A quick test making a custom "luxury" tsuba box - here is the result

[Jorgensen]

The other day I did a quick test making a custom "luxury" tsuba box. The purpose with the box is, besides containing a tsuba of course, to skip the need for a pillow, as the padding in the lid keeps the tsuba in place. Box have soft open/close hinges and made so it will stay closed until you lightly “force” the lid open and hinges is designed to ensure lid stays open until you close it again... There is room for improvements, but this is the result so far...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Jesta]

Very nice. I like the wood. 

[kissakai]

I agree that is a nice box now see it there any comments about the wood you have used

 

[Brian]

I think it looks great. Since the wood doesn't touch the tsuba anywhere, there shouldn't be an issue with any reaction. Maybe not traditional but certainly striking and attractive. Well done.

[Iaido dude]

Beautiful. Was the entire box made from scratch? What fabric did you use?

[Jorgensen]

Thanks for your comments about the box. I should have mentioned that the box itself I have not made, but buy as finished product. I should have been more clear about that. The box is made of piano lacquered stained pine wood. The inside I have made from high-quality EVA foam and thin self-adhessive soft velour material. EVA foam is a very durable material, easy to work with and the velour material is made of cotton and are not harmful to tsuba. Actually none of the stuff inside box is glued together or to the box, just sits tight and can easily be removed (but not too easy of course).

 

The reason I want boxes with close mechanism or lock is because I want to built in the padding in the lid, and it will be very difficult to make it that precise on normal box and still have the lid close well. Also, on a normal box one will still need to use a rubber band to secure the box during transport. My goal is to make it as simple and easy as possible and remove everything unnecessary – including the peg. Its not very traditional, even that I try to hold on to some traditional traits. 

 

I have attached a couple pictures with some more boxes I have experiemented with. On one of the inserts I have tried to make a little “half-circle” so its easy to take out tsuba, although I don’t like the result very much and is unneccesary as its very easy to take out the tsuba from the inserts anyways.

 

Btw... The piano laquered box comes with an outer white cardboard box with lid and I find it quite nice to have the possibility to add some info here and for the storage of the tsuba in general.

 

 

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[Iaido dude]

Thanks, Jimi-san. These are all readily available materials. I’ve been thinking about how to build a locked aluminum travel case for tsuba with the features you worked out. Will share what I come up with. 

[Jorgensen]

@Iaido dude 

 

Stephen, thats a great idea! I think that could even be possible to make this in staggered layers perhaps. Doing so will make it possible to have quite a lot of tsubas fit into one single travel case?