The Creation Of Patina

[Baka Gaijin]

時差ぼけ, Jisaboke, a term the Japanese have for Jet Lag, can be a most positive experience.

 

The result of such nocturnal wanderings, prompted by recent postings upon the topic of dating a blade by its Nakago, is the short patina section by Henry W Nicholls from the  "Field book of Japanese sword - mounts in the collections of the Field Museum of Chicago", curated by Helen Gunsaulus. Published 1923.

 

https://archive.org/details/japaneseswordmou16guns/page/162

 

And of course, hopefully, it goes without saying to add..... Don't try this at Home!! 

 

Whilst charmingly dated, the book contains some interesting illustrations and explanation of various styles of Tsuba:

 

https://archive.org/details/japaneseswordmou16guns/page/n7

 

[lotus]

Malcom -

 

Nice find. I am interested to know if method 4 actual works as it seems very simple. Maybe I will give it a go on a test Tsuba. Though, would be curious to know which oil is best to use.

[TETSUGENDO]

Malcolm,

 

Got the hard copy, I do love this old source material!  As you say, charming, full of lots of valuable material and just enought 'nonsense'to make things interesting.

 

Cheers,

    -S-

[Guest]

Hi Guys,

 

I agree, very interesting, with just enough potentially alarming actions to get the Kodogu Kempeitai hammering at your door in the dead of night.

 

I do recall the "Gingerly lay the Tsuba in the embers of a Coal fire" advice from a guest "Chief Metallurgist" contained in one of  the late, very much respected and missed B.W (Robbie) Robinson's early works on Nihon-To.

 

Again, dear reader 

 

I had heard of the Field manual of Tsuba previously (mentioned in the A.H. Church Collection of Tsuba at Oxford's Ashmolean Museum), but didn't realise that Helen Gunsaulus both curated and wrote a few more Field manuals.

 

Here they are:

 

Japanese Collections by Frank Gunsaulus Hall (Helen's Father):

 

https://archive.org/details/japanesecollect00gunsgoog/page/n2

 

The Japanese Sword and its decoration by Helen C Gunsaulus:

 

https://archive.org/details/japaneseswordits20guns/page/n3

 

Japanese Costume by Helen C Gunsaulus:

 

https://archive.org/details/japanesecostume00guns

 

Gods and Heroes of Japan by Helen C Gunsaulus:

 

https://archive.org/details/godsheroesofjapa13guns/page/n3

 

Japanese Temples and Houses by Helen C Gunsaulus:

 

https://archive.org/details/japanesetemplesh14guns/page/n5

 

The Japanese New Year's Festival Games and Pastimes by Helen C Gunsaulus:

 

https://archive.org/details/japanesenewyears11guns/page/n3

 

[TETSUGENDO]

Malcolm,

 

Thanks for the listings, I missed a couple of the titles.

 

-S-

[Pete Klein]

[Surfson]

Wow Malcolm, I had no idea about this archive system.  Can you tell me more about it?  Is this run by a consortium of libraries and do they make available scans only of books that are out of copyright?  I will be exploring this site considerably, thank you for the link.  I do have a lot of those old books, like the Gunsaulus collection and the Joly books, so it's nice to see those made available to all. 

[gauze3539]

wow. Thanks a lot guys for sharing amazing findings:)

I have been able to find so many useful WWII old books at there from time to time before. 

 

Surfson. If this can help you. 

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Archive

 

Jason C