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Post by NJstudent on Oct 13, 2012 0:22:30 GMT
Has anyone seen a katana built with a wooden tsuba? Why isn't this done more often? Simply because it wouldn't make an effective guard in battle?
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Post by chrisperoni on Oct 13, 2012 1:22:34 GMT
the purpose of a tsuba is not so much as a guard againt another blade; it's more as a guard against your own hand sliding up onto your blade. I would figure that wood would crack or split too easily when the blade was struck against something- lots of force entering the blade on impact and wood probably isn't strong enough. Maybe it was used on tanto? I know horn tsuba happens on tanto but on long katana blades it's too brittle (says the guy making a horn tsuba for a long blade lol)
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Post by nddave on Oct 13, 2012 1:46:47 GMT
aside from the durability of wood, I think another issue would be how it affected the weight and counter balance of the sword.
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Post by drdata on Oct 15, 2012 21:17:10 GMT
Older tachi did have leather ones. Lacquer coated, multi-layer.
Cheers
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Post by Deleted on Oct 15, 2012 22:42:13 GMT
wood splits along the grain, it's far to weak structurally to make a sword guard that has to survive an encounter with a steel blade
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Post by ineffableone on Oct 15, 2012 23:35:26 GMT
I lost the link, but a year or two ago I had seen a nice article about how back in the day it was fairly common to swap out the metal tsuba with leather tsuba. This was done before going into battle and the original tsuba was left with the family so if you were lost in battle the tsuba would remain in your family.
There is little authentic antique leather tsuba left due to them being throw away items. But there was at least one original leather tsuba found, which the article talked about and was pretty excited about the preservation of such an item.
As has been mentioned tsuba is not as much a hand guard against blades hitting your fingers, but to keep your hand from sliding up and onto the blade. This is not to say there is not times where the tsuba might help prevent your fingers from cuts, just that this is not the primary purpose of the tsuba.
So while I have never seen any wood tsuba, there is nothing to say you shouldn't make and use one. There are considerations you might want to make however. Like the compression of the wood sandwiched between the habaki and tsuka. The weight difference changing the point of balance. The moisture absorption of wood and the contact it makes with the steel could cause rusting. The tendency of wood to shrink and expand due to humidity.
It might be these things that stopped wood tsuba from being used historically. While leather has some of the same issues, it was only a temp swap out and not one that was kept past the need for a cheap battle tsuba.
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