Apercus

There are many books and recipes for producing patinas on metals. I have several.  Anyone with the time and resources to allow for experimentation should be able to produce an acceptable patina. Luckily, most who produce artificial patinas are not patient or fail to put out the effort to do it well. If you find a technique that works well please don’t publish it. We don’t want to educate grifters.

It was quit a few years ago

Nice to see the photos. The display I saw at the V & A museum was dark and afforded no real view of anything.

I don’t disagree with any of the posts here.  All seem to be good ideas and well thought out. I haven’t seen a thorough analysis of the metallurgy of utsuri. It would have to be comprehensive because not everything we call utsuri is the same micro structure or at least that’s my opinion. Banite formation is one of the results that we call utsuri. It forms at a different temperature than martensite and can be produced without clay. The heat is introduced at the edge of the blade and is not allowed to spread across the full width before quench. Imagine holding a blade edge against a heated block of steel to transfer heat to the blade. Quench before the heat travels uniformly across the width. The band of banite will appear seperated from the martensite.  
I have found that not all steels will produce this effect. Low allow and mid to low carbon content works best for me. I haven’t done anything comprehensive in testing many allows so I’m speaking from limited first hand experience. Think about the effect you see on a blade damaged in a fire and then reheat treated. The whitish band between the nakago and the blade which is an indicator of reheat treatment is the same thing as some of the effects we call utsuri. 
if you want to test this yourselves take a bar of low allow medium to low carbon steel (something like 1045 steel) and heat the tip of one end. Quench and then polish it. 

I think it would be wise to keep a record and an adequate description. Include as much information and photographs with it as you would want to provide in the event the article was stolen or lost in shipping.

Thank you. These fittings were on a wakizashi I recently acquired which is signed “Bishu Osafune Morimitsu”. Unfortunately one of the previous owners must have allowed children to play with it and cut things. I’m hoping it will be found in good enough shape for polish and doesn’t end up as another sad victim of abuse.

Looking for help with these signatures and any info on the artists

I agree with Jean’s assessment of the process but would add that in the process of folding each individual steel type they do not typically continue until the steel is homogeneous. You would not see the visual effects of layering such as Itami if the steel is homogenous. The boundary layer between folds has silicon which distinguishes the layers. The presence of distinct layers adds mechanical advantage by increasing resistance to crack propagation. 
 

There were also other types of construction that are not shown in the chart such as san mai. Close examination of blades by Cyril Stanley Smith have shown that some smiths alternated steel types (carbon content or composition) before repeating the folding process, thereby producing an effect similar to “pattern welded” blades common today. I have one of these in my collection. I would not be surprised to see almost any variation of structure. As mentioned, skill level of the smith is probably the most important variable in how the sword will perform.

You may be right. There are other ways to produce it that are less wasteful and difficult. It’s just not produced by twisting the bar.

Twisting the sunobe does not produce ayasugi hada. It’s usually created by cutting, filing, or grinding groves in both sides of an oversized bar while alternating the locations between sides. The groves would be deepest at the edge and more shallow towards the mune. The bar would then be forged flat into the sunobe. It’s a common technique used be knife makers today. Twisting a bar produces a very different effect that looks nothing like ayasugi hada.

Just curious about the signature. I don’t have enough reference examples for this one. It’s an old tanto (somewhere between 1300s to 1500s. I won’t have good photos until this weekend. The basic dimensions are as follows:

hirazukiri shape, uchizori blade, nakago has no sori and ends in a “flattish” kurijiri

motohaba 1”

sakihaba 3/4”

nagasa 28+

There is utsuri and the hada looks very interesting (Itami and mokume)

The hamon is shallow gunome and close to the edge.

Anyone have reference examples of the signature or thoughts? I’ll get it to shinsa and perhaps polish eventually. Photos will follow this weekend.

Shannon

Looks like an interesting article. Thanks for the reference 

Kirill’s analysis seems very reasonable and astute. I think any smith would readily see the problems and unnecessary efforts associated with producing a cast blade. For all the effort you end up with a fragile thing. The earliest “steel” was actually forged iron that had carbon introduced through carburization. it’s a simple process and requires much less effort and resources. The iron blade is simply coated with organic based materials, placed in an iron container and heated to a red heat. The longer it is held at heat the deeper the carbon penetrates the iron. If you hold it long enough the carbon will penetrate as much as an eighth of an inch. You then have a “steel” edge that can be heat treated. This technology was around in Europe at least 1500 years ago but it’s hard to believe that almost any smith working with forging iron would not have “discovered” the effects in any era or location. It’s almost unavoidable if you work in a forge very much.

The initial primitive refinement of ore into iron is almost always in the form of a “lump” or a crude cast form. There will always be a need for forge work to establish the final shape and remove impurities.  That approach has been well documented as being used in cultures across the globe. I would be surprised to see any real evidence of a “cast iron” ancient sword. ( carbon content >3%). 

There are many good articles on archeotechnology of early iron production all over the world. I’ve read several detailed analysis of ancient eastern (Chinese, Japanese, Indonesian, etc.) I’ll see if I can find some of them and post links when I get time. There is an annual publication which is a collection of papers on ancient metallurgy. I will try to find copies of the ones I have.
A simple internet search on the subject would reveal many articles. Ancient forge work was often far more sophisticated than we tend to give credit for. Like any other time in history there was exceptionally good techniques made by isolated smiths concurrently with poor work in other areas. It’s a fascinating subject.

Sometimes an opinion about whether to “preserve” a sword by having it professionally polished is influenced by the perspective of value added for resale. A proper polish for your wakizashi would run $2000 or more and would not increase the value by that amount. The polish on it is good enough now to see most of the details so the suggestion to leave it as it is and maintain it with care is good advice. That being said, I have had a sword polished that I knew was not a good investment for making money. I don’t really buy any swords to sell or turn a profit and liked it well enough to pay for a polish just to see more detail and enjoy it more. You need to take the time to learn more and decide what you like before you start investing a lot of time and money in polish. I waited and studied my first blade for six years before I decided to get it polished. Don’t be in a hurry. Take time to learn and enjoy along the way.

I had not planned to make any comments on this line of discussion. I’ve found that most people come to the discussion like this with preconceived conclusions based on a little knowledge and state those ideas as incontrovertible truth that can’t be challenged. e.g. “Modern mono-steels are always best”, “Japanese smiths used inferior steels”, “nothing can compare to a modern tool steel”, etc. With the rid of being vilified and derided I will offer a small amount of my own observations and then bow out of the discussion.

There is no performance testing comparing modern blades with ancient blades so “conclusions” should be stated as speculation. I also hope no one ever tries to do performance testing on a historical piece. I haven’t seen rigorous comparative testing between modern traditional blades and modern non- traditional blades so predicting those outcomes is just speculation. There are many different types of construction techniques employed by different smiths, including heat treatment, steel composition, etc. You would need to look at the product of each smith to evaluate comparatively.
 

A traditionally made blade is a metal to metal composite which likely has structural advantages over a mono- steel. One of these is resistance to crack propagation. I have used X-ray fluorescence to evaluate alloy composition of a tachi made in the early 1200s. I found iron, .7% carbon, and .05% titanium (an ideal concentration for thermomechanical processing). There were no other “impurities to 5 decimal places. I don’t know if it’s even possible to buy modern steel commercially that clean. Certainly 95% of modern tool steel doesn’t come close to that.

Simply machining or grinding a modern tool steel to shape is not the equivalent of forging. The microstructure and grain size can be improved with forge work. Thermomechanical processing (forging with he presence of a microalloying element such as titanium) is a process that increases both the hardness and toughness at the same time. 
 

These are just a few considerations I’ve mentioned. I’m sure there are antique blades that could be outperformed by a modern Howard Clark blade but I don’t know if his work would be as sound in application as a blade by Yoshindo Yoshihara. Until there is controlled comparative testing none of us know. We should not represent speculation as fact in  the meantime. 
 

I’ll go crawl back to my corner now.
 

Beautiful work. You will get a lot of opinion but you won’t get a lot of certainty without shinsa. The logical step would be to submit it then decide about polish when you know the results. I would probably send it for polish whether it was economical to do so or not just because I like it. 

I work in Columbus Georgia and I have a  little experience and a lot of reference books that we could go through to help determine what you have if you are ever in this area. There are probably members closer to you and certainly many who know more than I do. Just letting you know I’m available if you pass this way.

I learn something every time I read one of your posts. Thanks for taking the time to share information.

I’ve had a few close calls and spent time thinking about this subject. One of my sons collects Japanese swords and we often trade books and blades between us. Another son is also interested, knowledgeable and would properly care for them.  I think I will just continue to enjoy what I have knowing they will be taken care of or sold to other collectors who will preserve them when I’m gone. I’m doing my part to continue the study and preservation of Japanese swords and art by leaving two collectors to replace me. 

I still have my first blade. I was going to sell it to upgrade my collection but I haven’t stumbled across anything I like more than this first juyo Ichimonji kamakura period tachi. I’m still looking.

I work in Columbus. I’m no expert but I have a lot of reference books and and a little knowledge that I’ll freely share if you are in the area.

Looks like that is a strong possibility from what I can see when comparing the photo you posted with what is left on the tsuba. The edges were hammered to create the flared out edges and roll over effect. If this was done after the mei was added it could account for the beat up appearance. Thanks for the response. I was just curious. The iron does not look too particularly old to me.

It’s been treated poorly. There are traces of lacquer remaining and deep pitting on the outside edges. There was active rust on it when it arrived. I bought it because I was curious of the style and forge techniques. I thought it would be interesting to study. 

This has been a great discussion. Thanks to all who are contributing to it.