Tsuba for iron

[Danocon]

I am currently bidding on several inexpensive tsuba on ebay just to examine the iron.

Any artistic or collector merit in any of these? All claim to be Edo period.

 

 

 

 

[Marius]

I would say the hat and gourd sukashi could prove to be a quite decent ("decent" as opposed to "crappy") late Edo tsuba. But I would not expect any excellent forging here - such tsuba were made of "factory iron" plates:

 

http://home.earthlink.net/~steinrl/tsuba/tsubajg.htm

 

Not sure about the last tsuba - it must have undergone severe corrosion and subsequent cleaning. Hard to say if it was good before that.

 

I am not a metallurgist, so I don't really know what you are up to - do you want to examine carbon contents?

[Grey Doffin]

Hi Dan,

Does examining the iron involve any damage to the tsuba?

Grey

[Danocon]

Hi Dan,

Does examining the iron involve any damage to the tsuba?

Grey

 

Grey,

 

No, just very close examination under magnification. Looking at the character of the iron, any folding of the material and a feel for the texture. Not a huge amount of information but small pieces add up.

[ROKUJURO]

Dan,

 

before you spend your money on TSUBA that are probably not useful for the purpose, why not ask the TOSOGU expert members to provide some high resolution photos of fire welded steel TSUBA which you could easily magnify. This may do the job as well or better (I hope).