Fukuro-Shinai 2.0

[sven beulke]

Hi All!
It’s now almost two years ago that I started offering fukuro-shinai here at e-budo.
Time to start a new one because my shinai does not look like the shinai you see on the pictures of the old thread anymore and some other stuff is outdated. Feel free to check it for critics about my work and servive. I researched and tested methods to make shinai in a way that could be called traditional. I had correspondence with people like Dave Lowry and Karl Friday who has been very kind answering my questions about the fukuro-shinai of there ryuha.
I changed my method of lacing. The older versions of my shinai are laced through holes, know I cut small slots. This method makes the work not easier because you have to force the leather cord through a very narrow slot, but this is not only the traditional way to do it also produces better fukuro. I know use only leather with a thickness of at least 1, 4 mm. I could make fukuro-shinai in many different ways and sizes. From a ca.35cm long, lacquered “tanto-shinai” (I made much smaller shinai!:-)), like the one used in Sekiguchi ryu kogusuko up to a 150cm nagamaki-fukuri-shinai shinai I made as an experiment.
My “flagship” is the red-brown lacquered Yagyu-Shinkage ryu fukuro-shinai but I also make shinai in the style of the Shinkage-ryu without lacquer and with a wider lacing in different types of leather. The ca. 1m shinai start from 60 Euros up to 100Euro for the laquered version with a narrow lacing. Shipping cost to the US will be 25Euros (others please ask!). Here are the pictures. If you have any questions just ask!
With regards

[sven beulke]

I also made Kashima Shinryu fukuro-shinai but i am not at the point where i could say they are 100% or at least 90% traditional. The main problem here is the bamboo, but I am working on it. I made several shinai with a bamboo like a Shinkage-ryu shinai(split eight times) and around 1m but completly covered in leather and with a wooden tsuba covered with leather in the same way as a KSR-shinai. Some thing like that will cost 110€, because making the tsuba is extremly time consuming and difficult.The white one has exactly the same size (huge!) as a KSR-shinai. The yellow-brown one is much slender and shorter.

[sven beulke]

Here a modification i figured out for the classical YSR-fukuro shinai. In made the wrapping of the handle longer( you normally have a "tsuka" of ca 21 cm an alway grip a bit of the fukuro!) and fixed a leather tsuba on the shinai(check out my leather tsuba here ).
This shinai is perfect for shiai. Making the handle longer cost nothing extra, the tsuba cost 10€.

[sven beulke]

As i said before in this thread i could make shinai in almost any size. This one was more a joke but maybe someone of you feels the need for something like this. Its like the big thing, laquered leather fukuro (goat leather), the bamboo is eight times split! Maybe you own a katana-letter opener and you feel the need for a save way of practicing the vicious moves to open letters? Maybe your Gi-Joe you are playing with since 20 years want to learn YSR? Right now there is just one of it but i could make more. So feel free to persuade me with money!

[sven beulke]

Its my opinion that the principle of the fukuro shinai could also be used in other martial arts, for example historical fencing or escrima. A friend of mine is runnig a school for historical fencing here in Bremen. He comes up with the ideas of a Katzbalger-version of a fukuro-shinai. The Katzbalger was the favorite close combat weapon of the german landknecht, a double bladed short sword with a huge handguard. This is what i made of this idea. The handle is made in a special way so it has an oval shape. The white lacing is on both sides of the "blade", a good optical control for correct use of the sharp edges! The huge hand guard is made from laminated leather. This is just an example whats possible when i work completely free from traditional backgrounds. I also made escrima sticks, sixteen times split bamboo (70cm) completly covered with leather. I started testing them with two senior escrimadores her in Bremen! If you have an idea, no matter what let me know!

[Bob Blackburn]

Nice work.