INTRODUCTION

We designed our Japanese swords to be as traditional as possible while being a fitting tool for a wide range of training practices including steel fencing.  However, the traditional hilt and wrapping on Katana and related swords was intended to be a consumable item. Traditional hilts regularly require maintenance, re-wrapping, and eventually replacement. For many Japanese sword artists, the care and maintenance of a sword is an important part of the practice and character of the arts.

In the modern steel fencing world, we recognize that the maintenance that comes with the trappings of tradition might not be for everyone and some of our customers may want to compromise the traditional ways for something a bit sturdier. So, we developed a method for taking our traditional sword hilts and transforming them. The result is a hilt that requires nearly no maintenance but can no longer be easily removed, modified, and worked on.

A Ruggedized Hilt has the following basic features.:

• Hilt removed and reset with heavy duty epoxy.
• Bamboo pins replaced with brass pins also fixed with epoxy.
• Handle wrap and knots are saturated with polyurethane to fix and harden.

Akado is happy to ruggedize any traditional Japanese hilt in our shop for you before your swords ship out. Just select the “Ruggedized” option when putting your sword in the cart.