Okay, I'm pretty certain concealing weapons is the Palming skill, with the specialization of (Legerdemain???) and modified by the size of the weapon (or object for that matter) that is being hidden.

One of my PCs wants to create a psuedo-wooden sword roughly shaped like a Katana, that can be hollowed out and hide his Katana inside. I figured that is feasible, the only question is ... how much bonus should I give him for visual tests to spot the weapon? Obviously MAD will still detect the metal (though it can be explained away as lead filling to increase the weight of the "practice sword") but for the sake of visual tests only?

By the way, does the "bokken" become a club or is still wielded as a blade? My ruling (temporarily) was it was still a blade although I did modify the damage to (STR/2+1)P like a club.

yes, palming+agility vs intuition+perception.

modifiers for what its hiding under (long coat gets bonus), or in (concealed holster, arm slide).

keep in mind theres a LOT of things looking for weapons:
1) the mark 1 eyeball. just a gaurd lookin funny at ya
2) MAD detector. only finds metal, will miss ceramics and plastics.
3) Cyberware scanner. this will find weapons on threshold 1, other gear thresh 2
4) cybersniffer. this thing adds dice to perception for odors, and it can pick up traces of gunpowder or explosives.

The standard palming+agility vs intuition+perception is to hide the whole thing from view. As I understand it, you're less concerned with hiding the entire bokken, but really concerned with hiding it's true nature from a human search. I have no idea, but I'd assign a reasonable threshold, probably based on the craftsmanship of the thing.
As for weilding it as a blade vs a club, it's a judgement call but I'd support your ruling, as it is still balanced, shaped, wielded, etc. as a bladed weapon, just with a blunt damage code. If someone else wanted to use it as a club, I'd probably let them use that, too; they'd just be swinging it more like a baseball bat.

I'm thinking The Man (be he Bouncer, Star, Bodyguard, or Corp Sec) is gonna give your Runner a hard time about it. Even if "The Inspector" can't figure out that it's really a razor sharp tool of death inside the practice sword, he's still carrying what amounts to a 3 foot club.

It's more of a con test to convince them "it's a fake" then it is to conceal it. That's assuming they don't have draconian airport policies.
I guess just give it club damage and sword skill.

I'd say you could use the Blades skill with it at a penalty (-1 or -2, probably), or you could use Club. Designed to be used like a sword or not, there's a big difference between trying to damage someone with a sword and trying to damage someone someone with a blunt object, even if that object is sword-shaped.

I might be mistaken, but isn't most of the damage done by a katana done by slashing(drawing the blade over the skin/armor) and not the smashing like with a broadsword?

If this is the case, the Bokken wouldn't do near as much damage as a club or a katana, using the blades skill...

Japanese armor is designed to deflect, so the ideal katana strike is a quick snap that hits the armor normal to its curvature (straight on), and then snaps back out so as not to get caught on armor, bone, or other viscera.

I'm fine with the Club damage code... you've got yourself a weighted stick, after all. My suggestion was that you use the Club skill, or allow the player to use his Blades skill with a -1 or -2 penalty, since, sword-shaped or not, it's a blunt weapon.

I wouldn't assess a penalty to the Blades skill. It's designed for Blade practice, and while lighter, it is wielded the same way. Also, if the PC is skilled with the katana, he should be very familiar with the bokken.

For the damage, slashing/bashing doesn't really matter here, IMHO. If you use the bokken like a katana, you stand a good chance of tearing/burning the skin as the wooden edge slides across it, and a cutting motion will do impact damage like a club. You don't really wield a sword by trying to pull the edge along a surface, you chop down with it.

I'll bite, what is an Indian burn?

Indian burn is reffered to the redness associated to rubbing your skin near raw.
Other examples: rug burn, carpet burn.

I believe it was a ritual the natives used to test resolve, perhapse even used during interogation using cloth or leather hide and basically chafing or rubbing the skin till it became painfully red.

Honestly, if you're going to be carrying the "bokken" in plain sight and it's hiding a katana within it, I'd call this more of a disguise test rather than a concealment one. Have the owner roll Disguise + Intuition, perhaps with extra dice from an Artisan skill for making the bokken. Then, the threshold for metahumans to notice the katana within the bokken would be equal to the hits on the disguise test.

Poor disguise rolls could be represented by leaving the catch undone so it's clear that the bokken is more of a case, not connecting it well so that some of the blade might glint in the right lighting conditions, or having someone notice that it's too heavy for a normal wooden practice sword. 'Course, as others have said, talking your way out of such a situation is then a Con test.

sounds a bit like a sword cane or umbrella...

Disguise??? Why didn't I think of that? Thanks Dashifen!

"I'm going to the dojo. This is my bokken."
"Sir, we're a manufacturing plant. We don't have a dojo here."
"I, uh, I'm taking a tour first. Of the plant."
"Uh... right. Let me just check when that tour is scheduled for... -Bob, get security up here, we got another shadowrunner wannabe trying to bring a big walking stick into the plant-"

Speaking of concealing weapons and palming... David Copperfield the illusionist was in the news. Here's the story, he and his assistants were being robbed, the robbers took cash and such from his assistants but when it came to his turn. Nada, he did a reverse palming and hid his money, passports, etc... It's rather funny.

Honestly, the boken wouldn't be of any use if it uses a different skill to fight with. It is after all a wooden practice sword, it is swung like a sword, held like a sword and carried (mostly) like a sword. It should use the same skill as a sword, otherwise it defeats the purpose for using it in sword drills and practice.

...

You don't use a bokken because you're trying to have a weapon that you fight with like a blade, but happens to be a club. You use a bokken because training people to swordfight with actual swords tends to get people killed. Their primary reason to exist is to be training implements, not combat gear.

If someone with Clubs 3 wants to grab a bokken and hit someone with the four foot long, slightly curved stick he just picked up, I'd let him use his Clubs skill at it's full rating.

If someone with Blades 3 wants to grab a bokken and hit someone with the four foot long, slightly curved stick he just picked up, I'll let him... but i'd slap on a -2 penalty.

Training with a bokken isn't oriented towards the most effective way to hurt someone with a sword-shaped club, it's oriented towards the most effective way to hurt someone with a blade. One is sharp, the other is not. Opponents fight against blunt weapons completely differently than they fight against swords. If you want to be a totally awesome bokken fighter, take Clubs (Bokken) or, hell, Blades (Bokken), which would cancel the -2 penalty with the +2 specialization bonus. But as much as it's shaped like a sword, it isn't one. It's a club.

Doesn't matter what its legal status is, if security doesn't want you with your club to enter the premises they can escort you outside.

What about going around on the streets? Would it be sufficient cause for Lone Star to just stop you?

A bokken? Depends on the neighborhood. In most places, it's not worth the Star's trouble to pick up some guy not even carrying a real sword. AAA neighborhood? Depends on if you blend in or not. Get yourself some 'burb clothes and an ID that says you're corporate, you've got good odds they'll just wave and drive on by.