Defying the elders for the first time

[raynor]

Hi all,

 

It is wisely said on this forum that one should not invest time and money into building koshirae for every blade in shirasaya that falls in ones lap, for many good reasons.

 

However to my defense the blade came with a good tsunagi when I bought it from a forum member here, this pandemic has ruined enough of my fun lately as it is, and dammit its my money to squander from the rooftops!

 

I put together a set of antique fittings that fit the blade's proportions and had a new saya, tsuka, ito and same done profesionally. I'll post better photos when I have it in hand, still waiting for sageo and origami before its shipped to me.

 

This is my first time composing a koshirae, hopefully my greenhorn tastes are not too much of an eyesore 

 

[Tanto54]

Dear Omar, looks very nice.  I'd love to hear more about the whole process (whatever you are willing to share).  For example: what part was the most enjoyable (and which part was the most stressful), who did the work, how long each step took, price ranges, etc. (and of course, more photos when you have them). 

[raynor]

Hello George,

 

It was somewhat a baptism of fire. Because of the pandemic I've been stuck in Norway with the majority of my collection left overseas in Miami for around two years now. Fortunately I measured the nakago and the antique habaki in the past, so with those numbers available I knew what tsuba, fuchi and kashira were possible good fits proportionally, which I gave more importance then visuals to avoid having to alter any of the pieces. Although I managed to maintain a fellow theme with small ume flowers throughout the fittings despite my minion shipping the wrong set of menuki.

 

I had family in Miami measure and ship the fittings, the blade was already in place since Moses Becerra of nihontoantiques.com who did the work had it with him from assisting with shinsa earlier. The most enjoyable part of the process was definitively seeing how it all came together and that it exceeded my expectations since I have in fact not seen all the pieces together before. The tsuba I have never had in hand, I acquired it specifically for this project since it was confirmed by the seller in Japan by photos to match the nakago on my blade remarkably well. Kudos to Buyee for making such interactions easy. Also planning and picking out the antique fittings was a great deal of fun and learning. My first set of fuchikashira had to take a back seat, you actually require kashira with shitodome when mounting as I realized just before shipping. I wanted it all to be antique materials save the new woodwork, ito, seppa and same.

 

By far the worst part was shipping items around during a global pandemic, I'm sure I am not the only one with experience what this global mess did and still do to any shipping further then ten feet. Moses has kept apologizing to me for the time this has taken, but considering work like this takes time and a nice slap of pandemic on top does not speed things up the wait for his work and supplies from Japan has been expected and quite manageable. The work done was new saya, tsuka, same, ito wrap and sageo. I already had a tsunagi and the original habaki so did not need that full package of work done. The total cost for me will likely end up north of ~$1800, party because of DHL who is the only comfortable shipping option to me now is currently having a laugh with exorbitant covid prices in the hundreds of dollars.

 

 

[Tanto54]

Dear Omar - thanks so much!  Your nice experience is motivating me to try too.  Thanks for the detail.