ROKUJURO

Vielen Dank, Klaus!

An almost true Picasso for only USD 100 is no bargain. In your case you have to decide if you really want to buy a sword which was made especially for betrayal. In fact it is not close to a Japanese sword, it has no historical value and you could never be proud of it nor show it to someone who is knowledgeable in this field.

This may have to do with the really bad photo quality.Try to get a better one!

Gentlemen, thank you a lot for these informations! I was on a wrong trail and would not have gone far with my trial!

I have seen door lock-plates and belt-buckles made from TSUBA......Sensitivity in dealing with objects of other cultures is rare....

Gentlemen, a friend has got a GUNTO blade with a signature which I cannot read completely; it may be KIYOMASA.

The TSUBA has nothing to do with the quality or value of the blade. Tiny amounts of gold do not increase the value of a TSUBA. We just have a thread on the value determination of Japanese arms. Have a look!

As far as I know these very lightweight SHIKO were mostly used for hunting. They could carry a limited number of arrows. The age is difficult to tell as they were in use up to the end of the 19th century. There were several types of quivers being used: standing quivers (looking like an armchair), similar but smaller versions called EBIRA (military and hunting), and the odd-looking UTSUBO - long closed quivers with a fur cover used by SAMURAI on horseback. Besides that there were closeds quivers for KYUDO called YAZUTSU or YATSUBO (just transport containers).

As I said, it is possible under special circumstances, and it works only when oxygen can be kept away from the heated surfaces. As the artist on TAGANEARTS explains:...Classical techniques were never meant to work material like this...... In making stainless MOKUME GANE or damascus steel, you only need to pile up the sheet metal and seal-weld it (electrically) from the sides so no air can reach the steel inside. Then you can weld the billet in the forge, but you have to grind the surfaces clean before folding again, and you have to repeat the electrical welding every time you make a new fold. It is a slow and labourious technique! I admire the artistic performance shown but I would not buy stainless steel KODOGU.

SASANO-SENSEI used to carry TSUBA in the pockets of his trousers for restoration purposes. This meant some work for his wife who had to repair the pockets from time to time! As I have learnt, restoration on high quality TSUBA is a very slow process in that it tries to respect the natural forming of oxides on the surface. Removing loose rust with suitable instruments of horn, copper, ivory or wood, exposure to natural air humidity while protecting from rain, and regular rubbing with dry cloth should restore the natural beauty. Oil or wax should be avoided because rust can continue it's destructive work under such protective coatings.

Must be a very very small tiger......

You cannot fold and weld stainless steel because of it's chromium content. When heated, these steels produce a fine layer of chromium oxide on their surfaces acting like a separating coating preventing any welding. Technically, you could forge-weld such steels only under vacuum conditions or with absence of oxygen. So-called stainless tool steel is likely to rust under favourable (or unfavourable, if you like) conditions as long as it contains carbon. As far as I know there is no tool steel that is absolutely rust-proof, but these steels oxidise very slowly. On the other hand, stainless steel for household use (e.g. sinks and some kitchen tools) lacks a carbon content and thus cannot be hardenend and used for cutting instruments.

......but as far as I know this shape is not called SASAHO YARI but SANKAKU YARI.

At first glance it does not look like a fake to me although the lines seem not so sharp as we find them with KATAKIRI BORI technique. I have seen the dark colour in the engraved lines on many YAMAGANE TSUBA, and it was probably patinated by the TSUBAKO. They did that on almost every material except gold, and of course it makes the fine design stand out.

If you have enough YEN and get that exchange rate, you are a happy man! For 500.000,00 JPY I usually get only 6.179,50 USD!

It is not 'stringray' and probably it is not even stingray at all. As far as I know pearl ray is RAJA UNDULATA while stingrays (there are many types of them) belong to the DASYATIS family. In case you continue to have problems with the customs you might mention that pearl ray is widely use in the leather industry for decorative purposes. I have not heard about any commercial restrictions with both types. I hope this may help you to get your TANTO back before the custom's fingerprints on the blade turn to rust....

What really counts is quality. Age alone does not make the value - there is so much old scrap on the market!

Inspite of the bad photos it looks like a KOBUSE SAN MAI TANTO to me. Destroying handmade blades is always a sad loss! Please do not throw the pieces away, they can always serve as material for research. One could even forge a new blade from it!

This IS a dilemma. In case you want to re-mount them you want them in good condition. If you clean them down to bright metal, you will not like them. Maybe you will not get away without some loss of patina. How I would proceed with items of lesser value is this: I would try hot water with some mild soap which in most cases will not attack the patina. If this does not work sufficiently go ahead with the toothbrush of your wife - no abrasives at this point! Chemical solvants will also not damage metallic surfaces, but I think it would be wise to find out first the nature of this dirt. Sometimes - in cases of faked age or quality of the item - they use glue to obscure the true nature. If nothing helps you have to clean them with a toothpick-like instrument of wood, bone or horn, if necessary brush them with Colgate or similar. Then of course you have to repatinate them which is not too difficult in case they are made from brass. All that said if the MENUKI are really cast copies, of course! Good success!

Did I really choose the wrong terms? I wanted to express that in composite blades less high-end material was needed for the skin steel (which I know as KAWAGANE) in comparison to mono-material blades which were made entirely from this kind of steel. By the way, construction principles like these are to be found from the European Iron Ages to the end of the Middle Ages in knives and tools as well, and the reason was always to save expensive material while obtaining good cutting performance.

As we already stated in the TSUBA section and as Chris has pointed out above, construction, carbon migration and the potential hardness of steel depends of it's carbon content. Heating steel to a temperature above 900°C in an oxidizing atmosphere leads to a loss of carbon on it's surface. At the same temperature carbon will start to migrate within the steel package to layers with less carbon content. As we said, time of exposure, temperature, and thickness of layers are the facts to count with. (In a specially created, highly carbon saturated atmosphere steel can as well increase it's carbon content which was a method of old times to make steel from soft malleable iron). In KATANA the carbon content in the cutting edge is often found to be about 0.7 to 0.8 % while other sources mention as much as 1% C. Theoretically, a sandwich-construction with high-quality KAWAGANE (refined with up to 15 foldings/weldings) and a SHINGANE core (with about 10 foldings) has the same properties as a mono-material of the same KAWAGANE quality. The core in such a construction is - theoretically - 'passive' when the blade is being used in slashing while the KAWAGANE skin is 'active' and has to withstand all material stress. But it is evident that this depends on the internal quality of the blade, eg. even layers on both sides and no flaws. In practice the mono-material is suitable for long blades if it is perfectly homogenous with no voids or uneven carbon dispersion, and if it is differentially hardened with a hard edge (with about 60 HRC found on many blades) and a soft back (roughly 50 HRC) The sandwich construction requires the same meticulous process and hard work with the advance of less high-quality material being needed in the KAWAGANE. Nevertheless the 'marriage' of core steel and skin steel was always critical (depending on the construction of the blade) as it was easy to close in small particles of carbon or to produce tiny gaps in places where the welding was imperfect, causing FUKURE at later stages of polishing. The quality of both constructions would depend on a perfect hardening process. If we compare these Japanese techniques with those in early Europe we find fire-welded blades in Celtic swords of 500 B.C. as a necessary process to homogenize the steel. We do not know if these blades were etched or specially polished as to produce a Damascus pattern but the early Vikings (500 to 1000 AD) started their sword forging with a Damascus-type of steel. Later after 800 AD the Francs succeeded in making very good mono-material steel being as good as Damascus but proved to be less work. This made the Vikings import large amounts of sword blades from the Francs. Going back to Japan we hear about many inferior blades in times of war which were mass-produced under unfavorable conditions or by less qualified smiths. Even today many swords with KIZU are on the market which would not have withstood a severe blow (HAGIRE!). In the same time we have very good swords being preserved to our days, and these were often made by renowned KAJI. In this context we must not forget that many SHINTO and later swords were never tested or used in combat. It is evident that long blades made for slashing are very demanding in construction, but both types of construction - mono-material and composite/sandwich - could be made to the requirements of those days' warfare if the material was good enough and the skills of the smith as well.

You can find black waterbuffalo horn at most of the knifemakers' supply shops. Regards, Jean C.

I would like to underline this. I already wrote about this subject on Saturday: (......One word to the subject of carbon diffusion. This is influenced greatly by time, temperature and the way to travel , e.g. the thickness of layers. It ist quite well possible to create a decorative Damascus steel from high carbon steel and carbon free iron without having considerable carbon diffusion. This needs as few weldings as possible and thick layers. When it comes to longer periods of forge welding and folding, the overall time of heat application gets longer and the layer diameter diminishes, ending in a balanced carbon content in all layers. An obstacle to carbon diffusion is a layer of pure nickel.....). Steel 'behaves' like steel, and the knowledge of general physical properties of steel is helpful in understanding forging techniques of TSUBA.

Andy, Critics on the content of a treatment are not an attack on the writer! If I correctly understand these forums, most NMB members are interested to improve their knowledge, and critical opinions and discussions may well serve this purpose. I am sure you wrote the text on TEKKOTSU in the best of your knowledge, but as so often opinions are just individual thoughts and not facts. My critics are based upon my personal experience and knowledge, and I am willing to learn if you could prove my comments to be wrong. But then some fat books have to be re-written at least in parts.... Kindly check my comments, you will find that we both are striving for the same 'truth' behind some very special forging secrets. Regards, Jean C.

A very good day, gentlemen! As an active knife and traditional tool smith I have some experience with steel and it's properties. Japanese arms present some of the most advanced forging techniques we can find in steel, and this fact brought me to the subject some forty years ago. Nevertheless I still feel like a beginner because of the vast field Japaneses arts and crafts represent. Although other cultures also developped high skills in this field, I am especially fascinated by traditional Japanese forging. Quite a while ago I found the NMB forums and I was delighted to find so many important informations and highly knowledgeable members. I hope I can contribute with my experience from time to time, but I will be here mostly to study and learn, especially in the field of TSUBA. Best regards, Jean Collin