SCA Ito

[Otagiri Tatsuzou]

Having done upgrades my armour and clothing, I took a hard look at my weapons. No tachi. No naginata. No katana with a thrusting tip. Spear in bad shape. So off to work I go...

One of the weapons I am building is a nagamaki. I am making this as a 6' pole - 3' blade & 3' hilt. For most of my swords, I just wrap the hilt with white no-slip friction tape sold for application on stairs and ramps (psuedo-ray skin). But no haramaki would be hilted in this way. It would have a full ito wrap. The one time I actually used a wrap on a rattan weapon, it felt too wide given the pre-existing width of the hilt.

So what do you gentlemen do for SCA ito?

[Michimasa]

Well, I'm a complete ignorant in japanese arms used in SCA except for the Katana. So anyone can give a list of the differents weapon along with descriptions and maybe some pics.... ?

Mik

[Otagiri Tatsuzou]

Answered here:
tousando.proboards18.com/index.cgi?board=arms&action=display&thread=1099928818

[Michimasa]

Oups.... missed that one ... so any pics of SCA version of these

[rjsimmons]

Mik said:

Oups.... missed that one ... so any pics of SCA version of these

Here is me with my nagamaki.

[raito]

Quite simply, I don't. Every time I do, the edges of my gauntlets end up cutting through it. And being that I'm lazy enough as it is, I try to make things so I have to do as little maintenance as possible.

[Ryokai]

I've been doing some experimentation with white athletic tape over the past couple of weeks, it seems to be holding up pretty well given the abuse it takes, a few minor cuts and gouges from the gauntlets but I have yet to see it split from an impact, and I'm sure Otagiri-dono you know just how hard the impacts dealt by Haroun and Lothar can be at times. The only major problem is that it stains rather quickly thereby lessening the aesthetic value of things.

I'll be sure to keep everyone posted on how the tape situation works out as its use progresses into the future.

[Ishikawa Yoshimasa]

Otagiri said:

Having done upgrades my armour and clothing, I took a hard look at my weapons. No tachi. No naginata. No katana with a thrusting tip. Spear in bad shape. So off to work I go...

One of the weapons I am building is a nagamaki. I am making this as a 6' pole - 3' blade & 3' hilt. For most of my swords, I just wrap the hilt with white no-slip friction tape sold for application on stairs and ramps (psuedo-ray skin). But no haramaki would be hilted in this way. It would have a full ito wrap. The one time I actually used a wrap on a rattan weapon, it felt too wide given the pre-existing width of the hilt.

So what do you gentlemen do for SCA ito?

Otagiri-dono, you give me hope... I had heard nagamaki where not permitted because they fell inbetween the rules governing polearms and swords bearing atributes of each. have you considered shaving the tsuka portion of the nagamaki to thin it down enough to make a more comfortable grip?

to the honorable raito
it is my intention to fully itowrap each and every one of my weapons where apropriate... however there is the issue of cutting the ito with the gauntlets... I would have to recomend modification of the gauntlet if this provews to be the case. perhapse we should consider gluing an edging of thin leather to the gauntlets if cutting of our ito is a problem. (something I will have to look into with my own equipiment as I finish building it) alternatly one could take the time to go over thier armor and detail the edging with a file to remove all sharp edges, though this would be more work, it would eliminate the nead for potentialy unsightly leather edging. when the edges are rounded over they will be less prone to cutting the material under them.

[raito]

iwakawa said:

edging. when the edges are rounded over they will be less prone to cutting the material under them.

'Less prone' means it'll just get cut less often. It'll still get cut, and I'm still lazy. ;D