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I finally finished making the handle (Tsuka) for my wakizashi project. It was a pretty lengthy process with lots of different parts to create.
I used steel and shibuichi for the fittings, and for the handle itself, I went with linden wood, which is both easy to carve and flexible.
The Tsuka Ito (the cotton handle wrap) and Same (the ray fish skin) were imported from Japan.
As for the feather menuki, I made those in a previous project, and the Mekugi (the bamboo pin) was shaped from a bamboo chopstick using a tapering jig that I made a while back.
This project took me a solid two weeks to complete because I had to be super careful when fitting all the parts together. I’m really happy with how it turned out though. The tsuka fits snugly, and nothing wiggles around, but hey, it’s not perfect. I definitely learned a lot from working on this project.
