Men Repaint....do it yourself?

[Phorest]

On e-bogu.com they offer a Men Repainting service for $35 (plus shipping I'd guess). This sounds pretty reasonable, but it got me wondering...could I do that myself?

This:
http://store6.yimg.com/I/kendobogu_1746_431162

to This:
http://store6.yimg.com/I/kendobogu_1750_11076009

Mine looks about like the first one...and I'd like to get it repainted somehow. How hard would it be? What kinda paint would I need to use? Any ideas?

[Neil Gendzwill]

If the men is good quality, you need Japanese urushi lacquer. I'm assuming you're talking about the black part here. You can get urushi from any good budogu supplier. Use a well-ventilated area and gloves - the stuff is literally poisonous. Paint carefully, then let dry in a reasonably humid place if you can. The lacquer can take several weeks to dry, seems to cure faster with high humidity.

[Nic]

Or you could just use a black marker pen.

[Phorest]

So basically...that $35 price isn't so bad. :gasmask:

[justforkendo]

I did some work exp. in a bogu shop awhile back. when it come's to repainting the men. They only used the real stuff on topline men, They did'nt like to use it as it is very toxic. They would use a black gloss paint. I cant remember the kind of paint it was, but it was really thick and they would mix parafin oil with it to thin it down. It would take about 3 day's to dry. They used the same red paint on the inside of the mengane. Have a look at some paint's, ask some people about paints, show them the paint on your men. $35 is a lot for a less than 10 min. job. Get some paint and do your friend's for $5.

[Kendoka]

I did some work exp. in a bogu shop awhile back. when it come's to repainting the men. They only used the real stuff on topline men, They did'nt like to use it as it is very toxic. They would use a black gloss paint. I cant remember the kind of paint it was, but it was really thick and they would mix parafin oil with it to thin it down. It would take about 3 day's to dry. They used the same red paint on the inside of the mengane. Have a look at some paint's, ask some people about paints, show them the paint on your men. $35 is a lot for a less than 10 min. job. Get some paint and do your friend's for $5.

Koei http://www.koei-budogu.co.jp/ have both the blue dye and the black paint.

Do it yourself, it'l be fun and you'll do a beter job !!

Richard

[Rularn]

Or you could just use a black marker pen.

I used a fat black permanent marker to repaint my men. And while it looks really good and new after it dries, the problem arises when someone hits your men the next time. It seems the black marker ink comes off and sticks to the spot on the shinai where it touched. So by the end of the practice, the other guy's shinai has all of these black spots on it.

That may be good to show them where they are hitting but it kinda ruins the other guy's shinai. :P

Anyone find any kind of paint that works well aside from the laquer?

[Hai_hai]

I used a fat black permanent marker to repaint my men. And while it looks really good and new after it dries, the problem arises when someone hits your men the next time. It seems the black marker ink comes off and sticks to the spot on the shinai where it touched. So by the end of the practice, the other guy's shinai has all of these black spots on it.

That may be good to show them where they are hitting but it kinda ruins the other guy's shinai. :P

Anyone find any kind of paint that works well aside from the laquer?

There's a reason why lacquer is the preferred paint. The other kinds of paint, oil, enamel, latex, watercolor, etc., just don't hold up properly.