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Post by Maat22 on Nov 6, 2014 3:34:40 GMT
Okay so we were talking about buying cheap swords and how the fittings (tsuba, ito, kashira, fuchi, habaki etc.) usually are sub par. I thought it would be good to have a thread about rebuilding a tsuka from the ground up. More importantly, I have a katana (or whats left of one) and it has no tsuka. So I'm gonna make another. I already have a nice peice of birch berry (i live in the tropics so not the same tree as the temperate birch, but good wood nonetheless). I can harvest bamboo for the pegs, i will purchase another ito and kashira online, most likely reuse the original tsuba, habaki, and fuchi,and fake ass same (who has ideas for something different to replace those synthetic same?).
I plan on cutting the peice of wood in half lengthwise, tracing and outline of the tang and chiseling out to a depth of half the tang on both halves of the wood. Then drill holes for the pegs. cut the notch for the kashira. Glue the bottom and back side of the tsuka, and clamp that thing together. Then do and initial shaping with an angle grinder. Take measurements of the fuchi and kashira and mark either end respectively. Finish up the shaping with a rasp and then sand paper, until the fuchi and kashira fit SNUG. Glue the same, wrap the ito and tie the end knots.
Now can some one school me on this?
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Post by frankthebunny on Nov 6, 2014 5:24:02 GMT
How precise did you want the finished product to be? I would say there are a lot of steps in between and in a different order and some just different to what you have outlined, but that would be to make a more traditional tsuka core and thinking ahead to a traditionally done wrap. It would be easier to make recommendations and suggestions if I knew what your end goal was.
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Post by Maat22 on Nov 6, 2014 15:02:38 GMT
I would like advice on building the tsuka as precisely and traditionally as possible. The whole nine yards. I can fudge it on my own, and if anyone has advice about fudging it I am sure that plenty of people will appreciate it too! myself included!
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Post by Novice_Surgery on Nov 7, 2014 2:52:53 GMT
First tips I could offer you is to make sure the two halves of wood, the wood grain should make a "V" towards the edge, so both wood grains travel toward the blades edge. This is to help prevent splitting of the wood later. When you line the boards up on your nakago to trace the outline, place the sword edge up, then align the nakago near the top of the piece of wood, leaving space on the edge of the wood of course. Line the side of the wood up to the bottom of the habaki and make sure it sits flush with the bottom of the habaki, then draw your nakago. If you do this correctly, the nakago outline will be slightly slanted down to follow the natural curve of the katana. Also, I would suggest that you carve one side of the nakago ana shallow, and one side deep, putting most of the nakago into one half on the tsuka, and a little bit on the other side. This offsets where the center of the mune(blade spine) sits in the tsuka, so that way the center of the nakago sits on solid wood. This is done to prevent the tsuka from splitting on the glued together seam after you glue and clamp both halves together and are using the sword. ![](http://i1303.photobucket.com/albums/ag146/novice_surgery/Mobile%20Uploads/th_IMG_20141106_220326_zpsb9d88594.jpg) ![](http://i1303.photobucket.com/albums/ag146/novice_surgery/Mobile%20Uploads/th_IMG_20141106_220507_zps4aca1d7f.jpg)
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Post by Maat22 on Nov 7, 2014 14:28:51 GMT
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Post by Novice_Surgery on Nov 7, 2014 20:31:04 GMT
No problem just trying to help. Your grain should line up like this. ![](http://i1303.photobucket.com/albums/ag146/novice_surgery/th_IMG_20141107_152451_zps5ba3dd67.jpg)
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Post by Maat22 on Nov 8, 2014 13:53:05 GMT
ok yes that is what i thought. although in that photo the grain looks like it is opposite what you drew?
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Post by Novice_Surgery on Nov 8, 2014 15:23:13 GMT
It's because those are the striations left over from where the saw cut the wood. The lines appear as grain because of an optical illusion, but the pen marks are over the lines of the real grain.
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Post by Maat22 on Nov 10, 2014 19:05:20 GMT
ahhh yes i get fooled by that often
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Post by Jeffrey Ching on Nov 11, 2014 15:10:33 GMT
I just wanted to mention that I've seen plenty of antique tsuka that did not have the V-pattern in the wood. Shirasaya are also always made with a continuous grain pattern. Perhaps that has something to do with the fact that honoki doesn't warp at all. My opinion, focus on the precision you cut the nakago from the wood. Here's a quick overview of my working process: 1) Start of with just one board of the tsuka core. Scribe the nakago outline and carve out the nakago plus some extra at the nakago butt. Make sure you have at least 2mm of extra wood on the fuchi side. 2)Place the blade onto the board and give it a good tap so it's fitted really snug. 3) Now mark the hole for the mekugi and drill the hole with a drill that's one mm smaller. 4) Scribe the other side and also carve this out. Don't drill the hole just yet 5) clamp all together and stick blade in it. If everything is done properly then you should be able to poke something into the drilled mekugi hole without touching the steel. 6) Glue parts and make sure mekugi hole is aligned and there is no rattling. 7) Once dry, mark were fuchi is supposed to be (aligned with the saya). 8) carve out the tsuka to fit the fuchi 9) once the fuchi fitted you decide the shape of the tsuka and determine the kashira. The most important thing: Never lose track of where the nakago is during the process. About the measurements of a tsuka-core, check here. I recently uploaded a diagram of an average higo tsuka I was working on: /viewtopic.php?f=9&t=23606Good luck
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Post by Novice_Surgery on Nov 26, 2014 11:43:44 GMT
They can get away with it on shirasaya because you dont use a shirasaya for cutting, so the tsuka never sees any real stress. I dont do my wood grains that way to prevent warping, Ive never had a problem with my wood warping because I choose my wood carefully so its simply not warped. I do the wood grains that way because it absorbs the vibrations through the edge better with less chance of cracking the wood then random grain directions. I dont do it to make up for carving imperfections either, as its the surface area of the wood that is touching the nakago that determines the success or failure of the tsuka. So when I carve I actually draw two outlines, the nakago outline then another nakago outline about 1mm inside the original outline to make up for the space the chisel makes as it carves the nakago ana. This, along with proper measurement of the thickness of the nakago and accurate chisel-work, ensures a snug fit with the nakago with maximum surface area in contact with the wood. Everyone learns differently, thats just the way I learned. I aim to make a tsuka that handles cutting well and lasts as long as possible through use, as I am a backyard cutter myself and I cant afford to have a tsuka that wont stand up to multiple cutting sessions on a variety of targets.
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Post by Maat22 on Nov 29, 2014 17:56:02 GMT
Thanks! that is very helpful. when you say shirasaya has a continuous grain pattern what do you mean? that the grain runs the length of the saya and tsuka?
yes i also need a tsuka that can stand up to alot of cutting.... heavy duty cutting....
now i have a question about the grains..... I understand the whole v thing..... i think.... im gonnna buy frank's tutorials so i that will make sure of that....
I have a piece of wood that i cut way before i started asking on here how to do it.... this peice of wood/trunk is probably 2 1/2" in diameter... sooooo this means that the grain is circular... arcing over bothe sides of the nakago... i can tweek it so that it is more of a point on the ha side..... what are you guys thoughts on this?
only reason why i have done this is because it takes a big tree to get the grain straight in boards
I have a broken katana that i am going to make a tanto/large knife and a "wakizashi" so im going to be making two handles very soon.
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Post by frankthebunny on Nov 29, 2014 19:34:48 GMT
I'd just like to mention that the reason I pay more attention to the grain patterns when making tsuka cores is because I'm not using the optimal wood to make them. Choice cut honoki wood picked specifically for use with Japanese swords has less imperfections in general than American yellow Poplar craft boards from Lowes or hobby shops. I'm not saying Poplar isn't a good choice for production katana, it is, I'm just noting that I try to make sure I'm using the best of what I can find and doing what I can to make it as strong and as stable as I can. This doesn't mean that if the grain pattern was slightly off or you didn't wind up with a perfect V, that the tsuka core would fail in use. I get pretty picky and try to avoid things that might make my overall finished product less durable, even if only by a little. You also should consider the difference in trying to carve a piece of wood with straight, clean grain patterns, in the right direction, vs one with wonky lines, knots, sugar deposits, or any other flaw or condition. Carving some of the wood they use in the Chinese shops has been extremely difficult at times and besides sacrificing structural strength to the core, it can also damage your chisel or set it off in directions you didn't intend. Trying to carve through the knots on those pieces is like carving through stone Some of the wood used for your favorite katana's tsuka would scare you if you could only see it. In some cases I am pretty sure they've used pieces of scrap wood that was floating in a sewer. It looked bad, smelled bad, and should never have been used for swinging a long razor blade.
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Post by Novice_Surgery on Nov 29, 2014 20:37:38 GMT
^ ^ What he said lol. I choose my boards very carefully because yellow poplar is just the closest approximation to honoki thats available cheaply here in the usa. I just go down to lowes and take about 20 minutes going through the boards they have till I find what I want. No knots, no sugar deposits that I can see, no circles in the grain. I look for the straightest grain possible, usually most of the lines go all the way from one side of the board to the other lengthwise.
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Post by Novice_Surgery on Nov 30, 2014 2:46:36 GMT
I also must mention that many woods produce sap, or acids that can eat the steel of the nakago over time, so its important to use a wood that is both easy to carve, and is not a sap producing tree species. Thats why I resort to yellow poplar thats been kiln dried. If you stop in lowes or home depot, you should be able to pick up a couple boards for under 10 bucks, just remember to examine the grain and quality of the wood before you select your boards. The tighter and straighter the grain lines the better. Look out for the aforementioned undesireable qualities. Yellow poplar is also great because its quite soft, and the chisel bites the wood pretty easily.
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Post by Anankai on Nov 30, 2014 7:00:49 GMT
Would white maple be a good choice for a tsuka core? It's called hard maple rather... Is harder wood not better than softer wood for tsuka core?
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Post by Novice_Surgery on Nov 30, 2014 8:22:16 GMT
You actually want a softer wood to help absorb the shock of cutting. Also a very hard wood is very hard to carve out with a chisel. traditional honoki wood is also quite soft, similar to yellow poplar.
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Post by Anankai on Nov 30, 2014 8:34:11 GMT
Ok I see. Softer wood for better shock absorption. Gonna try to find some poplar wood then! Thanks for answering!
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Post by Maat22 on Nov 30, 2014 18:00:46 GMT
wood follows the same principles of strength and durability as metal. Hard wood is STRONG but brittle and tends to break not bend. softer wood isn't as strong but more durable and tends to stand up to more of a beating....
I guess this answers my question about the circular grain.... basically..... its ok.. i was careful to pick a peice that didn't have any branches (knots) and since we don't have "proper" seasons like temperate climates the grains of trees behave differently but the principle is again the same.
Do chinese shops use especially hard wood?
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Post by Maat22 on Nov 30, 2014 18:05:34 GMT
now not all saps are made the same.... and properly cured wood (1-2 year) shouldn't really have any sap left in it, right?
what kinda sap from your knowledge if the most detrimental?
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