Katana's are fun. I kind of want to make my own steam punk sword/shield, but diff than the one that was at gate (also i don't know if he built a shield)
I did build a jav from start to finish last night, but i forgot to take pictures., but here's my process
4ft x 3/8" fiber glass rod
1)Penny the tip like an arrow
2)I then cut strips of camp foam and wraped them down the shaft diagonally like when you wrap tape.
3)Then I wrapped the foam down with some duct tape so it didn't untwist.
4)I put a pommel on the end just like with a sword, wrapped w/ foam and 1 foam circle on the end.
5)Then I wrapped it so the head was about a 3" wide circle of foam (2 layers +penny'd tip)
6)Next I put a cap of blue foam on top.
then i cut a 4" cube of couch foam out and cut the corners off of the top and bottom.
7)Next i taped the bast of the foam to the tip, basically spacing my strips so i could see almost no foam at the base and then wraped one strip around to secure it.
8)Still in progress: Put a yellow cover over the tip and tape it down.
9)Still in progress: Tape it over with athletic tape.