The first stage of a tsuka rewrap is always about the preparation.

I like to document the process of any important rewrap, not so much because its pretty, but because I like to be able to look back on things and show the people Im doing the tsuka for progress pics. For this reason, I'll keep the monologue as short as possible :)

First off, we have the typical raptor tsuka, kinda haichi in shape and fairly overbuilt. :) I think I'll have plenty of material here to work with. 

The main problem with production katana is cracks in the saya and if you scroll down you'll see that I will need a damn strong epoxy.. one that is stronger than the wood, just to make sure.

The nakago runs the vast majority of this tsuka. Its not particularly wide, quite thick and quite long. (cant believe I had to write that :p ) 

Again, more pics showing the shape.

Shots of the nakago

You can see the shims here......

standard katate-maki top view

This thing is HUUUUGE :)

Typical crack at the mune side, epoxied :/ wonder how bad this is.

a bitch to remove, but at least it was safe right? ;)

ooohhh dear... :/ I will have to fix this up and its gonna take more than that little bit of epoxy to do it... 

ouch.

This type of menuki are going to be very useful.

So yeah, I've got a lot of work in the prep but *shrugs* at least I know now what I have to work with.