Do you have to oil the habu

[Atama]

Ok....so I got my naginata for xmas and a copy of illustrated naginata. I'm just itching to hit someone with this thing I've already bust a light bulb and managed to scare the crap out of my nieghbours, so I was just wondering if the habu requires any oiling before use as it is a must for shinai.

also while I on here, can anyone tell me where I can download some naginata footage as the book shows the basics but i wanna see how they fence with this thing.



Lisa

[BigG]

Lisa

There's an mpeg in the downloads section ok the KW site.

BigG

[Atama]

cheers BigG

[BigG]

HTH ;o)

[gill]

Lisa,

Do you know where Santa managed to get Illustrated Naginata from?????

Thanks!

Gill

[hamish]

Should be OK without oiling, but given the scarcity/price of the habu outside of Japan, it might be worth it for safety's sake.

Hamish

[Atama]

Gill,

I got it from the Southern California Naginata Federation... their site is in the links section

http://www.scnf.org/

They have a section on books and videos .. just a pity US video's don't work on our machines.



Lisa

[GBN]

Hi Lisa,

I oil mine periodically. Just remove the tape holding it in place to free the habu from the shaft. I then untie the sakigawa, leather tip protector, and separate the two pieces. I'll rub on some mineral oil and let it soak for an hour or so, wipe it off, retie the sakigawa and retape it back on. Sidenote, use white tape to reattach the habu. I used red tape once because I ran out of white and my teacher gave me a roll of white to retape it. She said that there was a time in Japan when you could use any color you wanted, but white has become the standard to avoid distracting people.

Brian

[R A Sosnowski]

Should be OK without oiling, but given the scarcity/price of the habu outside of Japan, it might be worth it for safety's sake.

Hamish

After 8 years of Naginata, I have not heard of anyone oiling the Habu in the US.

[kendophx]

The Very Dry/Hot Day/Cold Night cycle in southern Arizona, USA is brutal on wood products of all kinds, not just shinai. (also car batteries, people's skin, what have you :( )

We usually oil shinai 4-6 times a year, and at least twice a year brush oil along the inside of the habu and let drain. Usually we are oiling the shinai anyway. We have never taken the habu apart for the procedure.

However, I practice kendo about 3 times as much as naginata, so the habu get much less use.

For oil, nothing fancy - a lemon oil based furniture polish.
For the brush, a thin, 1/2 inch wide number we picked up at a kitchen store.

[R A Sosnowski]

The Very Dry/Hot Day/Cold Night cycle in southern Arizona, USA is brutal on wood products of all kinds, not just shinai. (also car batteries, people's skin, what have you :( )

We usually oil shinai 4-6 times a year, and at least twice a year brush oil along the inside of the habu and let drain. Usually we are oiling the shinai anyway. We have never taken the habu apart for the procedure.

However, I practice kendo about 3 times as much as naginata, so the habu get much less use.

For oil, nothing fancy - a lemon oil based furniture polish.
For the brush, a thin, 1/2 inch wide number we picked up at a kitchen store.

I stand corrected - thank you for observations.

[Phil]

mmmm i dont know what's the price of habu in the rest of the world but in europe it s around 22 euro... i don tknow how the shops can sell them...(i have a stock :wink: héhé)

[kendophx]

I stand corrected -...

Gomen Kudasai.

The reason I did not continue the thread by quoting you was that I did not mean my reply to be a correction.

SoAz is not exactly the hot spot of US Naginata. -- no pun intended :wink: -- So your statement was an accurate one.

My desire was to provide enough detail so Lisa could decided if the information was relevant to her. I don't think the UK naginata-no-hito have to worry about habu splintering in the dry heat. But I have never actually visited the area.

?: Do untreated (unoiled) habu in a humid environment lose their curvature?

[kendophx]

... the price of habu ... in europe it s around 22 euro...
We recently replaced just the bamboo, kissaki not included, and it was $20.

Unfortunately this is too simplistic a comparision.

A more accurate picture would involve comparision of minimum wages, exchange rates, import tax burdens, and the general affordability of the habu as a per cent of local cost of living.

And as an engineer and not an economist, I am not the person to do it.

...(i have a stock :wink: héhé)
Got a bamboo grove in your backyard, eh?!? :)

[xvikingx]

When I lived in Southern California, I always oiled my new habu. However once I moved to Japan linseed oil became quite hard to find, so I don't bother and I have noticed my habu do not last as long. The sides start chipping away sooner and then it eventually cracks/breaks.
?: Do untreated (unoiled) habu in a humid environment lose their curvature?
Some of the naginata at my dojo have habu with very little curvature. I don't know if it is due to humidity, lot's of, or being left on the rack unused too long.
We recently replaced just the bamboo, kissaki not included, and it was $20.
Are you joking? Do you know that you can buy habu with kissaki for around $22?

[GBN]

You guys realize that the kissaki is a $2 size 37 sakigawa right? Plus about $.15 worth of tsuka string. As for oil, I use mineral oil for all my shiai-type bamboo, kendo or naginata. Vegetable oil works fine too. The purpose of oiling the bamboo or any wooden item is to help protect it from changes in humidity and to help it maintain elasticity.

Brian

[kendophx]

...Are you joking? Do you know that you can buy habu with kissaki for around $22?
At the time of purchase, getting a kissaki was not an issue because we already had spares.

We needed to replace my practice partner's habu. It had straightened out enough that we were starting to do naginata-yari isshu shiai :) .

Although she also lives in Arizona, she lives north of the Mogollon Rim. There, the humidity is much higher; but also, as you mentioned, her habu were very old and had a few years of non-use before we got a regular practice schedule going.

I was curious as to if/how much the high humidity contributed to the straightening out of habu.

If it does, then the UK naginata-no-hito might want to keep this in mind when caring for their quipment. I think it would be of interest to others in high humidity environments. I mention them specifically, as Lisa from UK, was the thread starter.

I am not sure about Japan. High humidity, yes. But I think with the availability of practice times/locations, your habu wear out before they would ever get too straight to use.

By contrast, my naginata have their original habu from 1995. I believe, but do not know for fact, that the UK naginata-no-hito are in a situation closer to mine than yours - not a large number of practice opportunities. If I am wrong about that, hurrah!