Same Kawa

Same is the skin froma ray, used as handle wrap for Japanese swords, this tradition goes back hundreds of years. It greatly increases strength of the tsuka as well as providing excellent grip for both the handle and the tsuka-ito.

Our Same comes in 5 grades.

Grade 3

Our first grade same skin. Adequate for all repairs and big enough for full wrap tsuka to lengths of 15 inches. Color usually ranges from mottled yellow to yellow ivory.

Grade 2

This quality skin is a consistant color ivory with much bigger nodes. 8-9 inches wide and up to 22 inches long. This skin will please almost all users. It is very nice.

Grade 1

With each finer grade you can anticipate more consistancy of color and much larger symetrical, and dense nodes. The higher density of the nodes removes any spaces that are apparent on the lesser quality skins. You would be proud of using this skin on an antique blade.

High Quality

They just keep getting better and better. Mostly used for high quality custom swords and expensive antiques.

Top Quality

For those who need and appreciate some of the finest grade skins available.

These will exemplify the finest in node patterning, size and density of nodes, uniformity of color and overall strength and robustness of appearance.