Hand carving a classical tanto style mounting from reclaimed and local natural materials using traditional Japanese woodworking tools.
A note about the wooden koiguchi: I don’t recommend this method with any wood other than Oceanspray ironwood due to its peculiar strength in cross section…wood (or better, horn) grain should run vertically across the opening to add strength to the koiguchi in the correct areas.
The abrasive plant material used for fine sanding/polishing is dried tokusa (polishing grass), known as horsetail in english…the plant cells contain silica and it can be used dried as is or glued to wooden blocks with sokui.