tsuka cleaning

[Darthchevy]

hi to all the kendokas in the world, im new at kendo( I started about a month ago) and I was wondering how to clean my shinai´s tsuka, Its really dirty allready. Thanks

[Sup]

it's simple :

you DONT :D (Im laughin, but I AM serious)

[Darthchevy]

:) hehe thas nice one thing less to clean, thanks

[kendokamax]

hehe that's a coolest thread ever

when your tsuka will be completly blue you will be a great kendo master!

[KhawMengLee]

Yup, the markings and dings on your shinai is a pretty good indication of how well your hits are landing. If its below the nakayuki(the leather chord holding the slats together) then your distancing is out.

Heh, if the tip is blue, good for you!

MENG

[inner_cent]

MMm ah..... this is first time i heard anyone want to clean their tsuba .......but I do know I having problem braking my tsuba...... broke 3 already :P.... lucky these are only cheap plastic tsuba..... if my leather one break....... it will break my heart :( .....

[qpuppy]

yo inner_cent....

they are talking about TSUKA... not TSUBA!!!... but yeah.. I this is the first time i have heard people clean tsuka... :| ... well i alway have the problem of losing the grip on the tsuka... at first it nice an rough, meaning good grapping... :P not now... it's all really smooth like...

[cklin]

smooth tsuka got you down?

run some sandpaper over it and it's as good as new!

[lewis]

I've heard of people cleaning the tsuka on a iaito, but never a shinai.

[qpuppy]

heya cklin....

thanks for the tip.. but i have tried.. it doesnt work... i even they running some metal sander over it.. but same thing.. it'll go smooth within a training or so.. i think it's just tell me 'time to change me' oh well.. =\.. but yeah.. thanks for the tips..... ;)

ps... oh yeah.. people if my last post sound abit rude to inner_cent... I'm sorry about it.... =P habits of picking on my bro... =P.. hehehe

[Will]

soap + water + steel wool

[gszab]

I have heard about the tsuka cleaning. I ment to do that because after a while the tsuka gets to be slippery (if you practise without kote). It makes some difficulties when you are doing for example kirikaeshi without kote.
The solution is what Will wrote above. I advice to try with soap + water + nailbrush.

[hamish]

One Japanese guy I trained with would spit on his kote before training to give him more grip on his tsuka until his hands started sweating enough to wet the leather and stop slipping.

Hamish

[don_lubo]

I have never cleaned my Tsuka-gashira. If she is very very dirty i just change it.

[Kendoboy]

I just use a coarse bristle brush to rough it up a bit. Seems to work ok.

[Jagaimo]

hi to all the kendokas in the world, im new at kendo( I started about a month ago) and I was wondering how to clean my shinai´s tsuka, Its really dirty allready. Thanks
I was curious about this too.

I think there are some leather cleaning kits that you can buy but I think they are mainly for furniture leather. Maybe the dry cleaners can do something about it with their fancy chemicals and such.

I have an old 37 that I always experiment on, I'll let you know my results when I am done.

[Jagaimo]

Okay, so I have put the leather into a bucket with bleach for about a minute then deluted the bleach with water and mixed. I then took out the leather and scrubbed it with the rough side of a dish sponge.
Bleach seems to have gotten the leather from a near black to a very light grey but made it seem really dry. Scrubbing brought back the rough texture. And yes, there is a slight smell of bleach.
As for the long term effects, none are noticeable yet. But I think repeating the process may cause the leather to dry out and tear.