It’s what they used, and it’s not really been improved upon. To my mind, the only suitable material for heavy combat armour-unless you’re doing something with scale-is metal. Rather than repeat instructions over and over, I have broken the construction details down by “parts” in this chapter, so regardless of what you are making there is information on the construction details somewhere in this chapter it is just that all the information on making a complete okegawa dō isn’t under that heading you will have to look under kanagu mawari, kusazuri, etc., as well.īefore planning or beginning any project, I strongly recommend you read this whole chapter two or three times to make sure you have and understand all the information you and instructions you will need. With this unconventional and inauthentic-yet visually tolerable-method, you should be able to make an entire dō in one afternoon. In addition, I’m also providing information on making a “quick ’n’ dirty” version of an okegawa dō, one which we made in some numbers in Trimaris due to the ease of construction. With this information, you can make any number of dō variants. I will provide instructions for an okegawa dō, and a yukinoshita dō, as well as basic information for making a hotoke dō.

The first step is, of course, to decide what kind of dō you want to build.

How to make a sashimono