Shinai

No idea why I'm building this shinai. It's the one I wrote about a while ago, the one I got for half-price. Bought a nice tsuba for it today. Don't think I'll ever use it for keiko though... would almost be a shame.

Also bought two more shinai to take back to New Zealand, super big grip. I've always had a bad feeling about the shop we go to: they never seem to care for their customers, and when we ask questions (like 'which shinai has the biggest grip?' or 'do you have this shinai bag in a green colour?') they don't seem to know the answer and look around stupidly.

I only found out at home that they had put a 38" tsukagawa (grip) on one of them (a 39" shinai). We rang them up and asked them to send us a proper grip. They agreed but said they always put those grips on the larger shinai... yea right, not on any of the 5 shinai I've bought there so far. I'm happy that I won't be going back to that shop any more.