parfaitelumiere

would it be possible to get more detail pictures of the ko-mino siver fitting set? I think I saw a similar set on a website but the fitting get a complete sleeve and re-built, so it's not possible to see original condition, yous seem to have kept all original assembly.

I have question about a specific tsuba design refered as "ko katsushi" I found this picture, described as momoyama period, size 8,4x8,4x0,4cm from jggilbert website. amida yasuri, and some remnant nunome zogan file marks here and there. I later found this picture, smaller,7,7cm, but far better condition, with original hitsu ana shape. No information about thickness It is described as kamiyoshi school, 17-18th I finally found this one, 8x8x0,3cm, no hitsu ana no amida yasuri, no numome. Some thick rust here and there: We can clearly see it's same maker or at least same school using same technic and pattern, but different finish, from most elaborated on top to simpliest on bottom (no amida yasuri or nunome zogan) But is it possible to fix a period, it seems the ume flower patter is very popular at least from mid muromachi. I have 2 other ume flower pattern the one I pictured in this thread is obviously muromachi period for me. my other is obviously later, thicker plate, more simple steel too, and far better condition. But this one with 5 flowers, how to determinate a period, can we consider no hitsu ana, thinner plate and quite larger size to put it older, or can we consider the same design could survive for more than 200 years with no or only a few modifications?

Thanks a lot, I tried to be as accurate as possible, especially the colors are ok, kind of dark reddish brown, with some almost black areas on seppa dai. I wanted to get full view on both sides and close up, but on same picture. My standart size is 1920x1080, but I had to make a bit higher size for this one, to keep quite large full view of each side. I took a shot of all my tsuba today, and I will do same for other, and also a view of all together (same scale). Shame, I have a heianjo, and 2 plain iron tsuba, not yet home, one is mokume pattern, but probably some new patina to do on it. I have another old iron to put on this thread, even I think it's much younger than the one I just pictured. Just simplicity, one round, 3 holes, for 3 blades.

Here is my first old iron diameter is about 8,3cm, thickness, 3,5mm on the rim, then quickly thinner and increasing thickness when we go to center.

here it is: details: when we remove the tsuka it's easy to see the fuchi is solid silver because the flat area is copper and ring is silver. For what I know, it seems the proper finish would be polished, but with a prior oxydation, showing pattern. It would mean I would have to clean my parts, even I would prefer to leave as it is. My main issue is I am making a new tsuba, and I will have to find a way the tsuba to match fittings patina. The original tsuba is not the right one, and it had 3 seppa.

Are silver fittings meant to be silver color or weathered? I have a silver mount sword and I don't know if I have to clean the fittings or not.

My opinion is the dragons are (edit, not Japanese, probably "indochine" design could match and many indochine silver is available in France). The blade is real but ruined by a european guy. Other parts are modern european work, no taste, poor shape, poor finish and engraving, no Japanese culture or sense of beauty, I can even see the dragons "menuki" were not put the right way...it makes me think about stuff I made when I was a teenage, but with a real blade and more precious material. I think the maker did want to use noble materials, silver and ebony, but had absolutely no idea about Japanese aesthetics. I contacted him to provide opinion, as he offers "guaranty age and authenticity", he would better to change the description, but he didn't. vientamense (indochine) cufflink:

Recently I went on ebay and saw this, I have my opinion of course, but I wanted to get yours.

if you are in Europe I may do it.

I am trying to collect informations about size differences, collecting daisho pictures(real, or post- collector-mounted sets) to get as many examples as possible. For the moment I found 3 or 4 soten school sets, some sukashi simple design iron, and several namban sets too. The soten seem to have very large dimension, the sho tsuba close to 80mm, and about 5mm difference between the large and small The sukashi ones seem to have more a 10mm size difference even more, with close to 75mm dai tsuba, quite similar on the namban type I saw, but the sho tsuba is a bit larger. I wil make some photo mods, addig many examples together, with sizes on them. I also saw a very nice sentoku tsuba "travelling east-mount fuji" with fuchi and kashira, described as a daito size, but measuring only 67mm, the fuchi is 38mm, one hitsu ana on tsuba. I found a picture of a (ugly) daisho fuchi set 38 and 37mm Once the pictures will be ready I hope someone would be able to provide more informatiosn about schools and era, because I am not aware about it. As it's easy to find recent enameled daisho sets, I will also use them as references, I own one (tokugawa mon) If someone has daisho sets, and would share some pictures and measurments, it would be appreciated, especially if the school and era are known, it could be possible with many informations to make a diagram, even I know such informations have already been studied.

Here are my spare menuki: I can trade both smaller, the shobu is 43mm, the shells is 38mm. I would like to find a second large one, because this one is only remaining item from my godfather.

Other issue with yahoo is the bidding method, extending auction duration, no way to get lucky buying something with a bad picture or wrong description. I saw a set of yajiri and some bonsai related antiques (most are chinese display stands or accessories) and the price was not so high, it was 2 years ago. Happy, I am working with a small deputy, he has a very few buyers, he is not a deputy service so it can even be possible to get stuff when sellers don't want to sell outside of Japan. Making searches to get Japanese swords and tosogu are new for me, but most of the good stuff I got it on ebay not on yahoo. I think the even best choice is to choose already expensive listings on ebay ad make offers, better than biddings, because the emotionnal illness of bidding doesn't work on buy-now items. I know my first sword was from a ebay seller who also is on yahoo. I bought him 2 kozuka blade in the past, prices were quite high, but not so much compared to actual yahoo prices. As I live in Europe, I am also trying to wathc the currency rates, euro dollar and yen, these days, it's good to buy in dollar. I rememeber a time when the yen was 160 for one euro, and after it jumped to 90 per euro, crazy, bad time to buy, better now. I mainly buy antique Japanese or chinese bonsai accessories on yahoo, because it's impossible to get elsewhere without paying 3 to 10 times the price, but even on yahoo exceptionnal stuff gets exceptionnal price. There are more and more antique bonsai related stuff on ebay, but nothing decent for now, regarding Japanese swords, it seems the choice is much more interesting.

I have question regarding silver monts, is the tsuba always same material and design as the ferrules? Il seems most of times, it's more a tachi style mounting, not a fuchi and hashira and at least with koi guchi and kojiri and a third silver piece on saya, and on both pictures on linked examples, looks like the tsuba is also made from silver with same design, Tosogucz work tends to confirm a same line design along all parts. I am planning to purchase a sword with silver mountings, all is in original condition, only one hole on tsuka, no modified, but there is extra copper seppa, and the tsuba is not silver, so I was thinking there may have been original silver tsuba, but it has been replaced for the actual one. Other way is there is some gap with time, and silver may be softer than bronze, so the gap came sooner and they added a seppa to fill it, but it's only it tsuba can be different with silver mount.

Here is the first Tsuba I get, for many years now. I have no idea about the maker or school.

in fact I was more posting this hoping to see more silver fittings from other members aha, but the forum link is interesting too.

I made a solide silver habaki for a small tanto blade I fond years ago, and a (now I think it's really ugly) red and black lacquered mounting, I always told myself one day I would make a fan shaped mounting for this blade. I also have a raw 68mm diameter silver blanck, I lept it for years, in order to make a tsuba from it, but I have no idea for design, and I want to keep the material safe till I don't have a serious design idea. I was thinking about a snake, because I made a pair of snake menuki recently (one is finished, other is not) after seeing one pair on google, but maybe there is a better design idea?

Hello, I just registered today, even I love Japanese arts, especially swords for a long time. All started with the movie and serie highlander, me a a friend, at this time we were teenage, bought a highlander katana, then I found a book about Japanese swords and left the highlander design for more realistic, so I started to modify the ugly spanigh stainless sword to something more decent, making my first tsuba, and fittings, then I found some Japanese stuff on fleamarket, time run, I get knifmaker for a while and changed to other stuff because of professionnal issues. I totally left the interest for any bladed item for many years, but in 2010 I started a new interest for movie props, especially star wars lightsabers, and then, other movie related props, started to collect pictures about lightsabers, and more and more in Japanese swords from movies (kill bill came first, then, the last samurai, walking dead, heroes and...highlander) I started with kill bill sword. The original prop used a iaito blade ùade fro zamac, some iaito parts and a custom engraving on the blade, and saya. It was easy to find the tsuba and menuki, as I wanted something real, but didn't want to damage and buy a real Japanese blade I bought a chinese one, with steel core and folded steel sides, and fully reshaped it, and engraved it, added "okinawa ju hattori saku" on the tang, and the lion engraving of course. For the fuchi kashira and kojiri it was much harder, the original iaito parts are impossible to get, I bought some casts from bronze, but these were so ugly I fully sanded down the details and redone them myself, now it's closer to a real item even than the original iaito part, I did same for tsuba, and menuki. I ordered some steel to make a new tsuba to replace the modified iaito tsuba, and I willhave to paint the sheat in black and gold, using genuine lacquer not industrial stuff with gold mylar tape like original prop. And a few weeks ago I bought a marto highlander sword, and already made a new tsuba from brass and a new fuchi, I will make a copy of handle from ivory, and use a chinese blade for it too, I am not a great polisher, but it's possible to bring a decent finish to these chinese blades, and avoid using genuine Japanese blades for replicas. I would make several movie swords for my collection, using geniine Japanese parts if possible, or replicating them myself if not, and using either chinese blades or tsunagi if I want to make only the fittings. The last samura sword will be tricky, because of the 1000 monkeys tsuba and oni nanako fuchi and kashira fittings. The highlander ivory handle will be tricky too, because the design is meant to be made from several parts if I want a historically accurate result, I checked some real ivory mountings and most of the times it's a complexe assembly, for the highlander handle it would be made from 4 parts. And of course, my dream is to own a pair of Japanese swords, one day I will.