Water bottle recycling

Actually, more reusing than recycling.  But I digress.  In the first sentence yet, it's a new record.  Anyway, after last weekend's float trip, I was left with many empty, dirty, abused, plastic water bottles.   Coincidentally, I'm also blessed with an overabundance of old plywood, 2x4s, and random pieces of scrap lumber.  Hmmm.
The guys on Sword Buyer's Guide seem to have great fun placing water filled plastic bottles on wooden stands and cleaving them in twain.  I have a sword. ;-) 

Here's the first prototype stand.  Mini Tornado was over and the "fun thing to do in the shop" Saturday was paint the boards which would serve as tops for the stands.  That's why they're red.  If it makes my daughter want to hang out with me in the shop, I'll paint pink smiley faces on them.  Dads understand.

There's the five I decided were adequate.  Notice the stunning paint job on the shelf of each stand.  And, (I just noticed while proofing,) a pretty nice shot of my work bench, work area, and lawn mower.

The sword.  It's a Badger Blades carbon steel katana purchased circa 1994.  Blade 28 1/2", handle 10", 3" octagonal tsuba, handle wrapped with some kind of cord that's glued down or something.  It hasn't moved in 15+ years, very well done.  The pommel is hexagonal and suitable for striking, if necessary.  Probably about three pounds, but I don't have a scale.  Very stiff, extraordinarily strong, blade.  Balance about 4" in front of tsuba.  I like the balance, feels nice, but that may just be a personal preference due to lack of experience with other swords.

This was a 1/2 gallon and a gallon milk jug.  Sliced through cleanly and left the bottoms right there where they started.  The top pic is how it landed.  The bottom I just moved the gallon top half.

This was a bottle on the tall stand.  This would have been a decapitation shot on someone 6'7" to 6'9".  Not trying to start anything with tall people, just making sure I'm ready in case I'm attacked by...I don't know, an ogre or something.  Those were my best slices, btw.

So, my thoughts:
1) It was fun building the stands and slicing some bottles up.  It's always great when I find a project to use some of my scrap wood.  I had a lot of fun stretched over two days.
2) As expected (feared) this is not really a slicing blade.  Badger blades are built for strength, not speed.  Most slices went through, but not necessarily as cleanly as I would have liked.  It was probably a combo of me swinging, my sharpening job, and the sword's capabilities.  I'm sure I was most of the problem. 
3) In previous testing, this sword proved excellent in clearing saplings and brush along the drainage ditch out back. 
4) In short, it's a better hacker than slicer, and
5) I'll behead the holy hell out of an ogre if I ever see one.
MHI 1895

Good shooting,
RT