Wear and tear on patination...

[Toryu2020]

Question for the fittings artists and collectors - have you ever seen an antique tsuba with wear at the two o'clock position where a swordsman's thumb would contact the tsuba? I'll include photos below of two modern tsuba that have seen a lot of practice and a lot of wear. Funnily the kurikata seen did have white metal showing but since it has been resting all thru the pandemic the patination appears to be returning all of its own...

any help appreciated,

-tch

[Toryu2020]

[Toryu2020]

[John A Stuart]

Yes, I've seen wear. Hopefully ay 11 o'clock. I like all my fingers. John

[Ford Hallam]

I've seen entries in various dairies of samurai doing tours of duty in Edo where they list monthly expenses etc. Two I can think of off hand were regarding a saya repair, to the urushi, and the other a rewrap. Rewraps were apparently needed yearly. The inference being that it simply wouldn't do to be wearing a sword as a retainer that wasn't kept in decent condition, and I'd suggest that'd include worn patina. A worn iron patina would also be vulnerable to fresh rust which could soil one's kimono too. So it seems reasonable to think that tsuba and other fitting would have been periodically touched up.

[Curran]

Tom,

 

It was an interesting question.

A ko-Tosho I have was mountet tachi style and has a lot of obvious wear on the tsuka side in the appropriate place for a tachi mounted iron tsuba that has been used a lot.

 

Flipping it over, it does have some noticeable degree of wear in the area you are talking about, but not nearly as much as the tsuka side.

 

 

[Steves87]

I have a pic like that ! This is approximately 14 months wear from dojo use. The material is magnetic and was advertised as iron.

[Toryu2020]

And I was thinking it was just me And my sweat was somehow corrosive!