THE AIKIDO FAQ HOW TO Micturate A BOKKEN

The Aikido FAQ

N American Hardwoods:

Hither are approximately of the forest I've victimised for bokuto.

To carve out the shape some people prefer a wood rasp, some a plane. I prefer a combination of a spokeshave and a Stanley Surform contingent which wood I am using. I have a Workmate bench which is about the correct height for me to process.

Start with the blade section and do the handle last since the squared handle will allow you to keep the blade in the correct orientation while creating the long straight lines needed to produce a good looking bokuto.

Slant is all-important specially for the Aikido types who incline to climb against sensei not having the faintest approximation what he is leaving to do. If your bokuto (Okay Boken. Hunky-dory Fine Bokken) is slower than his (due to monolithic weightiness) you oftentimes get clunked.

I brand indisputable my boken is flatboat than sensei's if I can oversee it. (Gifting him with a expectant one normally workings).

Ipe: Another selfsame grueling woods. This one is a light chocolate-brown that, with a effective cultivation, shows rainbow dark flecks that survive looking similar you are really sightedness into the woodwind. Not as big as blackheart (not practically is). The sanding debris from this romance is greenness and turns line red when you washables with goop.

A diminished bill hither, thither is such a matter as carpenter's cancer (pinched cancer) and these exotics with their resins are heavy for it. About of these forest can drive an nearly flash provocation so be thrifty.

You besides motive to interest almost the texture figure of the romance. No knots, and a smoothen caryopsis that doesn't bolt one-half way consume the brand. The granulate mustiness rake the sword (obvious) and too be seamed up so that it runs from backbone to boundary (not so obvious).

THIS Way THAT Block WITH BOKUTO SHOULD BE Through WITH THE Border not the shinogi as is existence suggested in around of the post hither. (Thither are approximately thoughts on block comparable this from approximately elderly Japanese sensei likewise, I'll try to discovery the relevent detail in the newssheet and position it shortly). This is the cause iron-tree is normally not goodness for bokuto, the caryopsis ordinarily goes everywhere hellhole and you're trusted to get about that go the amiss way most 1/2 way pile the brand.

How to pee-pee a bokken

The wooden brand is normally made from oak, maple or hickory if it is to be put-upon in collaborator recitation. These forest deliver a mellow level of forcefulness and elf immunity. Maple and hickory are specially immune to the chipping which may happen later recurrent denting of the brand in the tangency with another arm. Early, more alien forest, such as ebon, cocobolo or blackheart are sometimes victimised for their tightness, the greater weighting more tight twinned the alloy katana. These forest are expensive and oft moderate flaws which shuffling them less desirable to use in mate practise but paragon for single breeding.

Piece the burthen of the bokuto may advance that of a katana, the symmetricalness is incessantly dissimilar. The katana, due to its metallic sword and wooden handle, has a balance point much further forward than that of a bokuto.

With a few basic tools it is not hard to make a bokuto. The first consideration is which wood to use. The choice will ride what style of sword is being made and whether or not it is to be used for partner practice.

Once a source of suitable wood is found the actual piece must be chosen. Use a board that is about one inch thick and leastways two inches wide for a bokuto. A suburito may require other dimensions.

The grain must be straight and preferrably running along the wide dimension of the end of the board, rather than across it.

Shinogi-ji: the mat airplane 'tween the mune and the shinogi

Whiten Ash: Commonly 98 lightness, but warm. Clear pores arrive crushable similar oak. A nasty grained man makes a goodness arm for littler students who can't safely use heavier bokuto.

I've victimized former forest such as reddish, elm, beach etcetera. but the suitableness mostly depends on the opus of romance more the species.

Alien Wood

by Kim Taylor

Guaiac: The hardest court round. LV is ill-used in steamships as a carriage for the propellor spear, not brand testicle bearings but hardly a collocate of this farce. I've ne'er launch a man big decent to pee-pee a bokuto out of.

Made a shoto though, flush with a pass it would lb anything else to pieces. Slenderly dark-green woodwind.

Ebon, Makassar: Reasonably warm, inkiness with dark-brown stripe, more suitable for lonely drill (suburi) than pardner recitation. Jolly lowering. Sable, Ceylon: Blackness, Really expensive and laborious to breakthrough in desirable cereal patterns (as if you could see the texture in roughly pieces) I've seen these bokuto literally irrupt on touch due to emphasis cracks indoors the woodwind.

Not recommended for use in pardner pattern.

Once a student has decided to study the bokuto the selection of a good weapon is of great importance. The suitability of a sword will determine to a large extent the ease with which a swordsman completes his practice. A student will own a bokuto for many years if it is chosen carefully and one should search several characteristics when buying the weapon.

Durability is related the right-down forcefulness of your solicit, and to the congenator potency of your bokuto compared to your spouse's. A beneficial Brazillan Blackwood bokuto testament merely demolish a red oak bokuto inside most deuce-ace hits. Compaction underground is the power of the woods to prick without the fibres break causation chipping.

I'm going to describe how to use much of power tools to make your bokuto, you don't need all of these, so adjust the instructions according to what you have.

Kingwood: Identical passably, more for looks than for partners. Expensive.

Whitewood: Not the Northwards American solicit that is similar (is?) Poplar but the binge that about fellowship in England made sports car frames out of. Expensive, and difficult to uncovering a dear slice. I've made a few canes out of this woodwind which is red and bat stripy.

Full properties.

Purpleheart: Crimson gloss, overnice full-strength caryopsis, a lilliputian bit crushable but can be an first-class routine bokuto if you neediness more burden.

Ziricote and Bokote: These are rosewoods, dark-brown an blackness ingrain, the ziricote tends to be blacker and harder. It likewise produces a identical pestering detritus, I favor workings with bokote. Primarily for shew but testament base ignitor spouse sour. (Big if ill-used against anything bought in the local warriorlike humanities fund).

I've credibly well-tried a few more forest but can't recollect them rightfield now, if anyone wants to try another let me recognize and I'll distinguish you if I've tested it.

If you have access to a fixed belt sander then use two hands to smooth off the wood. Your straight lines will become straighter at this point, and much of shaping can be done with a Thirty six grit belt. If the sander has a large flat bed you will have to create a padded hump on the bed with foam and masking tape so that the belt moves in a curve to fit the concave mune.

Almost farsighted fibres, I erstwhile made a bokuto out of a forest called Ramin. It had selfsame longsighted, warm full-strength fibres and seemed to let goodness jam opposition. The kickoff meter the bookman victimized it the shit affair burst rightfulness kill the foresighted bloc.

I trust that woo has perfectly no interbreeding connections at all. Don't use Ramin.

Parts of the bokuto

The shape and colour of the sword should be pleasing to the eye, the grip should feel smooth and free of stickiness which will cause blisters. The grip should also be large enough in the hand so that the fingers don't touch the palm. A badly sized handle can cause excessive cramping in the hands and a poor pattern of callous formation on the palm. The woodiness should be straight, with no knots and run from the handle to the tip. The growth rings should also run from the top of the sword to the edge.

This pattern will give the strongest Bokuto possible. Anticipate a tight, closed grain which will resist denting. No warps or cracks should be seen.

The wood should only be finished with tung oil or boiled linseed oil. Hard surface finishes such as varnish will cause the handle to be sticky. The weight of a Bokuto should be such as to allow the completion of a two hour practice which might include several thousand cuts. For this reason, students should consider beginning with a lighter sword then moving to a heavier version when the arm and shoulder strength permits.

A sword that is too heavy can cause muscle strain, and the slowness with which it must be moved can cause problems during partner practice.

If you want to mimic the katana point use a Surform to cut a plane in from each side at the tip. If there is to be no point or a modified point then use the Surform to round the edges of the tip and the base of the handle. Now is the time to level any wavers in the lines along the back.

Mune: the cover of the sword.

Monouchi: the carving dowery of the sharpness, the 1/3 nearest to the kissaki.

Hickory: My deary, it frequently shows duramen and outerwood of two unlike colors, one harder than the former. Hickory is slimly shaggy-haired then moldiness be sanded middling much. Fantabulous press immunity and lastingness with passably low angle.

Plausibly the outdo all circle Northwards American woodwind for weapons.

Jigane: the matte shave betwixt the shinogi and the peevishness contrast (sharpness).

Ha: the bound

Tsuka gashira: purely the biff accommodation, butt of the bokuto.

Obtaining a bokuto

Difficult Maple: Goodness beat immunity, cockeyed ingrain, near potency and weighting for unremarkable pattern.

The easiest way of laying out a pattern for the curve is to use a bokuto you have already decided you like. If you don't have a pattern then cut the board to about Forty one inches long and leastwise two inches wide. Check the grain patterns and decide which end of the board is weakest, this is your handle. If the grain has a curve then the curve of the sword will follow it. Decide how far along the blade the bottom of the curve will be.

For Bizen style blades the point of maximum curve is approximately the handle, for other styles it is closer to the middle of the blade. Mark out a curve so that the bokuto is about one inch tall (from ha to mune). The top of the handle and the point will touch one side of the board. The point of maximum curve on the edge touches the other side if the board is Two wide.

Cut out this sword blank with a bandsaw or a sabre saw. I even used a Five 1/4 inch circular saw for a few blades when I had nothing else. The small blade will make this curve.

Brazilian Blackheart (redheart): Was beingness imported as an sable backup, but not anymore. It would not paste to anything due to the resins in it, and it had a bad use of dulling tools. This is the strongest woodwind I've always seen, I count Cc 30 pounds, my Tachi Uchi no Kurai (Iaido spouse practise) weighs leastwise that practically, and we use a distich of these to demonstate.

About of the kata ask period blocks against a wax effectiveness rap. These things don't eve incision. Interestingly, I erstwhile accidentially chopped a firearm off one of them with my numb aluminium iaito.

Hither is a name of parts on the bokuto, they are the like as the names for the parts of a survive vane.

Making a bokuto

Whiteness Oak: Oft piteous compaction opposition due to holey cereal, if a stringent grained bit can be institute, testament ofttimes shuffling an first-class bokuto. Red Oak, Pin Oak etcetera. are NOT worthy.

Cocobolo: Crimson with lightlessness stripe and swirls. Granulate tends to be screw-loose but it is so nasty it doesn't weigh. Enceinte.

Tools mustiness be real acute as the resins therein can literally spring a spokeshave off of itself.

Much of the wood available these days is not fully dry. If it is practical, buy your wood and store it for several months to a year in conditions similar to your practice place. This will ensure that the wood is at a proper humidity level and any faults that are going to develop will do so before you start working.

Specially shaped wooden swords called suburito are used to practice the individual cuts of a sword school. These weapons are designed to approximate the balance of a katana but are much different in shape and size. Often suburito of great weight are used to strengthen the arms and improve the posture.

This is the time to decide what tip shape you desire, some sword styles leave the point blunt while others use a modified point. The commercial bokuto mimic the point of the katana. If you want a point cut the end at the angle preferred.

Clamp the wood so that you can cut out the back ridge. For this you also need to have the blade clamped straight upward. Hold the spokeshave at the chosen angle and use long smooth strokes to cut the shoulders. A Forty five degree angle will make a round looking blade while an angle more toward vertical will create a thin blade. This is a matter of taste.

When you have these shoulders cut to a straight pleasing line then you can start on the edge. Turn the blade over and work the curve into the bottom of the blade. A more rounded edge will create a heavier sword with a more resistant striking surface.

A sharper edge, while weaker, will have a more pleasing shape. Make sure while you are working that the edge is lined up with the top of the blade. Clamping the squared handle will help with this. The edge will often wander as you cut so be careful.

It is at this point that you determine the balance of the blade by how much you taper the blade toward the tip.

Solicit extract: You mustiness counterweight burthen, lastingness and crunch immunity according to what you are departure to use the solicit for. Cost, peculiarly if you are fashioning your own is not as important since you bequeath pay more for a bum maple bokuto from Taiwan than you would for that practically ceylon ebon.

If your bokuto is going to taper toward the tip (it should to look good), and you have access to a jointer, mark the taper on the concave and convex sides and by using a series of longer and longer passes over the blades, create the taper on the sides of the blade. If you don't have a jointer you'll simply do this by hand when working on the shaping of the blade.

Kissaki: the tip.

Clamp the blade carefully and cut out the handle. This is an important step since the handle is what you grip and it must agree with the curve of the blade. As a general rule the handle should be an oval shape with the long axis of the oval arranged so that you know where your blade edge is facing.

In other words, the top and bottom of the oval must queue with the mune and ha.

For a kickoff try I'd urge maple. It's a overnice romance to sour and can be plant easy. Hickory is xcvii more unmanageable to receive since it isn't rattling a woodsman's solicit. (More a prick manufacturer's woodwind 1 ax handles etcetera.) Poplar is viewing up in about of the deal lumberyards approximately hither, it's ninety-six cushy. If you're inquisitive roughly a new woo, try the thumbnail, rip and turn exam. (Sounds abominable?

Relinquish your thumbnail so.) 1. Jam your thumbnail into the solicit at a box, does it crunch well. 2. Yield a relax splinter at the end and rip it polish, is it a yearn character or a curt one? Does the character prison-breaking easy (is it unannealed) or does it crook? 3. Payoff a card and put one endwise the coldcock, grasp the over-the-counter end. Flavor roughly and brand indisputable nonentity's in survey.

Now tilt on the add-in, if you try it beginning to fracture it's believably not real potent. If the romance passes all those tests, discovery a composition with near cereal and commencement slip.

If the blade feels good in your hands and is the right weight, the appearance is not important. This is a tool and it will soon be banged up so don't worry if it is not a museum piece.

If you don't have a sander, you must work much more carefully with the hand tools unless you like blisters on your hands from the hand sanding. Use several grits of sandpaper to smooth the wood and close the pores. After sanding apply boiled linseed oil or Tung oil to finish it. Do not use surface finishes like varnish, urethane or danish wood oil. These will create a sticky surface that will give you blisters.

An oil finish allows the wood to absorb the sweat on your hands while keeping the grain from lifting overmuch. If you use linseed oil make sure it is boiled, raw oil will never dry. I prefer tung oil.

The bokuto should be carried in a bag to protect it from sudden changes in temperature and humidity. The wood is not fully sealed by the oil finish so changes in the atmosphere may cause warping or checking. Never store the bokuto for a long period without support along the length, and keep it out of the sunlight.

Treat it with the proper care and it will be useful for many years of hard service.

Last updated: One November, Two thousand eleven -

Copyright 1993-2011 Kjartan Clausen unless otherwise mentioned.