Katana Blades Cover 2

The saya, the sheath a katana lives in, carries half the drama of the sword, and this is a covering piece drawn for that job on a printed prop build. It follows the long, narrow, gently curved line of a blade and keeps the plain, quiet surface that traditional scabbards use to throw the fittings into relief. Prop builders making a samurai or anime costume usually want the sheathed silhouette as much as the drawn blade. It is what hangs at the belt through most of a convention day, and it is what the sword goes back into when the costume comes off and the piece returns to its bracket at home. Treat it as costume and display kit, finished with filler, primer and paint, and it holds up convincingly in photographs.