Do you have to oil the habu

[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!