1kinko

It will probably be at the NCJSC show this weekend.

Japantown

The kon and chikaragane are soldered in place, normally using tin, lead, or silver (rarely). These menuki show no signs of white solders. It would also be highly unusual to use gold for these supports that are never seen again, once mounted.

If the kon and chikaragane are gold colored it’s likely been plated and the underlying metal color will bleed through over time.

That was my first thought too!

Congratulations! Nice careful work and fine patina. Nyusen or not you’ve entered into a very select group. Onwards!

I may well be wrong but I believe Artur injured his hands doing tsuka maki and now just sells tosogu. He has a Facebook page (his name). For a pretty good coverage of styles of wrap, Thomas Buck’s Facebook page Tsukamaki.net is a good resource.

Teddy- suggest you look at my reply under Wanted to Buy.

Not at all ready for prime time. Let’s be honest here- the “carving” is more like a scribble with a Dremel tool. To learn how to carve and inlay metals well takes years of practice and very few modern tsubashi can make a living at it. Neither Patrick Hastings nor Roman Urban were able to support their families, and they had spent the years to develop their skills. My advice is to start with copper. Although copper is more expensive than mild steel, it is far more forgiving of mistakes and takes a good patina easily, while a good patina on mild steel may take many trials. Mild steel plate does work very well for sukashi tsuba but learning the saw technique is critical there as well. Kevin Adams sukashi work was not accomplished overnight and, as far as I know, Kevin has also moved on to something that pays the bills. If this was a post about making a Japanese sword, people here would not be so polite. Practice, practice, practice.

FYI- New newsletter from Markus Sesko divides graphics on dates vs number of swords rated as juyo. gotta love my spellcheck- not divides, yes, provides.

FYI- New newsletter from Markus Sesko divides graphics on dates vs number of swords rated as juyo.

I’m really ignorant of both nihonto schools and tosogu schools, but I used to be a biologist/taxonomist and always used “keys” to analyze everything from plants to mammals. If any group can create a keys system, NMB is the one. Start with one description and let the opinions argue it out. In the end a key will emerge and caveats can be added (imho).

Sparrows were not appreciated by Japanese farmers because they ate their rice. Remember, wealth was accounted by a years worth of rice.

Yeah Dale and you could have posted the picture I emailed to you too! I’m on the road, trying to avoid people who drive on the wrong side of the road. In about a month I’ll try to post them all. Cheers!

Yesterday I was at the Ashmolean Museum where I was allowed to handle and photograph the 15 Ishiguro School tsuba they own. Arthur Church mainly collected kinko tsuba but also inlaid iron tsuba. Check out their website, arranged by school.

Nope, that “casting flaw” to the left of the nagako ana is just blade compression on soft iron. The Sendai region did have iron sand and, as I recall, ore, and several iron foundries that produced cast iron pots.

Great! Another Japanese weapon to master…,

Those aren’t ants. Look at them. That’s why there are signs of repair to the wood. The artist knew what he was carving but the “attestation” isn’t right or the kanji has dual meanings.

Termites and Japanese joinery?

Tedious (maybe that’s why it’s so faint) hand done “engine turning” with an edged protractor before it was cut, plus a little nanako.

No, referring you (but not just you) to the references was not intended to be belittling but instructive, and believe it or not, you are not the only person reading these posts. As I stated, that document has some issues, but it covers territory, that if correct, may have relevance to the current discussion of where and when cast iron tsuba may have come from.

The honoki that Namakawa Heibei sells (and ships quickly) is also 2 matched planks, cut to curve, and dried. It carved very easily, unlike poplar.

I think you are suffering from the belittled syndrome because your interpretations have not been universally accepted. I didn’t have the website open when I posted the site name and figured it could be easily googled with the title provided. I don’t doubt that at least some nanban tsuba were made of cast iron although I don’t know how they could have been carved from cast iron and wouldn’t want to have to fit the nakago ana to any sword. They also would have required very intricate molds that would not survive, and would add lots of labor cost not required by forged steel. He also wonders why there are so many cast sword fittings. I must travel in the wrong circles as I have never seen or handled a cast iron or cast kinko fitting. Forged steel, yes, but cast iron, no. Even non-ferrous metals form air bubbles in molds and have porosities even when water cast. That’s one reason they are forged. Steel is simply easier to work with than cast iron. Pure iron, on the other hand, works very much like copper because it is soft like copper. Apart from bending like copper, a broken iron bar with its silicon inclusions might look like broken zuku iron to someone who doesn’t actually work with metals, but that’s just a possibility. Your translation is also different from mine, though I think we both used Google. My translation began with “In the description of the old Koi in this column…” and goes on to list “Kogi, Mekan, and Taku…” among other mysterious terms throughout. The term taku I assumed referred to tsuba but doesn’t appear in any online translations as tsuba.

Where did you get the idea that solid means cast? Menuki are made by uchidashi which could never be done on cast iron but all soft metal is initially cast, then forged. Please read the references regarding nanban tsuba made in China and exported to Japan. Note also that pig iron was imported into Japan.