Hanwei Practical Plus Elite katana refinement
Jul 22, 2024 3:05:28 GMT
Post by MessengerofDarkness on Jul 22, 2024 3:05:28 GMT
I haven't seen too many people ever talk much about this sword in general despite it being a fairly solid, albeit niche, katana geared more for tatami mat cutting (most likely due to hanwei simply having way too many "practical" katana models), but after trying my hand at using this sword for a while I've actually come to like it a fair deal. While large, it's a light enough blade to be somewhat comfortable in general use, with just one exception.
The tsuka was, for lack of a better word, blocky.
It's not as bad as some hanwei models, granted, and the ito was as tight as a bow too, but the tsuka core suffered from the usual hanwei axe tsuka issue of having next to no shaping and being fat in the hand. Good enough for some with sausage fingers I'm sure, but at least for me it was just a bit too broad and a bit too thick to really ever get comfortable.
So I decided to strip things down and put the tsuka core on a diet.
The ito was wrapped with hishigami, which was a small surprise, though they seem to have been made form something like paper towel or thick tissue instead of traditional mulberry rice paper. As expected the tsuka core had a single crack in it, though all things considered it was otherwise in good shape.
Given the factory shape of the tsuka my options were somewhat limited, so I opted to slim things go down and give it my own pass at a rikko shape. Currently I have some glue filling the crack (hence the tape to keep it all from leaking), but once that's cured I'll decide on the end results.
I currently have some brown silk ito that was imported from Japan that I'll most likely use, and I'm strongly thinking of stripping the paint finish from the fuchi kashira and tsuba and rusting them to give them an antiqued look, but I've yet to make a decision on that. The samegawa panels might also get upgraded too, but those are all uncertain, and since my primary hand is currently still recovering from surgery I'll almost certainly have to wait to try and do the itomaki.
The tsuka was, for lack of a better word, blocky.
It's not as bad as some hanwei models, granted, and the ito was as tight as a bow too, but the tsuka core suffered from the usual hanwei axe tsuka issue of having next to no shaping and being fat in the hand. Good enough for some with sausage fingers I'm sure, but at least for me it was just a bit too broad and a bit too thick to really ever get comfortable.
So I decided to strip things down and put the tsuka core on a diet.
The ito was wrapped with hishigami, which was a small surprise, though they seem to have been made form something like paper towel or thick tissue instead of traditional mulberry rice paper. As expected the tsuka core had a single crack in it, though all things considered it was otherwise in good shape.
Given the factory shape of the tsuka my options were somewhat limited, so I opted to slim things go down and give it my own pass at a rikko shape. Currently I have some glue filling the crack (hence the tape to keep it all from leaking), but once that's cured I'll decide on the end results.
I currently have some brown silk ito that was imported from Japan that I'll most likely use, and I'm strongly thinking of stripping the paint finish from the fuchi kashira and tsuba and rusting them to give them an antiqued look, but I've yet to make a decision on that. The samegawa panels might also get upgraded too, but those are all uncertain, and since my primary hand is currently still recovering from surgery I'll almost certainly have to wait to try and do the itomaki.
