Little tricks that give big results.

Life is fast paced these days so having to go to a hardware store to get materials for your needed repairs and/or upgrades to your sword is a painus in the anus. Is to me anyway.

I've just recently fell off the wagon with my sword addiction. I had one really good one for a long time and had to be satisfied with that. But like any addict I was always jonesing and thinking about a fix.

That one sword was a DIY Musashi 1045 katana. I made my own tsuka and tsuba for it. And didnt go buy anything. Like I learned from growing up on a ranch a good hour away from town I used what I had on hand.

The tsuka was made from a pretty thick branch off a silver maple.tree a big wind had knocked down. The tsuba I cut out of a piece of old 3/16 diamond plate that was laying in the scrap pile.

Repurposing savvy I feel is a must for sword enthusiasts. That Musashi turned out plumb sweet. Took a bit of time but not one minute of that time involved running to a hardware store. That had already been done.

A couple months ago I was going in for a major surgery with an uncertain outcome. So I gave that Musashi to my son leaving me swordless.(is that actually a word?) At any rate the surgery went worse case and I'm laid up for a spell.

This has left me bored but with internet access and some extra money. What better to spend money on than new swords? 3 in one month to be precise. And each one had stuff needing done which was what I was hoping for. I bought a katana a utility "tactical" blade and a wakazashi. All the katana needed was sharpening mores the pity but the tacticool and wak both needed things done.

Enter my repurposing/scavenging skills. Now when a guy/gal gets to thinking theres a lot of places around the house to find repair materials. So I'll share a couple useful things I came up with.

Starting with the tacticool piece I scrounged through things and came up with a set of leather boot laces that had been in a junk drawer for who knows how long. In my bag of outdoor odds and ends I found two partial rolls of paracord. One black and one green. Oh yeah! Score. I was on a roll.

In that same bag I found some 3/8 wide saddle strap (maybe 3 foot worth) and a spool of bow string nylon serving thread. Hell yeah. I was dialed. The scabbard for this blade was kinda flimsy and unworthy to be declared ready for the field.

But a paracord spiral half hitch wrap accented in the middle with 3/8 saddle coatstrap and some leather boot lace later it is now worthy. I even found a piece off some old reins that is braided with flat ends and made a cool belt loop that is rough and tough but also nice looking.

The G10 handle on the blade was rather blocky so I rounded the edges and got a better feel but they were a bit slick. Enter remaining paracord boot lace and serving string. I wrapped the boot lace under the hand guard and down a bit under and inch. Then with paracord and more boot lace down from the pommel exactly two inches. There was just enough boot lace left to wrap a quarter inch finger guide in the center. Then I abolished the rest of the slick exposed G10 under a serving string wrap.

That stuff is pretty small and it took some time but it was worth it. The layout makes for a perfectly positioned non slip grip on the handle. And it and the scabbard both look sempriniin'.

On to the wakazashi. Big gripe. Way loose in the saya. At the mouth. It didnt rattle further down so all it really needed was a tighter fit on the hibaki. I suppose theres hundreds of ways to fix that but what I came up with worked great.

I flattened out a bamboo kabob skewer out of the $1.50 package of 100 in the silverware drawer. I fastened strips at the saya mouth with Gorilla Glue. I would have preferred JB Quick but the GG was on hand. It required fitting sanding but is now perfect. Nice and snug. Comes out nice with the traditional push of the thumb and goes back in firmly with a little click when its fully seated.

Saya repair adjustment made easy. Other things I've used in sword repair projects that a lot of folks dont think of... Rawhide dog chews. I'd never give them to my dog but theres no need to hit a leather shop for rawhide. Comes in handy for repairing cracked handles and scabbard. Overwrapped with good old Jute string for plant ties with some clear coat for wood and you have a strong weather proof fix. That looks period and cool.

Copper or silver picture hanging wire. Double it over pull it through something like an eye bolt in your vise or some other solid anchor put another eye bolt in a drill (variable speed cordless is best) and give it a spin. Insto presto braided wire for a decorative repair. Works really well over rawhide.

In short I really pays off in sword repair and modification to take a gander around your house (especially the ubiquitous junk drawer) and garage. Its amazing what items that would otherwise just get tossed can be used for.

A guy or gal can do some really cool stuff with things that are and probably have been laying around with no purpose in particular. I'm sure I'm not exposing huge secrets to folks that have been in the game a while. But if this helps one person I reckon I've accomplished something. 🙂