Like the title reads, where can one obtain skins of the best quality sam'e for tsuka? Is "grade-1" from the various vendors online the same thing? Or are those just larger skins of whatever kind of sam'e they have? Is there any place online where i could specifically ask for a certain grade of sam'e and get it? Some place that sells various ray skins (specifically Urogymnus Asperrimus)?
From what i understand the different grades of sam'e depend on where the ray is found, but i haven't been able to find anything online, like some sort of place that sells various marine animal skins, and where is Chan-ha found anyways? I've read of "sam'e-shi" becoming a trade in the 18th century, those called sam'e-shi specialized in the preparation of sam'e for whatever it was going to be used for, are there any modern sam'e-shi? I'm particularly interested in "kiridashi", which is to make the oya-tsubu look larger or more even grained. Has anyone here tried this themselves or know of anyone who's done it themselves? I've seen some really beautiful tsuka with suspiciously even and large tsubu, now i think i know why, don't know exactly how.
Sorry for asking so many questions (you can thank "The Sword and Sam'e" and my curiosity for it), i hope someone knows what i'm talking about, any help will be greatly appreciated.
-Paul
