+1 Good one Dickie, i won't build anything like that any soon, but this may become handy for the future, nice tutorial. skyline5gtr: I once saw a guy at zbrushcentral that did a tutorial on this very part of a katana with highend results(it was a fancy sword in that case), i can't remember who it was. Maybe have a go and…
To capitalize on what Neox said, I really don't think you've tried and failed enough. That's really the best way to learn anything. Anyway, a 2 second google search gave me this http://cgi.tutsplus.com/tutorials/model-texture-and-render-the-legendary-katana-in-maya-part-1--cg-2631 Which is literally what you're…