Shinai Handle

[Haggis]

Gday, I recently diassembled my shinai for the first time to do some maintanence, oiling, waxing etc and are having trouble putting the handle back on. It is a new round handled shinai, I have assembled the staves together correctly but when I put the handle on there is about 3 inches or so of handle left to go on when I cannot pull it on any further.

Does anybody have any tips or suggestions for helping to put the handle on, any help would be appreciated, thanks.

[lucian]

You just have to use a lot of force, I managed to put tight 29’s on to my thick dobori shinai, it does take a lot of work your hands will hurt & possibly leave little speckles of blood ;)
If they are soft skinned, my hands are not soft but I still left tiny little spots of blood on the tsukagawa
They are quite tough to take off too but after 2-3 times it will slacken off
You could use a towel a nice thick one that will grip the tsukagawa but you hands will still hurt
Haha think of it as training, perseverance and do not give in to anger and temptation to cut it to pieces (Homer Simpson syndrome aka “I’ll smash you gud aarrgghhh”)
Some one on here mentioned a little rubber handle what had a rather ambiguous appearance

[Ben F.]

Gday, I recently diassembled my shinai for the first time to do some maintanence, oiling, waxing etc and are having trouble putting the handle back on. It is a new round handled shinai, I have assembled the staves together correctly but when I put the handle on there is about 3 inches or so of handle left to go on when I cannot pull it on any further.

Does anybody have any tips or suggestions for helping to put the handle on, any help would be appreciated, thanks.

Try sprinkling a bit of baby powder on the handle and a little bit inside the leather cover. Sometimes that can help.

[Fraz]

I find assmebling the shinai then banging the kensen down while grpping the tsukagawa works but only if no-one can see me...:)

Failing that I've heard that a pair of dry rubber washing up gloves, can give you a better grip....

[slidercrank]

See this thread: http://www.kendo-world.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1299

[tyler]

at home i put the tip on the ground and basically pull down with all my meagre weight and it always goes. Getting the bloody thing off in the first place is another issue and i've been known to solicit the help of my mom, who has curious yoga strength despite her appearance. **ducks lettuce

[A P]

Use your force dude................... :ogre: :ogre: :ogre:

[Thomas Bolling]

Hmmmm, well, "maintanence, oiling, waxing etc" have of course caused the bamboo to swell a bit. Anyway, dampening the tsukagawa slightly (by wrapping it in a well-wrung-out washcloth for a few minutes) will make it soft and stretchy. Then try an ordinary mousepad for gripping it (since you posted here, I'm assuming you're nerdly enough to own one of those soft flexy mousepads), or else a piece of terrycloth towel, to help you "take matters into your own hands." Should do the trick... Word of caution: don't let the dampy tsukagawa dry out too quickly, or it will be hard and rough afterwards. P.S.= it will fit VERY snugly after it dries... OMB

[Lazken]

for those last few hard inches, here's a tip:
if you squeeze the handle and push it down, you are causing alot of unnessecary friction(sorry for the bad spelling) because you push the leather against the wood. if you could just push down without squeezing ;)

here's how I do it:
pick up a little kitchen knife you use to prepare food with. (we call it a potato-knife here) take a look at side opposed to the cutting edge, it should have 2 90 degree angles,
put the knife with this side against the leather near the top of the handle, pointing 45 degrees down, and then push down(be sure to use the back of the knife, not the sharp edge) it should slide the leather over a bit, push, turn the shinai a bit, do it again, till you are all the way round, then you should have wrinkels on the top of the handle, let hour hands slide down the leather and push the wrinkles down. repeat until you reached the end.