Broken Shinai

[Neil Gendzwill]

Originally posted by Paburo
that's why a lot of ppl that usually use only bamboo switch to carbon shinai mode in taikai

I'm the opposite - I use carbon for everyday practice, and bamboo for jigeiko with seniors or shiai. The carbon feels like crap compared to a nice bamboo shinai, but has the virtue of low maintenance.

[Paburo]

also and more important, it's more resistant. therefore it's safer.

i feel more in peace with myself knowing my shinai it's not gonna crack suddenly and injure my aite.

you are right though, the bamboo feeling is a lot better.

[Steve]

Thanks for the tips Neil. There are "dents" on the shinai, but much higher up. Above the nakayui for about 90% of them with a few strays. I do use the same shinai for keiko as i do for receiving various drills from beginners. I'll make up a "drill shinai" for that purpose. Hopefully that ought to take care of things.

Thanks a million!

[scbang]

I once had a shinai that was broken with very first kote-nuki-men.
One stroke - one shinai.

Not a good way to justify my Kendo expense.
Carbon Hasegawa ia a MUST for me.

SC

[aru-ma]

speaking of broken shinais, I've read somwhere that its better to use used cooking oil than an unused oil I'm not convinced though, can someone tell me pls? being a poor university student I cant buy a carbon shinai.

[Paburo]

i heard that, in theory, you can use any oil -vegetable or not- as long as it is absorb-able by the bamboo staves.

but, the heavier the oil, the heavier your shinai will be at the end.

here we usually use sewing machine type oil(lighter) or olive oil
(cause this is spain, and olive oil rocks :D )
i guess if you were in japan you could use ŒÓ–ƒ–û (gomaabura) instead.

[Steve]

For maintenance I use Gun-oil. Its cheap, and very light. It also comes in handy containers with a small nozzle on it allowing you to control how much you put on very easily. 1 bottle of it costs about $3 and lasts for quite some time.

For a new shinai that is dry and needs to be bathed, gun oil will work great, but would be expensive to buy the amount you need. So i use cooking oil for the initial oil bath.

I've been told lemon oil or orange oil also work great, but haven't tried those myself.

[Neil Gendzwill]

Gun oil is good. Make sure you get the kind *without* the blueing in it.

Veggie oil works just fine, just make sure you have less soak time with it than with lighter oils.

Haven't had much success with lemon oil. Works great with wood, doesn't seem to do much for bamboo. Also, it's expensive.

[scbang]

I was soaking new shinais in Canola Oil - 2-3 month in fact. Rmember the broken shinai mentioned before? One stroke, One shinai? That was the one soaked in Canola oil for 2 months.
Doesn't seem to have made much difference. Unless of course it really was a BAD shinai to begin with.

SC

[hwarangdo]

First time I broke a jookdo I taped it back together. My Master laughed when he saw that, told me only the severely financially challenged students did that back in his day (1950's).

Yeah, that would be me.

I tend to break my jookdos when I hit the tire (target).

I used my Master's carbonfiber jookdo once. Didn't like it, seemed bulky, and heavier.

Would be nice if someone made plastic jookdos. Wouldn't break, easy to carry on planes, probably wouldn't cost that much.

I'm thinking about ordering jookdos in bulk, from a distributor.

[kendo_chick]

I still have my original shinai that I still use for warm up because it is a little heavier than my geiko shinai

[Neil Gendzwill]

Originally posted by scbang
I was soaking new shinais in Canola Oil - 2-3 month in fact. Rmember the broken shinai mentioned before? One stroke, One shinai? That was the one soaked in Canola oil for 2 months.
Doesn't seem to have made much difference. Unless of course it really was a BAD shinai to begin with.

SC

Soaking for too long makes them soggy and weak. For Canola oil, coat the staves in oil and let sit for 3 days, then wipe off. For lighter oils, let sit for 5 days or so.

[Dwayne P.]

In my case, uchiotoshi waza and strong do cuts tend to be the brunt of abuse for my shinai’s.

Ultimately I believe that maintenance and technique is key to pro-longed life of a shinai.

To add to the points already listed above. I’ve really noticed that the durability of the “cheapie” shinai really don’t stand up to pro-longed abuse. Obviously the quality of the bamboo and the construction of the shinai has a lot to do with it. The lower end shinai tend to crack and or fracture near the tip a bit more then a mid to high end grade shinai’s do. However, if one happens to crack/snap on you, you’ll wish it was a cheapie! Yes I have some lower grade shinai that have made it a couple years also but overall for me they seem to be the first to go.

Dwayne

[Steve]

Damn you Kendo_Chick.....Damn you.

[kendoka_ca]

I guess I must have seen more than my share of broken shinai. In fact, I probably broke one a month when I first started kendo. I hit like I was swinging some kind of prehistoric club, and I owe a great debt to my dojo comrades who endured that early punishment. Not to mention sensei's patience in finally making me stop it. But then again, I have been paid back since then by a few new generations of beginners who had the same early habits.

Isn't the most common factor that causes beginners to weaken, splinter, and break shinai with some regularity is the tendency to hit the metal bars of the men? Part of it is immature technique, but some of it comes from the reflexive reaction that motodachi (esp. shorter ones!) have when beginners are pummeling them. It may not take that many strikes with a cheap shinai on the bars of the men to crack of splinter a stave. So even if sensei is working hard to get new students to strike correctly, the damage can be done quickly.