Black lacquer for Men

[Dotanuki]

Hi Everyone,

I would like to know how long a reasonable japanese made men can hold up in terms of the black lacquer peeling off.

I just got a new 3mm Japanese men, and there were some chips off the lacquer after my first 2 hour practice with it. The biggest chip, about 5mm in diameter, shows through to the fuzzy material below, not just the white underlining layer. My old 10 year old men has the same deal, but none of the peeled areas show through to the fuzzy material.

Is there any way to fix it yourself?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

[Raiza]

Try here (http://www.kendo-world.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1372&referrerid=235) for starters. My new men (2mm duralumin from e-bogu) chipped right after the first full practice, but not much has happened since then. In the meantime, my black felt marker and my men are good buddies. I'll be getting the lacquer paint from Koei/bogubag.com to tidy up later.

[sminki]

I just leave it. My first set has all the black lacquer on the leather surrounding the men-gane chipped off, so it's all off-white/beige now. Functionally it has no problem, so I just leave it as is and it's fine as is.

Now the bit about the "fuzzy part" underneath showing - that sounds like the dried leather surrounding the men-gane, not just the leather, has chipped off which could be more problematic and should be sent away to be repaired (which I don't know is possible)...

[Dotanuki]

Wow,

Thanks for the replies. Yeah, I'm a little worried about the chip that exposes the fuzzy material. I'll go for a few more practices and see if it gets any worse, and I'll send it back to the manufacturer or something.

Thanks again!