Easy to follow Jap Wrap?

Bruce Bump

Bruce Bump

Joined
Dec 2, 1999
Messages
9,910
Guys Im looking into a Japanese style handle wrap and need the "easy to follow directions" Is there such a site I can study?

Thanks :)
 
For turk's heads, which I think are great at the top and bottom of the tsuke, just email me. I tie them all the time at work, and can tie many, many variants, as well as a ton of other decorative knots. In fact I am working on one right now as we speak around a wooden boat paddle, the knot is about three feet long, with one continuous piece of parachute cord. You could even make a very nice handle this way, I can email you a picture if you like, since I dont know how to post them here.
 
hey those are cool I'll post those in the knife making site too..
yeaup Bruce that one is on the site..thanks Chuck.:)
 
Just an observation... I do lots of wrapped handles and have been asked to do a show-me-how tutorial etc. One of the reasons there aren't any instructional pics or such is that the wrap is amazingly difficult to demonstrate in pictures and descriptions ! :mad:

A couple of years ago, Steve Corkum demonstrated a handle wrap in Knives Illustrated but I think the pictures were labelled wrongly anyway and the pictures were taken from too far away to effectively see what was going on.

I strongly suggest that anyone seriously wanting to replicate some nice wrapping styles could get a hold of one of those super-crap display "katanas" and have a look at the wrap. Even buy one for the $0.80 they are worth and take the handle apart to look how they do the wrap. At the end of the day, thats probably the most worthwhile part of such a "sword."

After you figure it out, rip off the wrapping cord and use it for yourself ! :D Jason.
 
To do the simple kind of wrap you see on knives with a tactical flavour, you just decide on your undermaterial; ray skin, Kydex, whatever. You then start at the hilt, and wrap a 3/8" black bootlace in nylon around the handle as demonstarted in the link given above: http://pages.prodigy.net/tlbuck/tsuka/tsuka.htm

Just do the fold twice, then overfold twice part of this elaborate description. Things you have to decide are which side you start the first folds on; how you alternate your wraps on the side, just following the Japanese instructions isn' necesarily the best option, since the handle takes on a completely different character when glued.

Once you have wrapped up to the hole in the handle end, stuff the ends throught here until they are tight. Superglue the ends, trim, and then wet the whole thing with WEST epoxy or similar, not 5 minute. The best would be a WEST with high UV resistance, or similar. Make sure this really sinks in, and also that while you saturate everything, you don't get any puddling, you want the texture of the materials to be apparent.
 
Hello, Bruce

It is really much harder to explain than to do.
All I can tell you is to get some flat cord of any kind and give it some tries. You will learn pretty soon.
I suffered a lot until I learned to do the wrapping - and I am not talking about the fully traditional one, but what we see in modern knives - but now it gets so easy and automatic I can talk on the phone while I wrap my handles.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top