Making your own bokken - Custom design of a bokken

May 11, 2009

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In the second part of the series he shows us how to make a design for a Bokken.

In designing a Bokken, we are looking at three points:

  • Point 1 - the link of the handle
  • Point 2 - the link of the blade
  • Point 3 - the curve, how much curve we want

The first step in weapon design is the blade length. Rich uses his ruler to get the length of the blade by relaxing his arms on his side and setting the ruler about 1 inch above the ground while swaying it.

The next step is the handle length. There are two methods in getting the length of the handle: The first method is the three-hand method wherein you measure the handle by overlapping your hands from the edge three times. The other method is the position method. In the position method you place a close fist on your belly button and place the end of the weapon and keep that distance, with the other hand pointing straight about chin high and then rock your hand up and then swing your arm from your shoulder and grab the weapon - that is the size of your handle.

The curve, really serve no purpose or function.

The final part in designing your weapon is getting the right height and width and to get this we use the rule of thumb. You press your thumb at the end of the wood and it has the same size as the wood. The perfect size should be, your right fingers should be touching the hand and should be covering that part of the Bokken, If your fingers are overlapping your hand then it is small and if it shows a space between your hand and the fingers then it is big. On your left hand the grip is basically the same except for the little finger gets a little more grab. The left hand is for holding and the right hand is for guiding the Bokken.

2 Responses to “Making your own bokken - Custom design of a bokken”

  1. Daniel Says:
    October 30th, 2009 at 1:14 am

    I have my speakers AND computer volume at the highest settings and still have extreme difficulty hearing what he is saying. Whoever did the video editing, did a terrible job.

  2. john Says:
    January 24th, 2010 at 11:24 pm

    since the curve doesnt matter can the bokken be straight??

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