D'oh. Do you know about saya relaquering?

[paradoxbox]

Well, I managed to ding my saya pretty good on a piece of hard furniture the other night. Actually the saya still looks fine but I can see a big dent in the laquer where it happened. Has anone here ever relaquered a saya? What did you use?

I'm looking for a relatively inexepensive but good looking process. Doesn't need to be a masterpiece but I'd like a nice shiny saya once I'm done :)

[Erik Tracy]

Cory,
Same thing happened to my saya, except it was dinged at the dojo during a very crowded night on the floor. A big dent in the saya :(

It was a learning experience and a lesson of appreciation for those craftsmen who do this for a living.

You basically are going to have to strip the whole saya down and refinish the whole saya with many layers of lacquer or polyurethane.

I used a medium grit sanding pad to strip off all of the old finish.

My first try was to use a wood filler/putty to build up the 'dented' area, but every time I sanded it down to be even with the rest of the saya, little tiny bits would flake off leaving an uneven edge. I eventually ended up using super glue in layers to build up the depression and sanded it back down smooth. It worked well, but took a couple of days of layering to build it up.

You have to make absolutely sure that the depression, once filled, is sanded to perfection and eveness, otherwise when you spray it you'll easily see the imperfections.

I then used wet/dry sandpaper of 600, 1000, and 2000 grit to even out the surface of the whole saya before shooting it with black lacquer.

The frustrating thing about lacquer spray is that I could not get a completely even and smooth finish down the whole length of the saya. I did find that I could get a really cool 'ishime' look - or rough 'stone' look.

I've heard that using lacquer can cause this uneveness in the way that it has to cure. You may want to try a urethane based spray if you want the shiny smooth glossy look.

I shot about 8 base coats of black lacquer, then another 8 of clear lacquer.

I would shoot a coat, let it set for about 2 hours then shoot another coat, then wait a day to shoot the next pair of coats (that was more out of my daily schedule then anything else).

Overall, I was very pleased with the way it turned out - pretty darn good job for my amateur attempt!

I'm sure those with more experience have better advice to give, though.

fwiw,
Erik

[Moniteur]

If you've got the equipment to do it, a single stage urethane will work wonderfully. check autobody paintshops.

Urethane is an activated paint that cures chemically, and is related to the clear coat/base coat that is used on new cars. the single stage stuff is usually for fleet application, but gloss black is gloss black, is gloss black.


Sand it down, fill it - make a slight mound of wood putty, let it dry well, and file it down level. sand it out smooth, and then prep sand the whole saya 200/400/600 grit.

The urethane paint requires urethane primer, and generally three takes three coats. wet coats, with about 15 minutes of 'flash' time between coats. spray gun should be set according to the can.

wait 2 hours, then sand with wet 400 grit until its perfectly smooth. be careful on the rounded 'corners' of the saya, as they're likely to be where you'll go through the primer, if anywhere.

The urethane paint itself is mixed 4 parts paint to one part activator, and reduced by about 10 to 12 percent with reducer. 3 medium wet coats, 15 min or so of flash time between coats. allow to dry/cure overnight.

The next day, you'll sand the saya with wet 1500 grit paper until it's absolutely level and a uniform matte black (if there are gloss spots left, if means you haven't sanded enough to level the paint). From there you'll need a polishing liquid such as 3M "Perfect-It", which will bring you up to a high gloss finish. Follow that up with Meguiar's Scratch-X, and then a nice coat of carnuba wax, and you'll be in business.

Attached are a couple pics of an iai-saya I made for a friend's hanwei "Musashi" katana 2 summers back.

[Brian Owens]

...My first try was to use a wood filler/putty to build up the 'dented' area, but every time I sanded it down to be even with the rest of the saya, little tiny bits would flake off leaving an uneven edge. I eventually ended up using super glue in layers to build up the depression and sanded it back down smooth. It worked well, but took a couple of days of layering to build it up.
Another method would be to cut out the dented area with a razor knife, so that the area to be repaired has "square" edges. Then fill with putty or even put in a new piece of filler wood glued in.

Having a deep, square area to fill will prevent the flaking, since there is no thin edge to the fill.

[Moniteur]

Another method would be to cut out the dented area with a razor knife, so that the area to be repaired has "square" edges. Then fill with putty or even put in a new piece of filler wood glued in.

Having a deep, square area to fill will prevent the flaking, since there is no thin edge to the fill.


Good point - that would help, as you'd actually have a surface to level to. trying to fill in a ding can be problematic, as there may not be any 'sides' to hold the putty in place.