ROKUJURO

Not by the same hand, I think. Some strokes are clearly done in a different manner/direction.

Bob, if it had been in a fire, the soft metal TAKA ZOGAN would have been lost. The main problem remains in the questionable quality of the plate, even if it could be cleaned and restored. In my eyes, the design is simple, but not bad.

Sorry, I found Christian's TSUBA much better to read. Might be the quality of the photo! TETSUGENDO TSUBA have a wide variety of MEI; some are even in SOSHO. Many have a KAKIHAN inlaid in gold.

I would like to add a small remark to this discussion. The TETSUBIN-SHI who are being mentioned as possible makers of cast TSUBA, did not produce "tea kettles". What we Westerners use to call so are water kettles. Tea made in iron kettles will chemically react with the surface (tannic acid and iron), producing a beverage of repelling taste. But as we Westerners insist to use these kettles for tea, the industry now offers TETSUBIN with a coating inside to make them suitable for tea which they were not intended for traditionally.

Chris, aren't there some resemblances? (http://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/21313-kinko-tsuba/)

A very good idea and project! An A4 hard cover issue would be my choice.

Chris, to my eyes it looks as if superficial corrosion is blurring the MEI. I think I see an attempt to remove some of the rust near the MEI area with abrasive (?) media. Why not try with some better suitable tools like staghorn or ivory to clean the surface to improve the legibility of the MEI? On the photo it looks as if the basic plate was in good condition.

Yes, unfortunately that is a real killer crack!

Chris, if your Japanese friend is not a collector or expert in the vast field of NIHONTO and its accessories, he may have bought the TSUBA in good faith at a very low price. Take it as an empathetic expression of his interest in your hobby!

Mike, is the HAGIRE visible on both sides of the blade?

Yes, clear SEKI arsenal stamp (not the one I meant to see), so everything fits fine. At least, there are a TACHI TSUBA and a 'private' FUCHI mounted.

Chris, the MEKUGI-ANA and the patina of the NAKAGO do not scream KOTO to me. It is KATANA-MEI, not TACHI-MEI, so if the signature was original, it was never a TACHI. The NAKAGO has been cut, not broken - except the last few millimeters! It seems to be a very 'unprofessional' SURIAGE - no filing of the rough cut. This lets me believe that this was done very late in the life of the blade, and very likely not by a swordsmith!.

Gary, welcome to the NMB board! Reading your post a second time, I am not so sure that you meant to write SAMURAI, but perhaps KATANA? If so, I am pretty confident that there is only one MENUKI per side. By the way, restoring a handle with its TSUKA-MAKI is no easy job and requires a lot of knowledge and experience!

Yes, there are quite some around these days, but they get easily angry, so I don't dare to ask them why. Unless Jack is your name, please sign all posts with at least your first name plus an initial as is the rule here on NMB.

Philip, I had the impression that there was a stamp right above the KANE- of the MEI, but it may just be the heavy rust. As Stephen wrote, normally these stamps are a little below the HABAKI. Before you start brushing the rust away, please let an expert from this board or from a renowned NIHONTO club (not your martial arts center around the corner) have a look at your blade. It is easy to damage a blade, even if it is "only" a machine made blade, as the sloppy signature suggests.

I think I can see a SEKI stamp under the heavy rust, which would make that a WW II blade. But that may well be an effect of the not so good photos. The corrosion on the blade looks typical for fingerprints.

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. .