japanese cord wrap, water exposure?

[biogon]

I'll be getting a small custom fixed blade japanese-style tactical in the mail soon -- my first.

It has a traditional handle treatment: twist cord wrap over rayskin, covering 5160 steel.

What should I do as to water exposure? Two things bother me:

1) I don't think the high carbon steel under the wrap will like being soaked with water and then kept under a nice, watertight layer. I get the feeling the tang would get mighty rusted mighty fast.

2) Despite being dead, and technically a substance that WAS waterproof at one point, how will the rayskin react to water? It IS natural, and to me that means prone to mould and nasty stuff like that.

Is it ok to rinse the handle under running water to wash it? What about dunking or prolonged submerging?

If this happens (i.e. a rain storm) how should one take care of it?

Is there a way to resin-coat the cord wrap or something?

Thanks!

-Jon

Edited for clarity re: tang vs. rayskin exposure

 

[Bimmer1]

I've wondered that myself. All of mine have epoxy soaked cord wraps over rayskin. The rayskin was in the water once. You'd think that it would tolerate some more water now that it is dead. But, it may not. I don't think that this type of handle was made for any frequent water exposure, but I may be wrong.
It will be interesting to see the other responses. I'm not going to experiment with water exposure on any of my Japanese customs. Of course if it damages it over time you could always have it re-wrapped by the maker.

 

[Clint Simpson]

When you live by the sword and die by the sword... you rewrap the handle when it gets wet. What, you think they stopped doing that because of fashion? Weapons maintenance has always been a Witch, but it separates the good from the wannabe tough. Also, the Samurai had tightly fitted wood handle slabs that were covered with rayskin which in turn was cord wrapped. The wood slabs, with guard and endcap(pommel) made for a water-resistant fitting. You could treat it as water-proof, but when you live by the sword and die by the sword...

If you have no wood between tang and rayskin, rewrap the handle after getting it wet. With wood; rewrap after long exposure. If you have one of those injection molded tsuba (guard) "don't get it wet". No, really, it needs to stay dry. If it does get wet, use a blow drier...for a few hours.

Really man, you need to ask us these things BEFORE you spend your money. Breaks my heart every time someone posts: "I just bought..." and everyone replies: "...a POS."

If you coat the handle you might as well have bought Kraton (more good news). In coating, you lose ANY benefit of the cord and rayskin. AND DO NOT USE SILICON WATER PROOFING! The rayshin and cord (silk?) will draw water away from the tang drying it but it takes time. With synthetic fibers, you're screwed.

edited to add: I have not yet handled the newer epoxy coated handles so weight my remarks on coating as based on theory.