Ken-Hawaii Posted March 19, 2014 Report Share Posted March 19, 2014 In the thread on Recent Tampa shinsa process observations and questions (http://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=18251), Thomas Helm discussed a sword measuring device called a Kenshaku (劍尺). I wasn't able to find one of these on-line, so I used my engineering skills to create a kenshaku 120 cm wide by 20 cm high, with 0.5 cm spacing; that should take care of everything but the o-dachi. I used AutoCAD, so the print-out is accurate to about a millionth of a centimeter (sorry that the JPG is blurry): You can set the blade down & quickly measure total blade length, nagasa, & sori, & then turn the blade on edge & get mihaba, sakihaba, kasane, etc. with just a bit of interpolation. Our sword club board went nuts over how easy it is to use, & I'm selling them to all our members. It's printed on heavy paper & laminated with plastic on both sides. I had a couple of them printed out at my local FedEx, & each cost me just over $17. So if anyone is interested in getting one, I'll charge $25 plus postage & PayPal fee. They roll up nicely, so I can ship them in a 1-1/2" X 12" mailing tube; the light tube keeps the weight down to just a few ounces. Please let me know if you're interested via e-mail (jssh@catii.com), & I'll send you a return e-mail when I have the final price for the postage. No reason why they can't be mailed worldwide, but that may take me another few days to get international postage rates. Ken Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cabowen Posted March 19, 2014 Report Share Posted March 19, 2014 Ken- Can you make one based on shaku/sun/bu/rin, with the finest division 0.5 rin? How can you call it a kenshaku if it doesn't measure in shaku??? :lol: :lol: :lol: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
b.hennick Posted March 19, 2014 Report Share Posted March 19, 2014 Hi Ken: Ken you can call it a "Ken"shaku if you want...I see no numbers on the paper. Most people would need a tape measure or have to do a lot of counting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gabriel L Posted March 19, 2014 Report Share Posted March 19, 2014 Ken you can call it a "Ken"shaku if you want...I see no numbers on the paper. Most people would need a tape measure or have to do a lot of counting. There are numbers on the periphery in the preview image, but of course at this mag. they are tiny. I have no doubt they are legible at full size. Can you make one based on shaku/sun/bu/rin, with the finest division 0.5 rin? How can you call it a kenshaku if it doesn't measure in shaku??? :lol: Obviously a shaku.sun|bu|rin version would be convenient for some (Ken, maybe you could print it double-sided metric-shaku?). And obviously we all know that the conversion between the two is dead easy (1 shaku = 30.3 cm = 303 mm), so it's not strictly necessary. But this reminds me that it seems to me like some people (present company excluded) may not fully "get" that shaku.sun|bu|rin is a straightforward decimal system. You can express measurements strictly in units of shaku: 2.014 shaku equals 2 shaku 0 sun 1 bu 4 rin. And 3 bu 8 rin is 0.038 shaku… etc. Makes converting between metric and shaku much easier than "shaku calculators" that unnecessarily split the units apart. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cabowen Posted March 19, 2014 Report Share Posted March 19, 2014 I simply prefer my sword measurements to be done in shaku......I'm used to it.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ken-Hawaii Posted March 19, 2014 Author Report Share Posted March 19, 2014 Sure, I can do a shaku/sun/bu/rin version, but there are some technical limitations. The printing technology I'm using is pretty good these days, but limits out at about 0.025 inch (0.625 mm), or about 40 lines/inch (1.57 lines/mm). That means the lines will not be individually readable past that resolution when printed. If my calculator isn't steering me wrong, that gets us to 4.76 lines/bu, which I guess can be interpolated down to rin. So, no, Chris, I can't get down to 0.5 rin resolution directly using the inexpensive printing technology I'm using, but rather to about 0.2 bu. If there's enough interest (say, 25 orders) for a shaku/sun/bu/rin version, I can make that up in AutoCAD & print it as a second version. I checked with my printing company, & they're not willing to try & align two separate sheets of paper before laminating them, & I can't say I blame them. So you can order the metric &/or shaku kenshaku, but they will come separately. How's that? And, yes, Barry, there are easily-readable numbers all around the periphery of the kenshaku; they're just blurred out to fit it in a usable photo. And I like the name "Ken" shaku! Thanks! Ken Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cabowen Posted March 19, 2014 Report Share Posted March 19, 2014 I would be in for a shaku version......Thanks Ken.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jean Posted August 22, 2014 Report Share Posted August 22, 2014 Hi Ken, I have just received your Kenshaku, very good and very handy indeed. I shall use it this afternoon on my Yasumitsu. Thanks a lot, it was really a great idea to have one done in centimeters Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ken-Hawaii Posted August 22, 2014 Author Report Share Posted August 22, 2014 Very glad to hear that it made it there this time, Jean. Enjoy! Ken Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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