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Post by anj4de on Mar 30, 2024 9:33:38 GMT
I also consider hishigami necessary. It's better if it's used during the tsukamaki, but you can also insert it yourself after! The Japanese use this inexpensive tool: www.namikawa-ltd.com/product/2423Namikawa Heibei also sells the hishigami! www.namikawa-ltd.com/product/1477Traditionally they used one that was printed with characters because it avoided it being eaten by insects. But I'm not sure that's necessary anymore! After inserting, you also use the pick to rearrange the ito fibres so that it holds it in properly. Now that sounds interesting! Do yo happen to know a tutorail on how to get this done to an already wrapped handle? A video maybe? I would not mind trying this on one of my cheap swords jst for the fun of it...
thanks Uwe
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Post by larason2 on Mar 30, 2024 19:33:49 GMT
Ah, I bought the tsukamaki video from Namikawa Heibei! You need a multiregion DVD player to view it though, unless you live in region 2! But it's pretty simple. Fold them up into the squares, then squish them in from the side using the tuskamaki pick. The main thing is there should be more paper at the top of the triangle under where the ito cross, and not much below on the two corners where the ito is flat and side by side. Keep hitting the ito outside with the back side of the pick to help compress (that's why it's like that). The wrap will get all messed up, but then you just arrange it with the pick! It turns out that thing is super helpful for wrapping with something like silk ito.
The video is a great video, and covers the basics super well. There's also lots of stuff if you want to go the extra mile! An hour and a half of pretty much nothing but tsukmaki. Needing to have it imported from Japan and needing a region 2 DVD player is a bit of an obstacle though. If you need to see a good video example to do it though, there's probably nothing better.
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Post by Cottontail Customs on Mar 30, 2024 21:34:25 GMT
Ah, I bought the tsukamaki video from Namikawa Heibei! You need a multiregion DVD player to view it though, unless you live in region 2! But it's pretty simple. Fold them up into the squares, then squish them in from the side using the tuskamaki pick. The main thing is there should be more paper at the top of the triangle under where the ito cross, and not much below on the two corners where the ito is flat and side by side. Keep hitting the ito outside with the back side of the pick to help compress (that's why it's like that). The wrap will get all messed up, but then you just arrange it with the pick! It turns out that thing is super helpful for wrapping with something like silk ito. The video is a great video, and covers the basics super well. There's also lots of stuff if you want to go the extra mile! An hour and a half of pretty much nothing but tsukmaki. Needing to have it imported from Japan and needing a region 2 DVD player is a bit of an obstacle though. If you need to see a good video example to do it though, there's probably nothing better. It's a pretty good video, I got it years ago. though this video has the tsukamaki-shi using hishigami, it does not show you how to add them to an already wrapped tsuka. this is much trickier than doing it from the start and depending on how tightly wrapped the ito is already and how deft you are with the kujiri, it can be very risky. I wouldn't really recommend doing it this way unless you're willing to risk possibly damaging the ito. I'd also only think about doing this if the rest of the maki was done well enough to justify adding paper in and taking this risk since when dealing with a tsuka that didn't have them, there are most likely at least a few other issues with the tsuka and maki. most times this will be something like the ito is cheap synthetic and will continue to stretch or wasn't wrapped well and the newly added hishigami won't really help that much anyway or the ito is overlapping the kashira and will probably slip off and unravel sooner than later. when adding hishigami from the start, you're not only stuffing it in there but your doing it in tandem with properly stretching and folding the ito, that has kusune applied and keeping tension during the entire wrap. all the way down to the end knots, which secure and hold everything you've done till that point. without all of this being done correctly, the wrap just won't be what it should be. so again, before anyone goes poking the ito and stuffing paper in, decide if it's even worth the time, effort and risks.
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Post by larason2 on Mar 30, 2024 22:01:18 GMT
That's fair, never tried it myself, but for the right sword, then I may try! It's helpful to see how Mitani Shuji does it, because he manipulates the ito in a way that doesn't damage it too much. No matter what you do, you're going to get stray fibres. Even if everything is done right, you still have to rearrange the ito to get it to look right! I agree if a reproduction has major problems, or if it's too loose, it's probably not worth it, but the kujiri and the paper aren't too expensive, and provided you're careful to not damage the ito too much, I think it's worth the risk for a sword that could use it. Of course, always better to get it rewrapped by someone who knows what they're doing! But I think sometimes the sword or the wrap aren't worth the extra expense, and the kujiri and the paper are reasonably cheap.
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Post by Cottontail Customs on Mar 31, 2024 0:07:23 GMT
That's fair, never tried it myself, but for the right sword, then I may try! It's helpful to see how Mitani Shuji does it, because he manipulates the ito in a way that doesn't damage it too much. No matter what you do, you're going to get stray fibres. Even if everything is done right, you still have to rearrange the ito to get it to look right! I agree if a reproduction has major problems, or if it's too loose, it's probably not worth it, but the kujiri and the paper aren't too expensive, and provided you're careful to not damage the ito too much, I think it's worth the risk for a sword that could use it. Of course, always better to get it rewrapped by someone who knows what they're doing! But I think sometimes the sword or the wrap aren't worth the extra expense, and the kujiri and the paper are reasonably cheap. oh, no doubt, the kujiri is a completely essential tool for tsukamaki and I couldn't imagine doing high level work without it. it won't damage woven ito on it's own as long as it's very sharp and free of burrs. if you don't know how to use it however, you can obviously do a lot of damage. and yes, Mitani Shuji san expertly manipulates both ito and hishigami with this tool but again, it's while he's doing the wrap with all the other processes, techniques and methods, including using kusune (a huge factor for the overall anchoring power of hishigami) and then when he's making adjustments after it's all wrapped, he's not still adding in paper. the bumpy and irregular surface of the samegawa holds the wadded paper, which has been pressed down into the nooks and valleys in the skin and then kusune on the bottom of the ito helps it bond with the strands and fibers of the ito, actually getting pressed into these voids as well. so the ito is meshed with the paper and the paper is meshed with the samegawa and all of this helps hold everything in place but none of it would work very well without the tension and tightness created while actually wrapping it. stuffing it in after the fact will really only push out the ito a bit and cause temporary tightness. once it's compressed and used for a while, plus paired with ito that's too stretchy and without the tack of the kusune, it won't hold nearly as long as it should if done properly from the beginning. a temp solution at best imho.
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