Shinai Maintenance

Hello everyone!!! :)

How are you doing? Are you on “kendo vacation”? Well, I was (for 2 weeks). But now, I’m  back to practice. When I arrived from my vacation the second thing I did (the first was take a shower) was take care of my shinai so I was ready to practice the following day. While I was doing that, the idea of making this post came to my mind. What I’m going to show you is the way I take care of my shinai. There are other ways to do so, but I prefer this one. I apply oil once a week and sand it occasionally (unless I see some damage that need to be fixed).I hope you enjoy this little “guide”. Any questions, just ask!

How to disassemble your shinai

What do I need to proceed with the maintenance?

Well :) I have my own kit. In the future I want to buy proper instruments to do this but, for now, this things will do. 

Like you can see in the picture, I use:

Sandpaper (medium grain) - to sand the staves if needed.

An amazing kitchen knife ;) - to cut splinters that can appear on shinai.

Shinai oil - I bought some shinai oil when I was in Japan but it came in a bottle, so, I put it in this spray bottle to make it easier to spread. I don’t no where the original bottle is anymore, but the oil is specific for shinai maintenance and is similar to the one in the picture bellow (it can be found on almost every online kendo stores). 

Shinai oil

If you don’t have this kind of oil you can use cedar oil, olive oil, or other. My senpai also taught me to rub some vaseline on the staves. 

An old stocking - this is used to rub the oil along the staves.

So, once you have your homemade kit (or a proper one :)) it’s time to carefully observe the staves looking for any damage. 

Now that you have done this, it’s time to assemble your shinai:

Finally, I wonder how long will this first shinai last...