Making a tsuka. 
NOTE: This tsuka may not be the most attractive
you will see.
I searched for material on the web to make one and was
unable to find anything.
These pages are presented merely to share information
because no one else had web based instructions.
I am not a professional tradesperson and if you find
my work unacceptable just use your imagination to visualize a better job
(or make your own web page to show us), I was only trying to help those
who want to try making a tsuka of their own.
In these pages I will attempt to explain how to make a tsuka
(hilt) from a hickory hammer handle.
Hickory is a reasonable wood for a tsuka and it's easy to obtain
hammer handles at most hardware shops.
First, select a handle of the appropriate dimensions, from which a
tsuka
can
be obtained from (remember that you will require something larger than
the final product). This example uses a 450mm B P hammer handle.
Mark a line down the centre of the handle and saw it in half.
Then saw the end off at the widest section near the top.
Rotate one of the half sections end to end so that the grain forms
a "^" pattern. This will stop the tsuka from warping.
To determine the amount of curvature the tsuka should have,
mark a line the length of the tsuka (I have used excess length that
I will trim up later) on the face of the half section using the spine of
the blade as a template.
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This page was updated on Tuesday 26th September
2000