Turning A Shinai Into A Longsword Simulator

My assembled shinai based longsword simulator.

Close up of handle, showing the aluminium pommel and cross.

Introduction

First the downside on using a standard shinai as a longsword simulator,

• they are far too light (the one I bought was 0.6kg),
• the handles are way too long,
• they have no pommels or crosses,
• they can create a lack of a edge discipline

• they don't bounce when they meet (as steel swords don't)
• the point 'sticks' much better in a thrust (due to the leather tip),
• it is easier to adjust their balance,
• they are cheap.

The Schola G folks had attempted to get around the shinai problems by putting a big ring of lead around the thing to bring it up to a decent weight, attaching a simple wooden cross and holding it all in place with the rubber tsuba dome things that come with shinai. I played with one and they were much improved over plain shinai, the weight was sensible and the cross was useful and gave you much more sense of an edge. However the handle was too long and the lead weight all in one spot made for a funky balance. I thought I could do a bit better.

The first thing I thought was, as the shinai are hollow, I could cast a rod of lead and put that inside the shinai. This would bring the shinai up to weight and give the it a better balance than a ring of lead, as the weight would be distributed over 40cm or so.

The second thing was, back in my SCA days (be nice now) I'd encountered cast aluminium pommels and crosses, designed to fit around rattan sticks, which have a similar diameter to shinais. Hmmm. After a quick bit of googlism I found the aluminium bits from a variety of SCA suppliers, I bought mine from a now seemingly defunct supplier, just google for 'SCA aluminium pommels' and you should find a few suppliers. I used the 6 1/2" square ended cross with an inner diameter of 1 1/4" inches. There are larger ones that are a better size, but they have an inner diameter of 1 5/8" which is too big to fit cleanly around a shinai.

So I bought a few bits, rummaged in my workshop for a few more bits and spend a Saturday afternoon having a go at making one.

Small and large ally crosses from SCA suppliers. The lower one is a nicer size, but the central hole is too large.	Ally pommel

How I Did It

Supplies I used,

• a shinai
• 2 rubber tsuba dome
• a aluminium "scent stopper" pommel
• a 6.5" aluminium cross with an inner diameter of 1 1/4"
• a 4" x 1/4" bolt + nut
• a pound or so of scrap lead
• needle and thread
• gaffer tape

Tools I used,

• tape measure
• ruler
• square
• saw
• rasp
• file
• ballpein hammer
• small anvil (any large lump of steel will do)
• screw driver
• 1000mm x 10mm x 10mm 'U' steel tube (for casting the lead)
• blowtorch
• crucible
• tongs
• scissors
• latex gloves
• face mask

Tools in me shed. The lead was cast into the "u" bar.

Learn how to take your shinai apart and put it back together again.

Figure out what you want it to behave like

1. weigh it, C15th to C17th longswords in the Wallace Collection have weights between about 1.3 kg and 2.1 kg,
2. measure its length from tip to the start of the pommel, call this length A,
3. measure the length of the handle, call this length B.

Cut your shinai to length

1. Disassemble the shinai so that the handle cover, the tip cover and the bit that binds it around the middle are all removed. Don't pull the four staves off of the metal plate, it will help you measure and cut it to size,
2. Gaffer tape the four staves together in several locations, this makes it easier to mark and cut
3. In a permanent marker, number the four shinai staves so that you know the order in which to reassemble them, I did this where the handle cover hides it,
4. Next measure back from the tip of the shinai length A. Mark this (you may want to allow for the recess inside the ally pommel, in which case increase A by that amount),
5. mark it as square as you can,
6. cut it at that point.

Round off the end of the shinai

Fitting The Pommel. Note that the pommel has a recess, you must file the shinai to fit.

Cut the handle cover to length

1. take the leather handle cover and turn it inside out (a tricky job actually, I used a long wooden spoon's handle to poke it through)
2. measure back from the open end of the cover length B plus the thickness of the ally cross
3. cut this with a pair of scissors

Sew up the end of the handle cover

1. do this by sewing four short curved seams that nearly meet at the centre,
2. you should be sure to leave a hole small enough to fit the bolt through,
3. if you have 'flaps' of leather sticking out inside the seem, cut them off,
4. turn it right way out.

File a notch for the nut

1. slip the bolt though the hole in the ally pommel,
2. take one of the staves off the shinai,
3. put the end of the stave into the end of the pommel
4. mark the stave slightly down from where the bold ends, this is where the nut needs to sit
5. use this stave to mark all the other staves,
6. check the marks against each other for evenness and squareness
7. check it again marks against each other for evenness and squareness
8. file a notch into the inside of the staves deep enough to take the nut, do it fairly snugly and make sure that all four staves can close around the nut.

The rounded end of my shinai showing the nut placed in the notches.
Behind you can also see the lead rod wrapped in white gaffer tape, set inside the handle.

Test Assemble

1. pick a stave and slot the nut into the notch you filed in it,
2. fit the three others staves around the nut,
3. reassemble the shortened shinai as per normal,
   • you will have to play with lengths on the binding cord as the shinai will be different
4. slip a tsuba dome onto the handle,
5. slip the cross over that,
6. slip another tsuba dome to hold it in place,
7. take the pommel and insert the bolt through the hole,
8. slip the bolt through the hole you left in the handle cover and down until it reaches the nut,
9. tighten up the bolt.

Get the lead out!

1. weigh the assembled shinai, including cross, cross and bolt,
2. weigh out an amount of scrap lead to make up the difference between the shinai and the sword to be simulated. I needed about 0.5kg of lead to do this,
3. I melted the lead in a small crucible over a blow torch, I could have used an old saucepan over a hob, but didn't have one and my crucible was too small for my hob,
4. pour the molten lead into the 'u' bar, be careful with spillage, the lead is somewhat hot,
5. the lead will freeze quickly when you pour it in, so you need to pour along the length of the bar to make a continuous rod
6. cool off the cast lead with water and extracted it from the 'u' bar, don't worry if it bends, you can hammer it back easily.

Spare piece of lead after casting into the 'u' bar.

Forming the lead

1. disassemble the shinai and make any modifications you found were needed, typically a bit of rasping/filing for the pommel,
2. put the lead rod between the four shinai staves at the thickest section near the handle, keeping the leather tip on the shinai might help here,
3. play with its position until the balance feels correct
4. I noticed that I couldn't make the four staves meet correctly for two reasons
1. there simply isn't enough room between the lead and the staves
2. the staves have 'bumps' on their inner sides where the lead other wise would have fit
5. I solved option (1) first.
1. Did this by hammering along the length of the rod, aiming to make it thinner and longer,
2. continually turning the rod to hammer it on all four sides,
3. I kept putting the rod inside the staves check the fit and how the new shape of the lead affected the balance point
6. next solve (2) by hammering with the ball end of the hammer to make a wasp waist where the ridges are. Be sure to turn the rod and hammer evenly on all four faces. A snug fit here is useful as it helps hold the rod in place inside the shinai.
7. I then wrapped the lead rod in several layers of gaffer and electrical tape

Shaped and wrapped lead rod and shinai. Note the wasp-waist to fit the 'bumps' inside the shinai.

Final Assembly

Your shinai is done.

How it has worked out in practice

I've used it in training sessions and sparing encounters and while not as good as steel I am happier with it than my wooden waster (an otherwise very nice Purple Heart job). It bounces less, is much better balanced and weighted.

The greatest expense was buying the pommel and cross, which together are about $45, plus shipping from America. However, they should last much longer than the shinai they are on and can be used time and again when the shinai eventually dies.

The only major problem has been the continual rotation of the cross, this makes it harder to both keep edge discipline and for opponents to perform techniques involving cross grabs. I'm going to attempt to remedy this, probably by binding the cross in place. I'd also be happier with a larger cross, as the square one is a bit narrow. However, the inner diameter would not fit cleanly on a shinai and would rotate even more.

My one fear had been that the method of attaching the pommel, through a nut embedded in the shinai handle, would be not robust enough. However, after several sparing and training sessions (including pommel strikes), it seems to work. I've disassembled it and there is little sign of wear or stress where the nut is lodged. I do have to continually check it to make sure that the bolt is properly fastenned. A 5p coin works wonders in the bolt I bought.

What I would have done differently

Images and Text, Copyright (c) Bruno Nicoletti, 2006