Recently, I received two separate questions from the same individual, T. Takahashi in Denmark.  The first was as follows:

I´m about to restore a handle on my katana. How do I remove the old same. I´ve tried to tip a corner of it and carefully lift it, but i´ve haven´t done anything further. I´m afraid that if i just pulled it of it would rip op the wood of the tsuka.  Can you give me an advice?

My response was:

Depending upon the adhesive that was used, I am usually able to removing old same’ by wedging a thin knife or chisel between the wood and skin.  

After removing and replacing the same', he had another problem...

My question now is: I mounted a tsuka with new fuchi and kashira. I had to adapt the tsuka a bit to get the new fuchi to fit. Its a bit longer than the old one. Doing some testwraps I discovered that the mekugi ana was covered by the ito. I can make the hole free if I start the wrap on the oposite side. Is there any examples of tsukawraps that starts on the oposite side?
I want to make it as original as possible.

My response to this was:

Last weekend I hosted Marshall School's East Asian Culture Study Group's 2008 Annual "Sushi & Swords."  About a dozen students and a couple of parents first viewed 37 select swords (Koto to Shin-Shinto) from our collection...

Then, as a group, we had a sushi making/eating marathon session...

And, finally, we relaxed on the deck and fed our koi in the pond...