ROKUJURO

Philip, nice story! Best of luck!

Tim; we have had a lengthy thread on this subject (http://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/20975-availability-of-raw-material/). As the iron will not melt to a liquified state, it is not possible to transfer other elements into it except as very low amounts (impurities). You cannot produce alloys by this method.

Tim, I did not say the colours were tempering-related, but temperature. As IJASWORDS (please add your name!) writes correctly, mainly the reaction of the metal with oxygen causes the colouring. Under special conditions, there can be additional influences like metal vapours, which can produce other colours. By the way, your pictures of TAMAHAGANE samples show a lot of slag which may classify it as lower quality. Higher quality often is more colourful - one of the reasons why it is called 'jewel steel'.

Iron alloys can show a range of colours depending on the temperature which they had when they were taken out of the fire and cooled. Colours have nothing to do with impuritiers or alloying metals. See http://www.metallograf.de/start.htm?/begriffe/tab-farben.htm

I can see a heavy crack in the NAKAGO just below the MUNE MACHI, too.

Henry, first I am not so sure if KANEIE TSUBA are really rare. Probably the originals (do we know who AOKI KANEIE was?) are only few in relation to the many copies that exist. My other comment refers to patination versus corrosion. In both processes, iron is chemically converted into a mix of its oxides, and this implies always a loss of the original substance. The colours of the patina depend on the composition of the iron base alloy as well as on the chemicals used, but it is a limited range, so we can come to a close estimation of how the originals looked like. Ford will be able to expand on this subject. Patination is a means of a controlled and stabilized oxidation of the original surface, while corrosion is a non-controlled deterioration with a likely change in the surface structure. If heavy corrosion has occurred once on an iron TSUBA, a restoration might be difficult or even impossible, if the aim is to bring the item back or close to its original state.

Looking at the NAKAGO, I guess it may be older than SHIN SHINTO, but that may be an effect of the photos. Shape looks like some KOTO TACHI to me, so I understand the assumption of SHIN SHINTO.

Jason, I think it is a KAGO YARI in SANKAKU (three sided) shape. Please inform yourself about care and maintenance of Japanese arms. One important point is: Never touch a bare blade with your hands!

Steve, this is an interesting topic indeed, but I feel that the comparison of a painting with an iron TSUBA has its difficulties. While a painting is known to age, especially the varnish (mostly linseed-oil based), and to lose its colours by darkening, an iron TSUBA is appreciated with its signs of age (which we call patina). A painting will always need restoration after some time due to the oxygen influence of the air, if a condition close to the original is desired. An iron TSUBA only needs to be taken in your hands from time to time to build up/keep the SABIJI, and otherwise be protected from moisture. On the other hand, if a TSUBA was left to corrode, a competent helping hand might be useful to bring it back to a state close to the original, knowing that the TSUBASHI did not intend a work that looked like polished stainless steel. On the contrary, TSUBA were patinated to look aged. This was/is a Japanese aesthetic feature. In this point, restoration of both works of art might indeed be comparable, as an iron TSUBA could suffer severe damage without proper care. In TSUBA, I feel that there is a fine line between appropriate aging, and damage, and there may be a similar thing in paintings, too. A KIRIKOMI on an old TSUBA in the right place will probably be accepted, but not signs of careless handling. In an old painting, a crack in the wooden base board can be a sign of age, while an amateur restoration with modern (not hand-made) colours will be seen as a dramatic damage. We had this discussion lately about different aspects of polishing. My impression is that any restoration has to be finely balanced with a very sensitive use of knowledge and experience plus a secure sense of the aesthetics intended by the respective artist. .

Grev, that sounds like a lot of work! Are you sure that there is no other functioning system already on the market? If I remember correctly, there are KANJI cards available from an NMB member.

In my understanding, a good polisher can show everything the smith was able to incorporate in the blade, but he cannot produce effects not present in the steel. If there is no UTSURI, he cannot "make" one. A not so good polish is probably not showing all the features the smith intended.

Gentlemen, a very interesting young swordsmith, who I had the pleasure to meet in France in 2014: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yeb58Dv69S4 As far as I can judge, he is a bit different in comparison to many of his collegues as he is very open-minded towards the world outside of Japan but at the same time working in a strictly traditional way. He has a philosophical attitude and is searching for the values of the SAMURAI spirit and perfect craftsmanship. He lives in SEKI, GIFU-KEN. Interested members may mail me for his address: forge.collin@gmail.com.

DIY:

John, in YAKI-IRE, the steel in the YAKIBA forms into martensite, which has, as you may know, a higher volume than the surrounding steel. So, nothing really "shrinks" in a blade, but the YAKIBA expands, which has the same effect of an increased tension (read compressive stress) in this area.

MASAHIDE forged the blade when he was only two years old. He was a real talent!

I have seen signatures erased on FUCHI. It does not seem to be too difficult to push the soft material into the grooves, but the MEI did not disappear completely. It was just unreadable.

For the early swordsmiths, the available steel appeared as 'soft' or as 'hard', depending on the position of the bloomery iron in the furnace. They did not have an analysis, but could rely on their observation and testing. After experiencing that the first 'all-iron' sword blades were likely to bend and loose their sharpness easily, it was a logical step to combine the flexible (low carbon) steel with a hard (high carbon) one for the cutting edge. This technique was used already by the Iron-Age Celtic people in 200 B.C. in Europe. Photo shows a replicated SAN-MAI blade.

Darcy, 1) This depends on the fire. A small fire/temperature up to 900°C will only cause a physical change in the metal; the sword will loose its hardness. Very high temperatures will cause the metal to loose part of the carbon content; a chemical process. 2) The traditional steel does not lack anything. The problem is that modern iron/steel cannot be mass produced without alloying elements (except in a costly chemical process). This modern steel cannot be quenched in water. So what the smiths are really looking for is a very pure steel made in a TATARA (or bloomery furnace), and in former times this was the only way to produce iron/steel. Old nails, anchor chains a.s.o. are probably much cheaper than TATARA iron. 3) You cannot 'add' elements to sword steel produced in a TATARA. Alloys can only be produced with melted/liquified iron.

William, possibly, it would attract more buyers if you wrote correctly KATANA instead of katano in the Ebay ad.

Darcy, the WOOTZ damascus steel is a completely different thing. This material is a 'crystalline' damascus produced in crucibles, not on the anvil alone, and Vanadium (and other elements) are necessary to induce the crystals forming. In the first range, Damascus steel was produced as a means to homogenize the steel; the decorative effects were a later development. In later times, when smiths were able to produce 'better' steel, the difficult process was no longer necessary and became obsolete. This was also the case with the Viking swords. .

Bojan, the second KATANA MEI seems to read YOSHIHIRA.

Christopher, please sign all posts with your real first name plus an initial as requested by the forum administrator. There is one way to leave the newbie status behind: Read a lot, especially here in the forum about sword etiquette and care! Look at pictures of high quality Japanese swords and TOSOGU! And never touch the blade with your bare hands! Not much can be said about value unless an expert can evaluate the whole package in hand. Wrong signatures unfortunately don't add to the value, but you may have a nice sword nonetheless.

Christopher, the KOZUKA shows items of the tea ceremony, and the FUCHI is signed HARUAKI. The MENUKI look as if they were not original to the TSUKA. We would need more good close-up photos to see details. Have a good look into this forum and get some information of what is important on a Japanese sword and how to photograph it.

In my opinion, not a KO-TOSHO, but an EDO JIDAI TOSHO-style TSUBA. Design and execution of mushrooms are quite nice.

Perhaps SADAMOTO or SADAROKU?