RichardP

I thought I was being sneaky, but yes, my spouse immediately detected my ulterior motives as well…

Hi Mike- Thank you for your appreciative comments, but no, NBTHK doesn’t provide any info as to their reasoning—so it was nice of Geraint to give some thought as to the factors that might have guided them.

Thanks so much—while the results were a disappointment, it’s nice to get some idea as to what features might have guided the shinsa team’s decision.

Gimei. Dang...

Covid seems to be creating delays as well—I submitted a tsuba for the kodogu shinsa back in January and have yet to receive results...

Not hell at all—I don’t have any veneer bags, or an air pump or anything. I just cut the veneer, taped it to some MDF and rolled heat-activated veneer glue on both it and the plywood substrate. After a few hours, a second coat to each. The glue dries to a firm, plastic-y consistency. Then you mate the pieces and iron them with a clothes iron. https://www.veneersupplies.com/products/Better-Bond-Heat-Lock-Veneer-Glue.html Cost of entry is so low that if you have any interest at all in veneering, there’s no reason not to get a bottle of heat-activated glue (and a roller, and a veneer saw) and give it a go...

Perhaps until you look behind the curtain—then: buh buh BUMMM.... Nothing but butt-joints & brackets. (The brackets have been countersunk with a router so as to avoid tangling up the drawers, but that was my only concession to professionalism. All you need to build this box is a table saw and a router. And a drill press helps.)

On the underside of the gunsafe’s lid, right at the mouth of the drawer, there is a 1/4” metal flange set at 90 degrees that I drilled through. I attached an aluminum led light strip bar (https://www.superbrightleds.com/moreinfo/aluminum-channels/micro-alu-led-strip-channel-universal/2039/)by drilling and tapping the bar laterally to accept #4-40 socket head screws. Three screws hold the whole assembly in place, and I don’t lose any more headspace than the flange was already taking up:

The gunsafe came with a little led light set in the inside of the drawer face, but I removed it and installed different lighting. I used a diffuser filter and amber light gels to tint the light a nice candlelight color:

Hi John, I got the hardware from Morikuni.

Thanks everybody for such nice replies! I just fetched a better camera, here’s some clearer pics: (The veneer is Tamo wood, by the way: https://www.woodmagazine.com/materials-guide/lumber/wood-species-3/tamo)

Foam interior replaced with birch ply, and sword racks out of basswood. A Gunsaver dehydrator bar is mounted between the two racks.

The bottom drawer is built around this under-bed gun safe:

On the bottom drawer, the face plate is hinged and swings open to reveal a keypad:

The little drawer on top holds origami, and has a sliding tray for small accessories...

The long top drawer is made of solid mahogany with a mahogany veneer base—I built it like I was making a humidor, and with two-way humidity control packs, I hope to be able to keep koshirae at a pretty constant 49% humidity.

Hey all! So I built a katana tansu, thought I’d share:

This one is over at nihonto.com, on an Ishido katana.... https://www.nihonto.com/7-03-20/

To be fair, Lamborghini makes a pretty sweet tractor:

Must be one of the rooms here: https://www.tsubahotel.com/en/

Hello Adam! You might consider addressing the various points of entry into this field—you’ve got militaria enthusiasts whose natural interest in gunto seduced them into nihonto proper. Then there are the martial artists, who may have been swinging iaito before they ever heard of hada, but have gone on to pursue the roots of their art in nihonto. There are the artistic connoisseurs, who bring a strong aesthetic perspective that really gets at the heart of nihonto. These categories will overlap of course, but by presenting and discussing them, a prospective buyer can do some necessary introspection and really start to drill down on WHY they are considering buying a nihonto. (For example, someone whose interest in gunto is limited to its connection with WWII may be perfectly happy with a non-traditionally made blade, if that blade comes with wartime provenance.) Each category will also present different issues regarding our obligations to be good stewards for these objects. Does the buyer insist on accompanying koshirae? Why? That’s a major fork in the road right there. If buyer wants koshirae so that the nihonto can be used for martial arts practice, does buyer understand the potential for damaging the nihonto in the process? Does buyer realize that the cost of having modern koshirae made is not going to be recouped if the buyer ever wants to re-sell, and nihonto with matching, historic koshirae is both big bucks and now a big obligation to care for saya lacquerware? If for the above reasons the buyer sours on the notion of koshirae, does the new notion of nihonto in shirasaya hold as much appeal as the old image of the samurai sword? If not, maybe time to rethink things...

If you’re looking to maintain the humidity at 45%-55% for the koshirae—and the volume of your case isn’t too big—you might look at two-way humidity packs. Boveda manufactures packs with higher humidity levels (~70%) for humidors, but they also make ones for violin cases and such with a relative humidity in the range you’re looking for: https://bovedainc.com/wood-instruments-music/

This is the best hygrometer I can find for the money: https://www.amazon.com/Cigar-Oasis-Caliber-Digital-Hygrometer/dp/B00JXOKT1O/ref=mp_s_a_1_28?dchild=1&keywords=hygrometer&qid=1611603707&sr=8-28 It’s small, inexpensive, easy to calibrate, and seems to be very accurate.