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Post by Deleted on Oct 2, 2009 2:50:44 GMT
Hi,
I've tried to carve myself a tsuka, but the wood cracked. So I was wondering, since the woods not cheap over in these parts, should I just buy a cheness tsuka that has already been carved. strip it of al the fittings and fully wrap it with rayskin?
I noticed on peoples photos of the tsuka that it's indented where the ray should go, are the indents to deep? Or should I just even it all out and inlay my full wrap?
It's just I think I remember hearing somewhere about the indents being so deep that it actually causes handle failure. But I don't remember where I heard that, so I'm asking everyone else.
Best, ADam
P.S. I am going to the states in a month, and could just use my dads powertools, I'm guessing thats a better option. As I think the breakage happens because of my handtool skills.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 3, 2009 2:51:17 GMT
My personal opinion is to stick with making your own tsuka. Think you'll be much happier with something you crafted yourself. The channels for the same shouldn't be very deep. Just enuf to give a smooth transistion back to the wood areas. I would go with a full wrap if given the option tho. More strength and you won't have any wood showing through if the ito shifts.
You can try a Cheness tsuka but the problem is that it's not made for your particular blade and may or may not fit properly even if it's a Cheness blade.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 3, 2009 6:52:00 GMT
the tsuka on my chenese tenchi was not channeled. you might want to carve down the tsuka on the ha and mune side, they tend to be a little wide at the fuchi.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 3, 2009 8:49:00 GMT
Try again, Adam! My first tsukas went into the scrap bin. As long as the tsuka has a snug fit, you can make it very thin. Here's a tsuka I've carved which shows the inset panels. The channels are carved so that the samegawa is flush with the wood, or half a mm deeper on the edges. I use it to rest the hishigame on so the edges wont show. This is the omote side, and the panel is laid a mm or two into the first wrap. On the ura side it goes two mm under the fuchi. The fuchi area is kept as solid as possible, as most tsuka failures happen here. The fuchi is so tight it has to be forced on with my palm. When you chisel the channels you can have the samegawa panels wide so wood won't show. Remember to keep the tsuka rather flat on the sides to compensate for the thickness the ito builds on the turnings. Do test wraps all the time to see how it ends up before doing anything final. If the fuchi is high you may have to make the tsuka thinner to compensate for the extra diameter this creates. I then make a transition from the fuchi area to the thinner part. The tsuka core on my white katana became 1,5-1,7 cm thick before the wrapping because of the profile needed, this wak tsuka is two centimeters thick.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 3, 2009 18:15:28 GMT
Nice information and that is some nice looking same.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 6, 2009 12:48:07 GMT
Hey thanks for the tips, I'll keep this all in mind. I'm gonna try again, it's just I cant seem to get the right wood over here in Singapore. Very tough to find believe it or not... And I don't want to use my Iron wood or Rosewood, as they're to nice to wrap up and hide..
Best, ADam
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Post by Deleted on Oct 6, 2009 17:20:56 GMT
iron wood huh? that sounds strong! :-p
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Post by Deleted on Oct 7, 2009 13:36:01 GMT
So far to date, it's the strongest wood I've held... It's also the heaviest wood I've held... It's REALLY heavy.. I'm going to use it with my WAVE F/Ks I'm not sure if you've seen em, but I'm going to use that and a iron wood saya, but I have to wait till I make a lot of money so I can buy myself the best blade to showcase my awesome F/Ks, the blade would be a Angelsword blade... Aside from that I have to also wait till I find the perfect tsuba..
Anyway, that'll be a few years in the making..
For now though, my SDK blank tsuba came in, and I've tried to patina it, it turned yellow and purple, and copper, kinda cool!!! but I want it all purple blackish.. So I'm going to have to heat it longer I think before dropping it in the chemical solution.
Best, Adam
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Post by Deleted on Oct 7, 2009 17:16:08 GMT
make sure you post a pic when its done
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Post by Deleted on Oct 7, 2009 17:18:07 GMT
So far to date, it's the strongest wood I've held... It's also the heaviest wood I've held... It's REALLY heavy.. I'm going to use it with my WAVE F/Ks I'm not sure if you've seen em, but I'm going to use that and a iron wood saya, but I have to wait till I make a lot of money so I can buy myself the best blade to showcase my awesome F/Ks, the blade would be a Angelsword blade... Aside from that I have to also wait till I find the perfect tsuba.. Anyway, that'll be a few years in the making.. For now though, my SDK blank tsuba came in, and I've tried to patina it, it turned yellow and purple, and copper, kinda cool!!! but I want it all purple blackish.. So I'm going to have to heat it longer I think before dropping it in the chemical solution. Best, Adam I would look up acceptable woods for tsuka cores and see what you could get, ironwood is WAY too hard for a tsuka core. The wood needs to absorb the shock of impact or else you'll damage the blade much more easily. Poplar, basswood, honoki, there are many options for tsuka ho.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 12, 2009 6:16:25 GMT
basswood? REALLY, it's very soft, I would think that it would just die if you used it for a core. Poplar seems to be the choice wood in the USA, but I can't get it here, so I'll have to wait for my trip in Nov. to make a core. BTW, the iron wood, I'll be using it on a sword that I have no intention of hitting something with, although, I'll be buying a good blade when I do.. So maybe I'll have two tsukas for the blade, you know incase of zombie outbreak, I can use the more practical handle.
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