Kaze problem solved
Sept 11, 2009 17:33:05 GMT
Post by Deleted on Sept 11, 2009 17:33:05 GMT
I've heard some complain, or at least note, that the Kaze, while being a great and well loved blade, is tip heavy. I am certainly one of those. While a fantastic cutter with plenty of authority in the blade, it just wasn't 'right' and I pretty much despised the balance on it with all that 'felt' tip out there. I also did not particularly love the thinness of the tsuka.
So I decided to do something about it. With all the various people out there willing to offer guidance in the form of comments and turorials I thought I'd try my hand at fashioning my own, longer tsuka, hoping to improve the balance at most and at the least get a more pleasant grip shape.
So off I went to Home Depot and purchased a 3' length of select poplar. My father provided me with a 1/4" thick piece of glass from where ever it is that fathers squirrel things like that away for future use and I strapped a piece of 800 grit sandpaper to it and proceeded to make my poplar blank perfectly flat so that the pieces would mate up without gaps. I cut it in half and after ensuring that it was in fact 'flat', I traced the nakago onto one half and cut a channel with my router (very carefully). It took a lot more work with a file to get a proper fit. A lot more than I had envisioned, but it was worth it. Once I got it fit to my liking, roughly 2 1/2 to 3 hrs I used the saya to trace the pattern I wanted the tsuka to take, hoping to match it so there would be a nice symetrical curve. That didn't quite work out but I know where it went wrong and will try to do better on the next one.
Once that was done I drilled the mekugi ana in my channeled piece, clamped the two halves together and drilled the other mekugi ana. This way I would have a way to line the two halves up. Then I mixed up some epoxy with a bit of saw dust, covered the nakago in a single layer of saran wrap, applied the epoxy mixture to the flat tsuka half and clamped it all together, lining things up with two drill bits of the correct size through the mekugi ana. Before it dried very much I removed the bits and cleaned out the holes so I would not have to redrill to clear dry epoxy from the nakago mekugi ana.
So after allowing it all to dry completely, I separated and checked my fit. It was all very good with very little file work needed to get it right. All that was left now was to glue the two halves together with some Elmer's wood glue and start filing to shape.
This is where I screwed up. In trying to get the curved shape I filed in the middle of the mune side of the tsuka and at the fore and aft of the ha side. It did give me the shape I wanted but it did not flow correctly into the curvature of the saya as I'd hoped. Lesson learned.
Overall, I'm fairly happy with the end result of a first attempt. The grip is great as far as size and shape. And it DID improve the balance. It is still a weighty blade but that 'tippy' sensation is GONE.
The original tsuka was 10 3/4" and the new one is 13" even.
Improved grip and shape. Improved balance.
Thanks goes out to all of you who have put up tutorials or posted comments to help people like me. Maybe could have figured it out but it was a lot easier with your guidance. A lot!
Thanks.
Troy/Shoboshi
So I decided to do something about it. With all the various people out there willing to offer guidance in the form of comments and turorials I thought I'd try my hand at fashioning my own, longer tsuka, hoping to improve the balance at most and at the least get a more pleasant grip shape.
So off I went to Home Depot and purchased a 3' length of select poplar. My father provided me with a 1/4" thick piece of glass from where ever it is that fathers squirrel things like that away for future use and I strapped a piece of 800 grit sandpaper to it and proceeded to make my poplar blank perfectly flat so that the pieces would mate up without gaps. I cut it in half and after ensuring that it was in fact 'flat', I traced the nakago onto one half and cut a channel with my router (very carefully). It took a lot more work with a file to get a proper fit. A lot more than I had envisioned, but it was worth it. Once I got it fit to my liking, roughly 2 1/2 to 3 hrs I used the saya to trace the pattern I wanted the tsuka to take, hoping to match it so there would be a nice symetrical curve. That didn't quite work out but I know where it went wrong and will try to do better on the next one.
Once that was done I drilled the mekugi ana in my channeled piece, clamped the two halves together and drilled the other mekugi ana. This way I would have a way to line the two halves up. Then I mixed up some epoxy with a bit of saw dust, covered the nakago in a single layer of saran wrap, applied the epoxy mixture to the flat tsuka half and clamped it all together, lining things up with two drill bits of the correct size through the mekugi ana. Before it dried very much I removed the bits and cleaned out the holes so I would not have to redrill to clear dry epoxy from the nakago mekugi ana.
So after allowing it all to dry completely, I separated and checked my fit. It was all very good with very little file work needed to get it right. All that was left now was to glue the two halves together with some Elmer's wood glue and start filing to shape.
This is where I screwed up. In trying to get the curved shape I filed in the middle of the mune side of the tsuka and at the fore and aft of the ha side. It did give me the shape I wanted but it did not flow correctly into the curvature of the saya as I'd hoped. Lesson learned.
Overall, I'm fairly happy with the end result of a first attempt. The grip is great as far as size and shape. And it DID improve the balance. It is still a weighty blade but that 'tippy' sensation is GONE.
The original tsuka was 10 3/4" and the new one is 13" even.
Improved grip and shape. Improved balance.
Thanks goes out to all of you who have put up tutorials or posted comments to help people like me. Maybe could have figured it out but it was a lot easier with your guidance. A lot!
Thanks.
Troy/Shoboshi