Tsuka Making
Selecting Materials for Japanese Sword Handle-Making

by Christopher Lau, Nihon-to Editor

The handle or hilt of the Japanese sword was called a "tsuka". Perfectly carved in relief of the shape of the blade tang, the tsuka functioned in perfect unison with the tang for not only maneuverability but impact absorption and shock tolerance. It was important that the wood selected be able to withstand the stresses of battle - a wood that was both strong and non-resinous, as resins and oils of certain woods can attack blade steel. This article deals with how to select the materials required to make a worthy tsuka for a Japanese sword.

Selecting a Wood

The Japanese traditionally used honoki wood, which is a species of Magnolia (Magnolia Hypoleucaea/Magnolia Obovata). Indigenous to Japan, honoki is a non-resinous wood which has served its place in Japanese sword furniture for centuries.

The closest relative to honoki here in North America is tulip poplar, also known as yellow poplar. Interestingly, it's not a poplar at all, but a tree in the same genus as magnolia.

Another wood that swordmaker Scott Slobodian finds to more closely look and work like honoki is alder, which resembles the honoki in its deep brown color, versus tulip poplar which is a yellow/green. Alder is a good choice, but it can be difficult to find in some parts of the continent, whereas tulip poplar is very common and very inexpensive.

Real honoki can be obtained from several sources in North America. However, like most other specialty Japanese items, some sources keep the best of their stock for themselves and ship the lesser quality selections to customers. Thus, an estimated 90 percent of imported honoki wood tends to be extremely low quality or flawed in some way. Unfortunately, it is still sold at premium prices despite the low quality. It is strongly recommended that unless you know the supplier is importing only top-quality honoki, and you can hand select it yourself, that you stick with domestic woods like tulip poplar or alder, which you can easily get top quality planks of at virtually any lumberyard. When it comes to the tsuka, functionality is far more important than strict adherence to tradition: It is not worth spending a fortune just to be able to say you used traditional wood if it is of poor quality that will break apart in your hands.

Besides alder and poplar, there are other suitable materials like maple, which are even stronger hilt materials or have beautiful grain and figuring. When selecting a wood, the key is to select one that is dry (oily woods like cocobolo and other exotics should generally be avoided unless you know how to take precautions in working them and also in lining/sealing the wood to prevent the oils from contacting the blade), strong in thin sections (e.g. woods like oak, while strong in large sections like building posts, are not so great in thin sections like a sword hilt; maple is much better), and fairly dimensionally stable (all woods expand and contract due to changing moisture in the air, but the wood you select should not be overly sensitive to moisture). Alder and poplar are by no means the only woods that can be used, they are suggested simply because their characteristics are similar to honoki, and if you are uncertain, you can't go far wrong by using either of these materials.

Use for Handles and Scabbards

Because there are some definite rules about which way the grain has to run, etc. when making saya (scabbards) and tsuka (handles), it is important to note that the process is not merely selecting a large enough plank of wood and cutting it out to make sword furniture. Proper alignment of the grain direction is important in order for the tsuka to withstand the stresses of combat and to resist breakage. Wood with "quarter sawn" end-grain should be selected to maximize strength and minimize warpage from moisture in atmosphere. Where perfect quarter-sawn wood is not available, diagonal end-grain is acceptable, but the grain on each half should not be permitted to continue in a straight line but matched so that a chevron (^) shape is formed when the two halves are joined - this helps prevent warpage of the saya: warpage in one direction in one half is countered by warpage in the opposite direction in the other half, and the whole stays in its original shape. It is also important to use top quality wood - heartwood is preferred as it is the driest, hardest, densest and stronges part of the tree, and it is also resistant to insects which prefer the softer sapwood.

Scabbards aren't as critical as hilts in this regard, if they are going to be lacquered because the lacquer protects the wood from the environment. With shirasaya (storage scabbards which appear as a continuous curved length of wood), heartwood is not necessary, but the craftsman should choose the best, most blemish-free, quarter sawn end-grain plank he can find. A shirasaya doesn't need a lot of strength, but in order to offset the plain appearance and give an impression of being substantial, it should be made thicker and wider than a saya that is to be lacquered. The grain should still be chosen to prevent warpage due to moisture changes in the air and because the finish is natural and not covered with lacquer, appearance is also very important- the wood must be free of knots and other blemishes.

Metal Sword Fittings

As for metal parts, there are many sources of reproduction fittings and guards available, but if you want to try making your own, you should be able to get wide mild steel sheet or wide bar stock that you can cut out for tsuba at a hardware store; autobody shops may have thin steel sheet in appropriate thicknesses for other parts. For fittings other than the tsuba however, I would recommend using copper or brass sheet instead of steel. Both are traditional materials and are more readily available in thin sheets and easier to work with than steel. They can both also be more easily patinated to a beautiful dark shakudo-like finish to complement the dark steel tsuba ("guard"). Brass and copper can also be used for the tsuba but thick brass/copper sheets suitable for tsuba tend to be more difficult to find than thick steel stock. If these are available in your area, don't be put off by the fact that copper and brass are relatively soft materials - the material chosen has nothing to do with degree of protection - a large proportion of original historical tsuba were were made of brass, copper, gold and silver or even such materials as lacquered leather. Tsuba were not intended to guard your hand from an opponent's blade, but instead to prevent your own hand from accidentally sliding upwards onto the sharp blade - even iron tsuba were soft enough that the hardened edge of a katana could cut through them!). Softer metals are much more forgiving and easy to work, especially if you want to try your hand at carving/engraving.

For those starting out, a very simple "no-nonsense" and quite traditional and elegant set of fittings consists of a plain round/oval iron/mild steel tsuba patinated to a deep brown black, a copper band, also patinated to a dark color as a fuchi fitting, and an inexpensive carved black buffalo horn part as a kashira. The parts may also be decorated with file marks if you wish.

On shirasaya, you may encounter high quality works with caps of buffalo horn or ivory and little eyelets of ivory for the mekugi-ana or peg hole. Ivory is expensive and difficult to obtain, but if you want the look without having to to the expense and trouble, Tagua nut, often called "vegetable ivory", when used naturally, can be substituted for ivory, or it can be stained black/brown as a substitute for horn (real horn is quite inexpensive though).

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