IS THIS EXPLANATION BS OR TRUE?

[katanako]

I ordered a katana from Japan. Before the person could ship it, I received a message saying

that the habaki needs to be repaired. He claims that the shirasaya became too tight (probably due to

lack of humidity in storage) and caused the silver foil to peel away from habaki.

 

In looking at the damage, it appears to me that the damage occured (supposedly) when he tried to insert the blade into the shirasaya, since the foil is pushed upwards (toward you). If the damage occured while he was trying to pull it out, I would expect the silver foil to tear and not have ragged, scrunched pushed in edges. I experimented with a piece of aluminum foil.

 

He promised to make me a new habaki, but if the shirasaya is still tight, it doesn't make sense to put a new habaki on it. It would make sense to split the shirasaya and scrape off a few mm of wood to compensate. There is no sayagaki on the shirasaya.

 

Have any of you experienced such a thing? Just curious.

I appreciate everyone's comments! Thank you very much.

 

HENRY S.

[cabowen]

Look at the front edge- the copper underneath at the edge is dented and damaged, like some pounded on the habaki to remove it. What may have happened was the habaki was damaged trying to remove it as some point and then at a later point, the foil, now loosened, was ripped back when putting it into the saya. I have never seen a foil habaki peel like this unless already damaged.

 

I do not like foil habaki and always order solid silver.....You could probably remove the foil from this habaki and clean up the copper underneath enough to make it serviceable.....

[Jean]

No I have never seen this and I doubt it very much for several reasons:

 

The habaki is conical and should not have his silver foil torn back like this.

Your Vendor must be some kind of Mr T to be able to tear it this way.

 

It could not happen with a new habaki as the shirasaya should be split/opened to adapt the new habaki and then rice glued again (it should not have happened with the previous one)

[Bugyotsuji]

How well do you know the seller? Many would be reluctant to hand over an object in that condition and would insist on fixing it. I would like to think he/she is doing this out of common manners and hope for future business. There are a few dodgy people out there, but in this case I would just take it at face value and allow them to fix it for you. They will not do it in such a way that the same problem occurs, is my bet.

[katanako]

Thank you all for your kind comments! This message board has saved me $$$$

in costly mistakes I would have committed!!!

 

HENRY S.