Retrofit tsuka??

[Nicolas Maestre]

Hi all, 

 

New question on my newly received (first) Nihonto. Well, more about the tsuka itself. I immediately noticed that there were two holes, one of which was filled with a piece of wood, and then some samegawa added as a "patch". It is very carefully done, but obvious at the same time. Clearly someone spent some time on it.

 

 

My thought is that it was never made for the blade it came with, but someone took this existing tsuka and retrofitted it instead. What is surprising to me is that it fits very nicely. I mean, no play, tight but not too much, so that one strike on the wrist is just enough to loosen it the "traditional" way. What are the chances of finding just the perfect tsuka for a blade, given how complex the geometry  of a nakago is (shape, width, ridges, curvature, etc.) ??

 

What do you guys think? Was this a thing back in the day or is it a modern doing??

[O koumori]

I had one like this once. It was mounted with a somewhat thin tsuba and no sepa. 

 

At the time, someone theorized that the  tsuba had been changed, and the previous one was of a different thickness, necessitating moving the mekugi hole.

I was never able to prove or disprove this theory...

 

Dan K

[Nicolas Maestre]

Oh... Interesting... I did not think about that. In this case, the tsuba is of pretty standard thickness though. I don't know, maybe someone can confirm this 🙂

[FZ1]

I know that several members have sourced and re-cut old tsuka to fit their blades, so I assume its a common practice.  Good recycling of quality old tsuka as well!

 

 

[ROKUJURO]

 Nicolas,

 

re-purposing an old TSUKA could be done as long as the wood was stable and had no cracks.

 

You will certainly not "find" a perfectly fitting TSUKA for a blade; that would be highly unlikely. Good TSUKA are made 'sur mesure' by special craftsmen. 

[Dave R]

11 hours ago, ROKUJURO said:

 Nicolas,

 

re-purposing an old TSUKA could be done as long as the wood was stable and had no cracks.

 

You will certainly not "find" a perfectly fitting TSUKA for a blade; that would be highly unlikely. Good TSUKA are made 'sur mesure' by special craftsmen. 

 

 It can happen, but it's a lottery with the same chances as for a big win. The "one in a million" that I got was bought to be used as an example or "pattern" without any intention or hope of it fitting, so a big surprise when it did!

 More usually I buy a sound but shabby piece, with damaged or absent Ito, ( would never ever cut the ito on a good piece) and throw it into water for a few hours so the rice glue dissolves. Then I do whats necessary to make it fit. I have found a few where I was not the first retro fitter with things like plugged Mekugi Ana and glued in shims or fillets of Honoki and showing signs of age. Certainly done in Japan anyway.

[Nicolas Maestre]

Thank you so much guys.

 

Ok, so if I understood correctly, it could indeed be a retrofit, but it's unlikely. 

So it could be that at some point in time, an element of koshirae was changed (tsuba? habaki? seppa?) and then there was a need to gain a few millimeters, hence a new hole in the tsuka...

 

I forgot to mention that the nakago of the tsunagi exhibits the same thing... In this case I guess it makes sense?