Saya Rattle

[bobO]

Hi guys, I have a zatoichi 2 and this sword rattles to beat the band.Is there anyway to fix this ?I was going to stuff a little flanel down there , but I'm worried about hurting the blade.Any ideas. Thanks ~X(

[Jason Moore]

Does the habaki (blade collar) fit tight?

[bobO]

It does now,I had to tweak it.

[Brian Brazier]

a small amount of saya rattle is pretty common, the blade is actually suppose to float in the saya, so if you knock the saya against the floor or something it will rattle, but it appear you have fixed it, what did you do?

[bobO]

Hey brian,what I tweaked was the throat of the saya just made the fit a tad tighter, so now the sword won't fall out if inverted.But the blade still rattles big time.I'm just thinking since this is a "secret sword" it shouldn't make so much noise.Don't get me wrong I'm not sneaking around with my zato,just thinking it shouldn't make so much noise.

[Brian Brazier]

short of making a new saya there is really no simple solution, I have heard of people putting a piece of polishing paper or cloth from a Paul Chen maintenance kit in their saya but I wouldn't recommend that.

[bobO]

Thanks Brian,That's what I thought just thought it was worth a shot.I don't think I'll stuff anything down the saya,just let it rattle on.

[Justice]

Hi guys, I have a zatoichi 2 and this sword rattles to beat the band.Is there anyway to fix this ?I was going to stuff a little flanel down there , but I'm worried about hurting the blade.Any ideas. Thanks ~X(

You could try TINY bits of cotton ball. Rip off tiny amounts, put it on the throat, then stuff it down with the blade.

TINY AMOUNTS!

I did a bit too much once using a synthetic batting, and the blade wouldn't go in all the way. I had to get a coat hanger straighten it, heat the tip to red hot and wiggle it in the saya to get the cotton to clump to it and pull it out.

[bobO]

Thanks Justice,I'll give that a try.Also I'm seriously thinking about having some of the saya done up in rattan and i wanted to step up the polish and tone down the Hamon a bit.Thing is I wanted to do all this with out doubling the price of the sword.What do you think? OH YEAH,That's MUCH better,just toyed with what you suggested justice,took very little cotton,no noise.Great,thanks.:dwarf:

[Justice]

Thanks Justice,I'll give that a try.Also I'm seriously thinking about having some of the saya done up in rattan and i wanted to step up the polish and tone down the Hamon a bit.Thing is I wanted to do all this with out doubling the price of the sword.What do you think? OH YEAH,That's MUCH better,just toyed with what you suggested justice,took very little cotton,no noise.Great,thanks.:dwarf:

That's a difficult task. getting almost anything done by an American craftsman will always cost about as much as the actual blades itself.

Plus I usually do not like repolishing blades like the DF musha class or the paul Chen practical class because they leave their blades grainier than most other makers, which makes them much much harder to polish.

[bobO]

BUMMER,but not unexpected.I wasn't worried about the G2 that one is there high-spec line,and seeing how that's strictly my cutter so that's good enough.But my ko-kat is just so nice I wanted that one spiffed up some.OH well to the tatami it will go.There's also the rattan on the zat2 still thinking of getting that done.Thanks for your time Justice.

[Justice]

Rattan is actually fairly asy to do, just sometimes time consuming and requires knowledge of wood stains, lacquer, etc.

Check any store that sells basket cane or look online. Rattan cane is very cheap. i bought probably 50 sayas worth for about $30.

[Brian Brazier]

Aaron, I was wondering what style of rattan you use, there seems to be round, flat, flat oval, and splined.

[Justice]

The stuff I use is the chair caane, it's like an oval split down the middle.

http://rattancane.com/chair_cane.htm

[bobO]

Thanks for the link,Can the rattan go at an obtuse angle relative to the long axis of the saya.

[Brian Brazier]

Thanks Aaron, I will post picks of my saya once it is finished

[Brian Brazier]

I was wondering if anyone has used clear nail polish to adjust the fit of the saya? I have heard that is what Samurai use to do, and my Paul Chen PPKE needs a tiny adjustment