Shinai repairs & the weather

I had the chance of moving here with a big bunch of shinais, some given by San Diego Kendo friends, some I had, as well as a lot of spare parts. So it's been easy so far to lend them to everyone, so they wouldn't have to dish out all this money right at the start. Even if $20-$30 is peanuts in the states, it means much more here, where the salaries are as much as 10x less than there.

But my shinais are getting a beating! I must've forgotten how hard beginners tend to hit. And I didn't expect the weather to play such an important role. Half of the year it's very dry, the other half it's very humid. It's a killer for precious wood, cigars and ... shinais. About a month ago I decided to hold a shinai repair session, that everyone seemed to enjoy. A couple of days earlier I'd wiped them with baby oil so I thought all was good. Well after fixing all of them I had 4 broken within a week!! So last week I bought a huge piece of PVC pipe, epoxied one end to a flat piece of treated wood and filled it up with 3 litres of baby oil, basically 18 inches high. I then removed the sakigawa/tsuru and plunged about 20 shinais in baby oil. Left them in there for about 4 days, hoping that the oil would seep in and up halfway the shinai. Had a look today and the color seems ok and the bamboo looks soaked alright. I'll wipe everything tomorrow, sand and reassemble it all.