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Post by kasim18 on Sept 1, 2017 6:04:48 GMT
I'm looking to have a blade of mine redone, and I want it to be good without breaking the bank. Where do you guys look for fittings and samegawa? I have some fittings, but I might want to upgrade a bit. much more important is the samegawa. I can't tell who actually has the good stuff, and the ebay sellers all have the same few pictures, which makes me nervous. I'm not looking for nihonto quality, I'm not sure about my budget yet, but i AM on a budget. are there places selling halfway decent samegawa not looking for $80 or more per skin?
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Post by stopped1 on Sept 1, 2017 6:17:25 GMT
It is easier and cheaper if you want color same, they can be had for 25-35 as wallet and belt supply. But they are missing the big knob (grinded flat so useless). I buy those of I wanr black or red same.
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Post by kasim18 on Sept 1, 2017 18:28:51 GMT
It is easier and cheaper if you want color same, they can be had for 25-35 as wallet and belt supply. But they are missing the big knob (grinded flat so useless). I buy those of I wanr black or red same. I would really like to get traditional white, I am not a fan of artificial colors on it....and the nodes are kind of important.
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Post by Richard Arias on Sept 2, 2017 4:47:31 GMT
Namakawa in Japan is where many of the real vendors get their goods. Nihonzashi has some mid grade same' for about $80 they are a Namakawa reseller. I know you don't want to pay a lot. But skimping on material and craft quality is a sure fire way to be unsatisfied with the end result. The same' found in craft stores and eBay is poor quality and won't really look good not function as well as what Namakawa sells.
You have to think about this like owning a car. When you get your car serviced do you buy the cheapest oil and filters you can? Buy the spark plugs that are $1. Sure your saving money in the moment but in the long run cutting corners costs you in the life of the engine.
Same' provides looks, but also a great deal of structural integrity when you do it right and have a good skin. Ito is another thing you want to avoid that cheap shoe lace Ito. My best advice is wait until you have about a $300 budget for a proper tsuka build and materials.
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Post by Cottontail Customs on Sept 2, 2017 18:06:43 GMT
the grade of the skin you need depends on how you will be applying it to the tsuka and how you want it to look. if you are going to apply a "full wrap", you would be looking for a full skin that is raw and has been air dried. the pre colored and pre polished skins on ebay are not raw but they've been tanned and are soft like leather. the full raw skins will also possess the larger "emperor's node", which is a sought after aesthetic feature. on the tanned skins, these have usually been sanded down flat. the emperor's node is usually placed near the kashira end of the tsuka and if doing so, you'd need the skin to be at least a minimum overall length so this placement is possible. many ebay skins, even the raw ones, won't be large enough for this type of placement. it's not the overall length that matters here, it's the measurement from the largest node to the bottom of the "eyes" that's important. this should be long enough a distance to fit your tsuka.
if you are just going to apply panels and not a full wrap, you don't necessarily have to buy a large skin unless you still want that emperor's node included. if the placement of the largest node doesn't matter, you can buy smaller skins. typically, the larger the skin, the better it will be as far as quality but this doesn't always apply. I have seen some pretty poor quality skins selling on ebay, they have small nodes and the largest ones are not impressive looking ad sometimes they are yellowed as well.
for a 10" tsuka, you can possibly make a full wrap (with correct oyatsubo placement) work using Namikawa's #4 samegawa. tsuka longer than that would require larger skins. all of their offerings are good quality but being that they're natural products, overall size and quality will still vary a little. also, largest size doesn't always mean best nodes. I have specified in my request before that node quality is more important than length and they were able to hand pick the right skin for me. sometimes it was length that was more important so it depends on your project.
there are some dealers on facebook that sell samegawa skins for decent prices but I haven't seen any examples in person. I basically only buy from Namikawa and have done so for over 10 years with total satisfaction.
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Post by treeslicer on Sept 3, 2017 19:21:13 GMT
I use www.ebay.com/itm/Stingray-Skin-Crust-/311751477957Yes, it's expensive (around $117 shipped), but it's also top quality, supple, thick, durable leather, unpolished and with a big node in the middle, as well as 15 by 30 inches, which makes a lot of tsuka wraps, besides the one with the node. It being a US firm selling it doesn't hurt either. Pan-am Leather has a lot of genuine exotic leathers good for baldrics, belts, scabbard covers, and euro hilt wraps as well.
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Post by vermithrax on Sept 4, 2017 0:40:03 GMT
If you can, I would suggest Wally Hostetter to re-fit the sword. He won't break the bank and you can skip the miss match issues when selecting pieces on your own.
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Post by Salvatori Moretto: Koala Forge on Oct 4, 2017 2:26:54 GMT
I completely second vermithrax, Wally is great to deal with, the quality you get is awesome, specially when it comes to get masterful lacquer work :) -Sal'
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