First real attempt at ito-maki practice.

I ordered my nephew a cheap bokken to mess with for his birthday. It came with a shoddily wrapped tsuka done with the cheap cotton I used here. First, he wanted it off. Then, he wanted it back on. I told him that he was out of luck. So a few weeks have gone by, and since sleep is not one of my strong suits last night(this morning) I figured I'd give it a try. This is of coarse after I decided to partially hollow out a 3/4in x 1in x 15in oak stave I had lying around so that I could try to make it a "more efficient" tsuka removal tool. I did this, and using only a 1/4in wood chisel. The task of doing the wrap was made more difficult by the fact that I am missing most of half of my fingers. Long story short; my hands hurt.

Here are the fruits of my labor.















I apologize for the terrible pictures. I didn't really realize that the similarity in the ito color and the wood would make getting a nice detailed shot with this camera impossible. Anyway, this is the first time I've gone beyond the process of picking up the wrap to actually wrapping. As this is a bokken, trying to tie the end knots is not going to happen. Any comments or advise will be welcome. Thanks for looking.