Hello all. Here are pictures of a wakizashi that I've assembled with parts from all over. The blade I bought on e-bay as part of a fire damaged lot of four. This is the gem of that group. It was darkly stained and the foil covering the habaki looks to have bubbled. It is unsigned. I've given it a gentle polishing that I will continue until I get it up to par. The rabbit tsuba I purchased from Bill G. on the marketplace forum. The military tsuka I also bought on e-bay and is as purchased. It fits together very tightly without seppa. I will try to answer any questions,W

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Looks good. I like the long tsuka/short blade look (ala Cheness' "Mokko Ko"). Kind of a "chisa-esque" quality to it. :D Is that an original gunto tsuka, or a repro? :)

P.S. How far into the tsuka does the tang go?

The tsuka is original japanese, and the whole thing is 25 3/4" with a 19 5/8" overall blade that is 15 3/4" from habaki to tip. The tang has no file markings to be seen but I think that is a result of the "restoration" someone attempted after the fire. I could be wrong. It has a nice balance and feels very lively in hand.W

If I read that right, that's 10 inches of tsuka with less than 4" of tang inside. Wouldn't that leave 4 or 5 inches of hollow space inside the tsuka, which would make the last half of the tsuka succeptible to damage from a hard swing, or are the military tsuka built differently than the traditional? :)

Say, that looks great! I'm glad that tsuba went to good use: It'd been burried in a box for years not doing anything. It works really nicely with that sword!

Hey G. Scott. The long tsuka isn't that worrisome to me. The tsuka seems sturdy enough but I don't intend to use this one for any hard cutting. As far as historical accuracy , see Bugei's posted early photos of samurai with long tsuka katanas. I like the balance afforded by this set up on my shorter blade.W

Do you know how well the temper held up to the fire damage?