Marking your weapons

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[roadster]

Do you mark your pracitce weapons with your name? I've seen some mark them with their initials. Do you write them in English (or what ever native language you speak) or do you mark them in Japanese?

If you mark them in Japanese, do you use use Katakana, Kanji, or another?

Only reason I ask is because I am going to mark my practice weapons. I think I am going to burn (with a wood iron) my name on them but I wanted to get everyone's feedback on how they mark theirs before I mark mine. I don't want to completely rely on how others in my dojo do it.

[ChrisHein]

It's not really any big deal in any of the schools I've been in. Just mark the end of the weapon with a mark you can recodnize.

[ChrisMoses]

Sharpie + initials = done. :)

Mine don't last long enough any more to bother doing anything fancy. Everybody I train with hits too hard these days. :freaky: Freakin' bruisers.

[Janet Rosen]

I sign them just as I do my paintings: with a tiny soft watercolor brush and acrylic paint, sign my name, then after dry, cover with a layer of acrylic medium and let it dry.

[Gerardo Torres]

It’s a good idea to mark one’s weapons, especially at large gasshukku/seminars where one has to switch weapons continuously. I use the sharpie + initials method. Some friends burn an identifiable mark on the wood – using a heated pattern made by metal wire I suppose.

[ElizabethCastor]

At my dojo, there are a few different preferences...

My weapons came with an option to have a kanji character(s) burned on them. I chose something simple that reflected my own personal goal for training (if you want a similar thing you can check out the kingfisher website... they have a huge list of various kanji and maybe some kana)

Others have simply written their initials with sharpie on the butt end of the weapon (quickest and easiest if you ask me)

Still others have a chosen to use a rubber stamp with permanent ink along with some kind of fixer like the gel medium to make it really tough.

Really, I guess that its your choice you can go as fancy or as simple as you want...

[Jory Boling]

almost all of my Japanese dojomates and sensei sign the bottom of the handle with their names in kanji.

mine is signed by my first name in katakana (since i'm not japanese and eveyrone calls be by my first name). at the end of class, people run over to the weapons pile and grab their own weapons.

the bokto that my sensei has from Osensei is even signed on the bottom of the handle!

[Eric Webber]

I use one kanji from my name to mark my weapons, makes them easily distinguishable in large gatherings. Sharpies work wonders on a variety of materials (wood, bamboo, suede).

[MikeLogan]

I find the blood of unsuspecting Uke's to be rather distinctive due to the spray patterns unique to the occasion. Some like to leave the teeth fragments lodged in place as it lends a certain tactile viscerality. Personally, I don't think the callouses are worth it.

Blood is best, it gives a jo or bokken good grip, but doesn't leave it feeling sticky. Not too much in the first application, it will get all crusty. Best to apply over several occasions. Seminars are great for this. The tricky part is the last 2 or 3 coats, as some of the choicest Uke's become not so unsuspecting upon encountering a jo or bokken of a splotched, rusty-red hue.

As always with advice from the intar-web, your mileage may vary.

Happy Friday folks!

[roadster]

I think i'll just write my nickname on the butt of each weapon with a sharpie. :D

[Karen Wolek]

I think i'll just write my nickname on the butt of each weapon with a sharpie. :D

I just put my initials there (with a Sharpie) so when I bring them to seminars, they come back home with me. Nothing fancy.

[Elijah211Barr]

I marked mine with my initials

[Dirk Hanss]

My problem is, that I am everything else but an artist - as you can see in my avatar - And I do not want to spoil my new expensive weapons. So I have to find someone to mark my weapons with the jiriki kanji. which way does not really matter.

My old ones I just marked with a pen. Later I found someone to burn in my first name with a soldering iron - on the blade of bokken, tanto, shoto and somewhere on the side of the jo (ahem gardening stick)
Dirk

[lbb]

I just write my initials, in a kind of unique way, so as to keep my weapons from getting confused with anyone else's. I've never seen kanji, pictures or other ornamentation used in my dojo.

[roadster]

I just write my initials, in a kind of unique way, so as to keep my weapons from getting confused with anyone else's. I've never seen kanji, pictures or other ornamentation used in my dojo.

Doesn't anybody have their hakama stitched with their names in Japanese?

[brian donohoe]

I burn my name on all my weapons in katakana. I also provide this service on the weapons I make.;)

[Spookin]

I using a pencil to draw in some characters that I found on the Kingfisher website that I liked. After that, I used a wood burning kit (that I bought at A.C. Moore) to burn in the characters... A quick run of some extra fine sandpaper made it look even better! :)

Cheers and good luck!

[Suru]

You could always write, "Not Yours" on them, unless someone at your dojo acted on that before you.

Drew

[GaryBowles]

Being a carpenter fo over 20 years I like to make bokken and Jo for myself and friends - I usually inlay them in some way so that they are each individual - these photos are of a Jo I use every day for kata & is my favourite 'hiking stick' when I walk in the hills - the inlay is of kotegaeshi using woolly mammoth tusk, white mother of pearl and abalone shell, it's getting a little worn now but you get an idea of what it looks like.

http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s292/TREEROOT4/GIBSONsaddle025.jpg
http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s292/TREEROOT4/GIBSONsaddle027.jpg
http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s292/TREEROOT4/GIBSONsaddle022.jpg

All the best!
Gary

[Larry Cuvin]

Now that's a mark! Good craftsmanship!

[Shany]

Mine is sanded with hamon a like line like my Katana. I'm the only one with Hamon like sanded bokken that i've seen in any seminar I take here, so its pretty much original lol

[GeneC]

Excuse me, does anyone have a link to the Kingfisher site?

[Bob Blackburn]

Excuse me, does anyone have a link to the Kingfisher site?

http://www.kingfisherwoodworks.com/

[Walter Martindale]

I keep it fairly simple - carve (with firearm checkering tools) interlocking "V"s (one upside down) with give a WM butted against each other on the end of the handle or one end of the jo. Additional naming - punch-stamp my surname on one side near the end of the handle of the bokken with metal letter-punches. small font - you can feel it, and then when you look to see what's under your fingers, you figure out who it belongs to.

[graham butt]

I mark my weapons with the blood of other practicioners! that way there is a story left behind with it and the mark is pretty much done totally effortlessly!

[Akako110]

I put my intials on one end and my name in katakana just for fun!

ーテラ　（Tara

[Kent Enfield]

If you wrote "ーテラ", you wrote gibberish. You started the word with a long vowel mark which must follow a vowel. If you meant for it to be read right to left, you wrote "Rataa".

[Keith Larman]

A while back a student commented that I should mark one of my bokken. It didn't have anything on it and he said someone might get confused. That night I marked my bokken on the ura on the tsuka.

"Mine"

Works just fine... :)

[Walker]

If you wrote "ーテラ", you wrote gibberish. You started the word with a long vowel mark which must follow a vowel. If you meant for it to be read right to left, you wrote "Rataa".

Since we are nit-picking テ is "Te". Tara would be タラ.

[Dieter Haffner]

"Mine"
Nice find.

Maybe I should sign my next bokken with:
"Not yours",
just in case with would ever met. ;)