Robert S

I would definitely give that repeated oilings, to try to reduce oxygen access, and convert any active red rust to black iron oxide, as a first step.

Phew! That makes sense! I was really puzzling about how one would even think of inlaying all that in metal. Lacquer, still amazing, but at least imaginable!

Sure is! I don't even want to think about the work, precision and focus that required. With conventional metal inlay, you can tighten up the inlay by moving metal a little. With abalone, no way. It would just shatter. With inlays in wood you can fill a little if necessary, but with abalone in metal, I think it would be obvious. Every one of those pieces had to be accurate within significantly under a 10th of a mm, all by hand. Insane is the right word!

A few comments on condition. The first blade, based on these photos, seems to have fairly significant corrosion spots which are possibly a little deeper than just surface discoloration. I've seen blades like this before. The second blade appears to have a very unusual gouge, as well as a significant chip in the edge. If I'm correct on these issues, both would require major work to recover, which inevitably involves complex work to maintain the shape of the blade, determining exactly how much work to do to minimize the risk of exposing underlying metal, or having the hamon run out of the edge, etc. Hence the need for an experienced togishi (polisher) if full recovery is possible. Secondly, as regards finish polishing, Nihonto finish polishing is very different than conventional western polishing, which I am used to. Based on observation, videos, etc., I believe that the final stone used combines an extremely unusual combination of moderately fine grit (5000 ish), and relatively soft particles. It doesn't behave at all like a conventional western 5000 stone, as can be seen if you observe professionally polished nihonto. The stone hardness also varies and the togishi selects the right one based on the specifics of the blade... and the stones are only occasionally available and very expensive. All to explain why folks on this forum are pretty clear about using professionally trained togishi.

Given that the "wild" part of the hamon is in the same place on both sides of the blade, it's unlikely that it's an accident. It does look like someone was experimenting with sugaha fading into hitatsura - sort of "quoting" the Soshu Hiromitsu hamon without doing it full on. Curious.

There's a good chance that will work, but do it in a highly ventilated space, or outdoors, with an activated carbon mask on. Lacquer thinner is one of the nastier ones.

Jean: I so wish I could have attended your workshop. To start with, I'm not going to focus on the forging part. I'm going to focus on the shaping and finishing of stock low carbon steels, copper, etc. I'm sure the results won't even be in the same universe as the masters, but learning by doing is my motto :-) Robert

I'm really curious about exactly how difficult these things are to make, using today's tools... so I'm tooling up in the new year to have a bash. Should be interesting :-)

Section 9.3 of Dr Lissenden's paper, on the use of casting in Namban tsuba, matches my recent observations of some Namban work. Many of the tsuba are pretty obviously sand cast, with varying degrees of post casting chasing and detail refinement undertaken. Thus it appears that Namban is not only a style but a technological package.

My initial thought was the same as yours. But then I realized that there were two (or possibly three) cracks emanating from the same point on the edge. Normally I would expect that one crack would start, and the stress would then move to the end of the crack, resulting in the crack extending, but reducing the likelihood of another crack starting from the same place. That's what got me thinking about there having been some blow or transient force which started both cracks at the same time... but it is just a hypothesis.

This photo is an extreme close up of the edge of a tanto. It appears possibly to show two types of flaws. The area to the left, the slightly wider crack, appears to be a very small burst fukure - about 2 mm long. The hairline cracks on the right I only discovered using a powerful macro lens and blowing up the resulting image - it's not visible to the naked eye, even with an ordinary magnifying glass. It appears only on this side of the blade, in what is probably an extension of the small area of poorly forged steel layer which caused the fukure, and appears to possibly be the result of a blow against a slightly softer object - possibly the corner of a piece of hardwood, or? The crack has not consistently run along the lamination line in the steel. I'd guess that this is a result of a combination of a small area of poor forging, a blow, and possibly a slight over-hardening or insufficient tempering. It's also interesting that there is a slight color difference on the steel on the other side of the blade around this area, although I haven't been able to catch it in a photo yet. I'm wondering if that might result from a slight change in the steel surface resulting from a moment of distortion in the slightly more ductile steel on that side of the blade, as a result of the blow. There's also a slightly larger fukure farther down the blade on the other side, which also appears to possibly have resulted in part from a blow, as well as poor lamination... and again, discoloration on the opposite side of the blade. Overall it is still quite a lovely blade, albeit with what is at a microscopic level a fatal flaw. I fear it may not have been treated entirely kindly at some time in the past.

Well, it certainly looks layered, with some pretty significant delamination which has happened over the years. Layered doesn't necessarily mean folded, though. Could equally just be two pieces of steel not quite perfectly forge welded together.

I do take Dan's point, though. There clearly are some tsuba that were designed purely as art objects, without any significant intent of them being mounted. For me, that's not the issue, though. I'm more concerned with personal aesthetic values. A lot of those "art object" tsubas are flashy, extraordinary examples of craftsmanship, but not my cup of tea :-)

Ha ha - it would be in the "Museum of Vancouver" - a Museum that even many people in Vancouver don't know exists. Next time I'm over there I may have to check in and see what the acquisition date was.

I totally agree that Chinese influence is everywhere in Japanese art. However so much of the art found within the nihonto world reflects the Japanese adaptation of that Chinese influence over 500 to 1000 years, which created an indigenous style. Wabi-sabi aesthetics are a particularly extreme example of this - I don't know of any close parallel in Chinese art. This particular tsuba, however, is much more a reflection of a purer Chinese style. Someone was re-examining Chinese art - for instance, as Charlie suggests, Kishi Ganku, and Ishiguro Masatsune receiving direct influence from the Chinese painter Shen Quan.