubber bands and pour in clear liquid glue, fast drying to fill up between the contact points.

b) Primarily using a hand held router to hollow it out and still need to work on the opening of the saya so that it is V shaped and friction fit. Chisel is used to refine the edges of the insides of saya ,Technique is still WIP.

c) I am motivated to try another piece this week-end.

Thanks...

rgds D

Funny, I have a Booker's box here that someone wanted to take to make a knife block out of. Yours is a much better idea.

Nice work Frank, what restaurant do you work at?

Welcome!
Is that your first saya ?
great job!
I've been wanting to get into saya making but at the moment it seems rather daunting

Welcome to KKF, Nice looking sayas!

Very cool idea!

Hey everyone. Glad you all liked them! The whiskey box was my first attempt at saya making and wood working in general. It took me about a week because I did it in my spare time and everything was made by hand, except for the hole for the pin; I used a drill, and because I made the hole too big, I had to whittle my own pins. I used 3 chisels (needed to be sharpened right away) a cheap micro plane, a coping saw, and some gorilla glue all from home depot. Oh and a lot of sand paper that my girlfriend luckily had laying in storage. I have plans to make a new saya for my other sous chef's mioroshi deba, because he is having trouble finding shops nearby that carry that size. This one will probably take me a while to do, because of the thickness of the knife.

If anyone is interested in trying, I found a .25in by 2.5in poplar hobby wood at home depot and lowes is a great platform to make sayas with. Only a few bux for a couple feet, and not too much cutting is needed.

heres the mioroshi

Awesome work frank, welcome to KKF:thumbsup:

Off the hook, Frank. Awesome idea! Welcome aboard.

Very nice... esp. given the low amount of tools used to create them. I'm at my second saya right now and despite using balsa (homecook, so the saya only keeps the blade save for drawer storage) mine doesn't even come close to yours.

They look great, thank you for sharing the pics

that's a great idea with the wine/ spirit boxes. nice work!

Finally finished my sous chef's saya for his mioroshi deba! This thing is a beast! so happy with how it turned out! Time for a bourbon!

Way nice!

that is a beast of a saya, what kind of wood is that?

Thanks guys! The wood I used was poplar. All hand made with chisels, block plane, coping saw and sandpaper. Even whittled the pin out of a dowel. Just a drill was used for pin hole.

Very nice

Love the idea of sayas out of wine boxes, or whiskey, or whatever!