Glued Shinai

[Raígma]

Greetings,

I received my oval grip shinai.
As I disassembeled it I had to recognize that
the tsuka is glued together at the end.
Also, the staves aren´t closing in the end as they
did it with my old shinai. You can see the metal plate
which is fixing the staves position through this hole
I attached a photo that shows the tsuka width.

Has anyone of you experienced such a glued tuska?
Don´t tell me to try to rip or saw it in parts. That would
just destryo the staves. It´s not possible.
It´s kind of difficult to oil it this way.
Any suggestions?

By the way. I´m going to give the "soak it one night with water
and oil it afterwards" method a chance. (I like water, yep)
There´s just the question how to get the oil in there.
Fill a pipe with oil?

[KhawMengLee]

The glue is quite common with most japanese shinai I bought and you can pull the staves apart(carefully) like normal, I think the glue is there just to make it easier to handle.

[Phlebas]

I have an oval grip shinai (from eBogu) that was the same as you describe and I was able to carefully pull them apart without any damage. Just be careful and you should be fine. I also noticed that the metal square was bent, and not quite square, so I was concerned that it wouldn't fit together again properly. All it took was a little more patience in reassembly, I had no problems, just take your time.

Good luck!

[Raígma]

Hm.. I tried to take them apart... really... I don´t think this will work without any damage.

[Phlebas]

Perhaps use an exacto knife or razor to "scratch" the line where the staves are supposed to seperate. Mine were stubborn too and I found this helped. Perhaps warming the glued area with a hairdryer would help? If not, I would recommend just oiling it as is, and go as far down as you can with the oil on the insides of the staves. I would think that the most important part to oil would be the "contact" areas of the shinai anyway.

[KhawMengLee]

I know the feeling Raigma, I thought the staves would snap too if I pulled them apart. Best advice is to use the shinai a few times and the jarring effects of a few trainings should crack and loosen up the glue.

[matsu]

I think most of the shinai I have disassembled have been glued like that, I just used a knife together with hitting the tsuka with the handle of the knife. And that hole has also been like that on my shinai. A tip about that metal plate, let it stay in one of the slats. That way it's easier when you're putting the shinai back together.
About oiling; if you have the space for it just put some newspaper on a table and lay the staves on then use a brush to apply oil ( I use linseed/terpentine mix).
Oh and dont forget to give those edges of the slats a little sanding or shaving to round them off.

[Raígma]

Already done. I gave the edges a short sandpapering and my father bought a pipe. The whole shinai rests now in this pipe and soaks gently the oil. Sunflower Oil.

Well, I didn´t use water now. I was wondering how the oil should get in real contact with the shinai if it is already full of water. I would have to oil it again and again. This way it can soak oil for a long time. It needs 2l only and I think I will be able to let the oil stay in there. That´ll be enough for some weeks of shinai oiling.

Thank you for your suggestions. I guess I learnt much already.