またつまらぬ物を打ってしまった…

Look at what came in the mail yesterday!

My brand new bokutou (apparently) imported directly from Japan. At least, that's what they said on the site. Smooth, no fear of splintering at all (until I start hitting things with it), and makes a satisfying whoosh sound when I swing it.

As it comes from Japan, it's probably made of Japanese white oak, as opposed to American white oak, which from what I hear is an inferior weapon wood. Unfortunately, since there's two types of white oak floating around, many vendors will just tell you that their bokutou are made of white oak, without telling you much else. Unfortunately, I'm no wood expert, so other than the color and feel, I don't know much else.

For the record, some more exotic woods can be used for bokutou, some of them more hyped than others. I won't really get into it here, but for the most part, Japanese white oak is about as standard as you come. I've seen cheaper bokutou too, made with some darkish brown-red wood that you see all too often at cons (think it's low-grade red oak). Don't trust those - they feel hallow. Although if you're going for common woods, I hear hickory is a great choice.

Wood: Japanese White Oak (presumably)
Blade Length: 76 cm (30 in.)
Tsuka Length: 25.5 cm (10 in.)
Curvature: 0.95 cm (3/8 in.)

The only slightly disappointing thing about the bokutou is the stock size it comes in - I usually grab the sword at the mark where the tsuka is supposed to be, except a half index finger's width up (meaning my index finger rests directly on the mark). Maybe this isn't a problem - there's a tsuba-dome (a rubber stopper) that I might be able to fit on that mark, which might give me a little more space. I prefer my tsuka to be around 27 cm (10.5 in.) or so for this length.