Sand Quality Shinai?

[Attica]

I about to get in the mail some medium quality shinais (read: low price, non-pratice Shinais). They aren't pre-assembled because I need a 38 tsukagawa for my 39 shinai. I was planning on oiling them but the idea of sanding them makes me nervous. Even though they are not practice shinai quality is it a good idea to sand them?

Background:

I still have my first shinai in good working order. It has about a year of practice on it, most of which I was not in bogu. I have two other Ebogu practice shinais (and I can feel a difference between them, and BTW, would they be considered standard as opposed to dobari?).

Last year I took them all apart COMPLETELY, sanded all of them, oiled them, re-assembled them. They did not feel as tight after this as before (is this good or bad?). I feel very comfortable with the process. Trying it didn't bother me because I knew they were "cheap" practice shinai.

Our instructor recently recommended to some of us newer practitioners to get a variety of shinais to try them out and see what worked for us. I ordered a Dobari and Oval handled guessing that my practice ones were standard.

[Attica]

For clarity the Shinai's I got were: http://www.e-bogu.com/Top_Quality_BIO_Treated_Shinai_KAI_p/hay-ken-shi-kaibamboo-bio-39.htm and http://www.e-bogu.com/OBARU_Bamboo_Only_Size_39_p/hay-ken-shi-obarubamb-39.htm

[ender84567]

Some people go all out and do the sanding/oiling bit, I stick with the way i was taught: use shinai, if it splinters then sand/scrape the splintered area, continue using shinai. With the Bio's in particular I have noticed they dont splinter much if at all, they tend to just split when their time has come, I dont think sanding will do anything to improve the shinai.

[MikeW]

As far as guessing about dobari or not it comes down to weight balance and typically the 'standard' ones (which I am assuming you mean koto) have less of a knuckle than dobari when you look at them.

As for sanding them etc before use, most seem to encourage this but I rarely do this and my shinai last a good while. I do sand and oil them as needed, especially when is it very dry or when they show signs of use (small splinters etc). When you sand it is typical to sand in the direction of the grain (from the tsuka towards the kensen in terms of direction) although I know people that sand in any direction and don't pay attention to grain. When you put them together make sure the metal chigiri is well seated into each of the take. The saki-gawa needs to fit well and of course don't forget to put the plastic sakigomu to keep the kensen spaced properly before putting the sakigawa on. Make sure you tie the nakayui properly to keep the take together correctly so they are not loose and that the tsuru is tied at an appropriate tightness.

[1005]

I've been using the koto version of those shinai for a few years now and I've only felt the need to sand them when a splinter started to appear which, as Ender noted, has been rare. When you get them they probably won't be completely loose - the first time you wrap them up they will probably feel tighter than your rebuilt practice shinai, but not quite as tight as a pre-assembled one.

I preemptively oiled a (non-bio) shinai once. It broke the second day that I used it. Did I oil it improperly? Maybe. Did I hammer my opponent's dou like I was swinging an axe? Maybe. Was I just very unlucky? Maybe. But now I'll never know... and I'll always wonder if the oil had something to do with it =(