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Post by ambulocetus on Feb 8, 2018 22:17:04 GMT
The Hanwei Renshu has a nice blade, but the tsuka is terrible. It was jammed on there with plastic shims and you can see what happened. This will not do. I purchased a new tsuka core from swordmaster19 on ebay. I had to buy a wood chisel to finish it up because Hanwei has a different nakago than other Chinese forges. Then I epoxied it together. When the epoxy was dry, I double checked the fit, then mixed up some resin and coated the wood with a carbon fiber sheathing. While the epoxy was drying, I painted a tsuba that was left over from my last project. Once the carbon fiber was dry, I sanded down the rough edges, and started wrap hineri maki with kevlar webbing. The finished result.It doesn't look too great because the webbing is very stiff and hard to make a good knot, but it's tight and it feels real good in the hand.
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Post by ambulocetus on Feb 8, 2018 22:19:49 GMT
A couple more glamor shots.
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Post by RaylonTheDemented on Feb 8, 2018 22:45:24 GMT
Good for you doing your own replacement, I haven't had the chance (or mischance) to have to replace a tsuka core and do a wrapping myself, though I see it coming somewhen next summer, thank you for sharing your experience, makes teh task look less intimidating. How dry was the core from the seller? Looks like oak? What did you use to replace the mekugi pins?
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Post by ambulocetus on Feb 8, 2018 23:14:57 GMT
Yeah,the core is Chinese Oak. It was very hard to do the little bit of carving I had to do. I know it's not the best wood for a tsuka, but the seller had the best looking shape on ebay. The wood is a lot denser than the original tsuka, so with a heavier tsuba it actually moved the POB about a quarter inch closer to the habaki even though the tsuka is skinnier and shorter. The original mekugi were unusable, so I have to get some new ones. I just stuck a bolt in there so it wouldn't slide out while I was photographing it. Don't worry, I won't use it like that.
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Post by zabazagobo on Feb 9, 2018 5:18:42 GMT
Niiiice, that's a pretty great looking D.I.Y. project. The wood Hanwei uses is a bit too much on the soft side, so oak is probably a better choice. If only Hanwei refined their tsuka and saya with more attention to detail and stronger wood they'd really corner the market.
But back to your project, I just am really impressed with what you cooked up. Those dang end-knots are a pain to get right, I've spent way too much time fussing with the one on my Hanwei Bushido getting it right (should have just sent it to Josh, but I got equal parts stubborn and obsessed with doing it myself). Yours turned out fine, so long as it's tight and the kashira is secure tidiness isn't much of a concern. Like your choice of tsuba too, overall a nicely done project (I'm a sucker for black on black, it just says 'business').
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Post by ambulocetus on Feb 9, 2018 5:43:49 GMT
Thanks! Yea, the webbing I used made nice crisp folds for the wrapping, and it was easy to keep tight since it doesn't stretch at all, but it was too stiff to make pretty end knots. The tsuba was from a Marto. The good ones actually have decent fittings. Better than the Chinese zinc alloy anyway. I was going to use the fuchi and kashira too, but the nakago is so big that there wouldn't have been much wood left on the tsuka after sanding it to fit. Heres a picture of the set.
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Post by Turok on Mar 9, 2018 10:18:31 GMT
Good work, ambulocetus! I bought some kashira and menuki from swordmaster19 before too. The seller has good quality stuff and is nicer looking than Artsfeng in my opinion!
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