Red Streaked Saya

Three Katabami MON'S... (above)

Traditional Tachi Mountings

WW-2 Japanese NAVY  total restoration

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I recently was asked the following question; "Will it damage my SWORD or its VALUE if it is polished or restored or even if I only have the handle re-wrapped ? 

The answer is simple:  Japanese swords have always been highly valued in their culture and for centuries, the Japanese have kept their swords in excellent condition, on a level of what we today refer to as 'Museum Quality' because the Samurai Sword is not only a weapon. it is also classified as a 'work of art'. 

Most of us are familiar with swords that have been fingerprinted, badly rusted and damaged due to our lack of knowing or caring how to take care of them.  Therefore, any effort and expense you put forth toward maintaining one is an effort in the right direction.

Further, most of us have been taught that the majority of antiques are best 'left alone' and kept 'as is'..  but Japanese swords are different. It is important that sword owners understand that the majority of swords brought back from Japan at the end of WW-2 as souvenirs were previously maintained by their owners and kept in absolutely museum quality condition, fully polished and immaculate, passed on down through the families and some of these same swords date back over 1000 years - - but because the swords were classified as 'trophies' and because there was no one around to tell us any better, we went about touching the edges to see how sharp they were, we tested the sharpness by wacking on tree branches and abused the swords mostly because we just didn't know any better.  We were unaware that Japanese swords are considered 'works of 'art',  in addition to being a weapon as well as 'THE' symbol of authority in Japan for hundreds of years'. Please rest assured that your part in helping to restore it (putting your sword back into its original condition) is the right thing to do and it does indeed restore its value.

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Traditional Tachi mountings

Floral Aikuchi design

Gold Floral Aikuchi set

Six piece Sterling Silver Aikuchi set

TANTO (standard) mountings

Custom Gold Koshirae

Six piece Water Buffalo horn set

Ribbed Saya

'Dragonfly' Koshirae

DAISHO  (matched pair of swords)

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'High grade Same' and quality parts are available only from Fred Lohman

Tanto Tsuka wrapped with our custom & exclusive Tanto-width Leather

Even though our handle wrapping cost is reasonable, there are those who will offer to charge less but they most often do not have the important skills, tools and experience and end up delivering less than expected.  Where 'price' becomes an issue, the result is often a Tsuka (handle) that is poorly wrapped and quickly loosen.   There are methods learned from years of experience in addition to the specialized tools that are required in order to properly wrap a handle. We highly recommend that you visit as many sites as possible and inspect images of old Japanese handles in order to understand what a professionally wrapped handle should look like. One of the more obvious features of a properly wrapped handle is that all 'diamonds' (the openings) should be close in size to each other.

RED Silk Battle wrap 

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TSUNAMI wrapped handle below . . .

Engraved SILVER 'O-Seppa' and KEY FRET Seppa

 SILVER Fuchi Kashira, Kiku Seppa and Silver decorated Tsuba

takes sword restoration to an entirely new level

Battle wrap style  (above)

Our leather handle wrapping cord is available in both Brown & Black.  It is important that you choose wisely when you select someone to wrap your handle because not all who promote themselves as 'professionals' possess the skills the tools to produce the results that you see displayed on these pages. There are others who claim to be professional handle wrappers and two of them (I have been assured) have difficulty tying their own shoes.     Choose carefully !

The undisputed elegance of black Leather and black Same'