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Tsuba and Seppa questions.....


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The wooden tsuka core can shrink, or parts may be exchanged, both can lead to some wobble. For display not an issue. Simply adding another seppa (washer like spacer) rarely works. If it really bothers a small piece of leather, cardboard, or even blue painters tape make take up the slack and and can be reversed/removed with no harm.

 

Also, be aware that the play can be front/back, which is where the seppa come in, or top/bottom, which if the issue typically involve placing soft metal inserts at the top/bottom of the tsuba to remove that slack.

 

HTHs

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  • 5 years later...

I didn't see the need to start a new thread, so I found one on the same topic:

 

I've got 2 kaigunto with really loose seppa, so I ordered some from Crimson Mist. The '43 Sukekuni, seki-stamped blade, would only take 1 seppa. I know it's non-standard but it snugged them up nicely. I like it much better than the really loose feel it had.

 

The other is a koto era blade retrofitted for a kaigunto. The fitters must have been in a rush becuase the wood liner of the tsuka isn't wide enough to let the tsuka slide all the way down to the seppa, leaving a gap. They actually put the mekugi in at a steep angle rather than take the time to fit the liner properly! I tried filing the inside of the liner, but I cant' get it opened up enough to improve the fit, and I'm not going to try unwrapping the tsuka to do the job. SO, I fit a seppa in and snugged it up. Again, non-standard, but the look and feel came out nice.post-3487-0-93060300-1550420329_thumb.jpegpost-3487-0-69839600-1550420342_thumb.jpeg

On a sidenote, the inexact fitting of this Tsuka, makes me think it was grabbed by a fitter from a pile of pre-made tsukas rather than custom built for this blade, which could indicate this was one of many blades collected from the public campaign to gather family blades, rather than a guy that showed up with his owm blade to get it refitted. I think a custom job would have fit better.

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Sorry Bruce, but I suspect a retro fit (aka shotgun job). If you are going to cut with a blade the tsuka HAS to be a good fit, no ifs, no buts. Someones life depended on it. Taking a  factory made tsuka blank, cutting the inside to fit and then doing the tsuka-maki would make a lot more sense.  Scouring the 'net for parts as I do, I think I have found "blanks" on two occasions.

  Clean honoki wood, exterior finished but interior a bit rough and too small a cut out for most nakago. I have also seen Gunto tsuba punched to close the nakago-ana onto the blade in the traditional manner. Why number or assembly mark the pieces if the fit was not important?

 

 

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This thread is quite old. Please consider starting a new thread rather than reviving this one, unless your post is really relevant and adds to the topic..

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