First impressions, Sankei have once again done a beautiful job in their shinai making. I am not at all bothered by the price tag because quite frankly, it's an awesome looking shinai, and the feel of it is quite nice. The shinai itself has quite a thin grip, and the entire body is very thin. Although I am slow, it makes me feel almost like I could cut faster with it LOL.
Putting it on the scales, straight out of the wrap with the binding strings (black and gold, pretty..) taken off and no tsuba/tsubadome on, it weighed in at a respectable 530g. All good for competition use. I am concerned about the tip though because it needs to be fat enough not to pass through a certain width, which I will look up, 26mm supposedly. Taking measurements, it appears to be nearly 30mm, so this shinai is competition legal, which is excellent.
When I took a few light swings, it felt good, responsive. When I did a full power swing with tenouchi, I heard this almighty crack sound, and I quickly checked it. It seems fine and I think it was just the binding in the tsukagawa section of the shinai opening, and it didn't produce any more of the cracking in subsequent swings.
Measurements: Most smallest part (utmost bottom of tsukagawa) of grip is 20mm diameter. Hashiburi (bulge above tsuba region) is 35mm diameter max, and the Kensen just below the sakigawa is 20mm. Like I said, it's thin. The weight is very much out along the blade, around the monouchi of the shinai. Excellent for powerful driven cuts.
I have some pictures of it taken with my webcam:
I really look forward to using this shinai, though I fear it may increase my power and hurt more on the cut, if it does, I'll have to make sure I tenouchi well with it.
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2 comments:
this is the shinai that teramoto uses. i have 4 of them as well.
everything is good but i would have to say it breaks too easy on do.
if you like koto try the gold, its not bad either
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