my saya is way too tight

by Jason Pengelly
(Tasmania, Australia)

QUESTION: I bought my first iaito and The saya seems to have tightened up in transport. It appears to be fine at the handle end but seems to be rubbing at the point of the blade. It really is tight and I'm not exactly a frail little person. Is there anything I can do short of pulling at apart or sending it back? Please If anyone can help i'd greatly appreciate it

Jason

ANSWER: Hi Jason,

A tight saya to start with is extremely (extremely) common across the board with production swords and iaito. There are basically two ways to fix it - the first is to just spend some time slowly sheathing and drawing it until it naturally becomes looser. The other way is to use something like a nail file and remove a little bit of the wood around the throat of the saya, always checking of course not to remove too much.

Anyway, it is very common and nothing to worry about.

Hope this helps.

- Paul

Comments for my saya is way too tight

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You don't have to shove it all the way in
by: Caleb

Depending on your applications, not fully inserting the collar into the scabbard mouth may be acceptable. I speak from the point of view of an Iaido practitioner: when performing the ~loosening of the sword from the mouth~, whether it is the thumb-push method or the muscle-expansion method, it doesn't require the sword to be anything more than reasonable tight in the scabbard. For the introductary practice drills, you are required to hook the thumb over the guard (as to prevent the sword from falling out) anyway.

Otherwise, yeah, keep sheathing/resheathing and it'll almost certainly get looser

Iaito Blades
by: Ben

ok firstly that iaito is ment to be realy tight in the saya because for iaido you draw the sword so many times its insane, the reason its so tight is it should have a throat cap that may be made out of plastic or some form of horn from an animal this is to keep the tightnes for a longer period of time, consider your self lucky because alot of companys that do not understand this send out loose saya that just do not work for iaido.

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