Ww2 SAYA

[Bruce Pennington]

DaveR would has more experience with removing parts. He would be your best advisor on that. All mine are held on by tiny screws.

I had a machine shop make a replacement spring for my chuso. Like you said, it probably cost the original shop $2 (labor included), but I had to pay the guy $100! If you are in the USA, there is a guy who could probably make and attach one for you at a much better price (I found him AFTER I re-did my chuso):

Don Schlickman
1470 Wood St.
Dubuque, IA. 52001-4256
Phone: 563-556-8496
Cell # 563-580-4220
email: dfsjpn@aol.com

I bet you could mail it to him and have it fixed.

[26Intrepid]

Thanks for the info. I’m gonna send him an email with a photo and see what he charges. One of my friends, who’s also an FFl, gunsmith, and a machinist hasn’t given me a price for adding the spring.

The last issue I have is the tang being damaged. Now the fittings aren’t tight anymore because of the deterioration. I’m gonna make a sleeve to fit over the tang, but it will have to be paper thin. One guy told me to fill it with epoxy... I think he’s been sniffing too much epoxy!!!

Once I get all the pieces and back together there won’t be any reason to take it apart again.

I’m gonna take photos of the other side of the tang in a bit and post them.

Thank you again for the phone number and email.

D

[Bruce Pennington]

D,
Looseness in the handle is fixed by adding a seppa or 2. The propper number of seppa, once the mekugi (bamboo peg) is inserted, will make the handle/nakago immovable. Could you lay out the seppa/tsuba combo in a picture for us? You may just be missing one of the smaller ones.

[26Intrepid]

The fittings are the ones that are loose. They slide onto the tang without much resistance. I’m getting the sideways wiggle. The fitting seem a bit too big for the tang now since it deteriorated a lot. I’m gonna post several pics of the tang in the sunlight. Once again, it’s pretty bad and can barely make out. I will post the fittings next.

These are the best that my camera can take. Sorry if they don’t help.

[26Intrepid]

And here’s some pics of the fittings... my wife’s phone camera is better than mine.. hope this helps.

D

[26Intrepid]

And some pics of the locking piece that needs a new spring..

[DaveR]

Like Bruce says, the koiguchi (Carps mouth) is usually secured with two tiny screws, but on a wooden saya I am not so sure. Your wooden saya is either a late war erzats or an earlier upgrade to reduce weight. Have a good trawl on here..
Military Swords of Imperial Japan (GuntM)

Ebay has most stuff that you would want. As for "shimming" the tang, bamboo leaf was sometimes used, or even a wood shaving, as I saw on an antique original, signed by the guy who did it. This is what was done on one WW2 original.......