Shinai disassembly

[Ostrak]

Hello. I'm new to Kendo and I finally bought my first shinai. I'm attempting to disassemble it and oil it but I'm a little stuck. I have it down to just the bamboo staves but the staves are connected at the handle. From what I've seen I should be able to separate the staves. Is this right? I can't tell how the staves are connected and I don't want to pull too hard to separate them since I'm not sure if I should, or if I did whether my shinai would break. Any advice at to how to proceed is greatly appreciated.

[Neil Gendzwill]

There's sometimes a little glue there. Just pull them apart, or use a utility knife to seperate them if you want to be extra careful. Sand off the bits of glue before reassembly.

[Hyaku]

You may have seppa.... a small tin plated washer in there. This levels up the bamboo splints before they are assembled with tsuka and sakigawa. But it is sometimes not square to the splints A sharp tap to the side will dislodge it. Not up and down or you will bend it. Then you will have to put it back in the way you found it.

As they get old they rust with the condensationfrom sweaty hands.

Hyaku

[Ostrak]

It turns out it was the seppa. I got the staves apart and sanded down. Thank you both for your help.