On the 26th of July the latest shipment from Ronin Katana came in, and in it there were a few surprises..
Here is the first – Sword Parts for Sale from the Dojo Pro and RK Budget Series line!
There are three main koshirae (furniture) of a Japanese Katana apart from the blade – the tsuka (hilt/handle), the tsuba and the saya (scabbard) – and now Ronin Katana sells all three!
The first is the tsuka, as this is the hardest part of a sword to swap out.
Essentially, the best method of re-assembly is with a drill press, a steady hand and some mekugi pegs (not included, so either make your own or re-use the originals if they are undamaged). Basically you mark out what angle you will drill at to avoid sticking a hole through the ito wrap on the opposite site, attach the tsuka to the nagako (tang), drill through in one action and put in a new peg or two (don’t worry about extra holes in the tang, antique Katana that had been remounted often had tangs like swiss cheese!).
This method takes some basic DIY skill so another method used by some people is to simply epoxy the new tsuka on..! (not recommended, but it will do in a pinch and as long as you are quicker than it takes for the resin to start to dry).
The second sword part available is the saya – which comes available in two variations – black with black buffalo horn accents or black with brown accents.
These are very high quality saya (buffalo horn is rarely seen on swords at this price point) with good, hard wearing synthetic silk sageo (tied) and suitable for a 28 to 30″ Dojo Pro Katana.
In theory, these saya could also be used on other manufacturers swords – but it really depends on the curvature of the blade. Each one will take a little fiddling around with filing the inside mouth of the saya to get a perfect fit, but they are a good option for people who either don’t like the default saya that comes with their preferred sword, someone wanting to turn a standard Ko Katana into a Shinobigatana, or who has damaged their saya or just wants a spare.
The final category of spare parts for swords Ronin has brought in for us is of course, tsuba. They Have 36 tsuba available, each used on a current Dojo Pro or RK Budget Series sword and come in either iron ($45) or zinc alloy ($25) respectively.
Here are some of my favorites.
To swap out a tsuba, again some filing is necessary to get the best fit possible, but its nothing too technical – only slightly harder than swapping out a saya.
Anyway, it is a lot of fun to see these options become available. Shipping is $5 in the USA ($8 Canada, $12 everwhere else) but becomes free if you piggyback your order with something else (like a sword, other components etc).
Click here to see the full line up of what is available
