Hrm… A Hobby I hear? What’s that?

Hello all,

I have found myself a hobby that is outside the computer, about as far away from the computer as it gets…

I’ve gotten a real katana for my spring break present to myself, and Betty went off and bought me a Iaito (non-sharpened pratice sword) for an aniversery gift. (Our one-year is in 1.5 weeks yay!)

The iaito will not arrive for about 14 weeks, as it takes some time to smith it…

I found this little beauty in Chinatown San Francisco while we were up there visiting Betty’s folks. Her Dad has this odd notion that since I was looking for a real (not wall-hanging varity) sword, that I was out to go cut someones head off… Hrm… I guess the man is very traditional.

I found the traditional cleaning kit for a katana in a local shop. The steel that a katana is made out of is designed to never crack. As a result, katanas can usully cut right through other types of swords. The downside to this material is that this type of steel is prone to rusting, hence the cleaning process. One needs to oil the sword once every three months to keep oxygen off the blade. I only cut myself twice during the cleaning…

I suppose they could use a newer kind of metel to make them now, but they usully stick with the traditional methods. Mine is a traditionally made one, albiet a cheaper one. Mine has rayskin strips on the tsuka (handle) instead of a full wrap, and also the tsuba (guard) is rather cheap. I’ll probably replace the tsuba later with a nicer one.

I’ve posted pictures of the Katana below:

The thing on the bottom holder is a bokken, a wooden pratice stick in the shape of a sword.

I’ve also found this:

Linky, which appears to be a Iaido school in Santa Cruz. Iaido is the art of drawing the sword out of the saya. I won’t have any time to look into them any more during the quarter, but come summer I may be getting lessons.