Japanese sword (noobish attempt)

[ZYX]

This is my first attempt at doing a Japanese sword. I do not consider this model finished. The dark brow material es going to be replaced by something else and the blade still needs some work, but it's decent at this point so I thought it would be good to post it and i'll post progress later.
The model and textures are done in blander 2.61 and photoshop.

[A-man]

Thats really good modelling/materials!

[SATtva]

Agreed. Needs more details and some attention to the blade material, it's not convincing at the moment.

[ZYX]

Thanks, I know the blade needs more work. I still can't find a good steel material and I think I will replace the blade.

[ZYX]

by the way, does anyone know a good steel material (or nk file) I can use?

[Rhys]

I think for now a simple smooth mirror type material (with a not quite perfect shine), as well as the lighter area along the blade.
The material you have now looks reasonable but I would take off the noise/speckle effect, it makes it look like low quality casted metal, which these swords are of-course generally not.
If you wish to have some impurities on the metal I would suggest perfecting the model first, then you can detail those impurities with regard to the shape of the contours etc. Checking many references as to what/where these impurities may be, looking at any dints/scratches/oil from humans/structure of the metal/etc and how they effect the look.

About the light material along the blade, this is the hamon (or tempering pattern). This occurs because of a special clay that is painted along the blade but either lightly or not at all on the cutting edge. This causes the area covered in clay to cool slower thus the metal being softer and more flexible once cool. On the edge of the blade which is uncovered, it will cool quicker, causing it to be harder but more brittle.
So this pattern loosely follows the shape in which the clay was applied and does not have a perfect transition.

Here's a link to some patterns and nice pictures of the metal.
http://budostuff.com/swords/hamon.htm If you open the images in a new tab some have larger available.

Mostly now I think it's about the model of the blade. It appears to have no weight, this because of the lack of detail on it and (what appears to be) 100% sharp transitions - it needs some micro bevelling type thing going on, even the blade edge will not be perfectly sharp. Certainly it needs something where it joins to the handle.

[ZYX]

Thanks. I've seen the link and did a new blade model. I changed the pattern, but the blade is still too 'perfect' (the edges are too sharp) and I haven't done the piece that joins the blade and the handle.

[ZYX]

Ok, changed the blade and the handle one more time

[Rhys]

Coming along nicely! keep up