Nazar Posted August 4 Author Report Posted August 4 So, the sarute and the nut for mekugi are ready. I started with sarute as it seemed to be quite easy. According to the measurements made by Sam Scogg (many thanks to him again!), the diameter of the wire used for the sarute is 3.3mm. I went through a lot of pictures and I believe the diameter of wire may vary, however for my sword 3.3 seems to be the correct value. I sourced a piece of steel wire of 3.4mm in diameter. That wire was zinc plated, so I had to prepare it beforehand. Zinc has a relatively low temperature of melting, so the general idea was to heat the wire with a gas torch. Another goal of heating wire was to make it softer. Yet I have to figure out the right configuration of sarute. I tried to make it using measurements provided by Sam and after the first attempt I realised it wouldn't work without some recalculations. The reason was I didn't take into account that the total length was measured by the side of the wire that is already stretched. I either had to recalculate the correct length of blank or figure the other way to get the correct length of wire. I took a closer look at tsuka and I beheld a solution. The proof that my sword was equipped with a sarute and it was lost only recently was there all the time. Here is what I mean. Look at the area in the red oval in the picture below and you'll see the rounded outline left by the sarute hitting the tsuka countless times for the last 80 or so years. I believe sarute was removed relatively recently. Supposedly it happened during someone's attempt to remove tsuka. At the same time the mekugi nut was removed and lost. So all I have to do is to make a sarute that will fit exactly the same spot. By lucky chance I stumbled upon 3mm aluminum wire and I used it to model sarute. Once I got the sarute of right configuration made of aluminum wire, I unbent the area of this model sarute between the "prongs" that go into the hatome. The distance between these prongs is the most crucial dimension when it comes to recreating a sarute that will fit as original. After this it wasn't very hard to bend the right configuration from 3.4mm steel wire. I formed prongs in vises and bent the length of wire between them around the rod of suitable diameter. And as I finished bending sarute, I looked into my phone that was lying on the workbench to check messages. The phone still had a photo of sarute that Sam sent me on its display. And just out of curiosity I put my sarute on top of the picture. And while scales of the picture and my sarute were not adjusted it was clear that proportions were mostly identical. It was another indicator I did it right. 1 1 Quote
Nazar Posted August 4 Author Report Posted August 4 Then it was time to copper plate the sarute. I made the solution according to the receipt from the internet: Copper sulfate - 100gr Distilled water - 450gr Battery acid (sulfuric acid) - 100gr I am not great at chemistry, but I believe the crucial part of mixing it is slowly adding acid to the mix of water and copper sulfate, not other way. This solution alone is sufficient to provide steel with a thin coat of copper. Here is how the drill bit for wood looks after dipping it into the solution. I didn't clean it through and through, so I was able to scratch copper off in places that weren't clean enough. Yet, in other places copper adhesion to steel was surprisingly strong. The only suitable DC power source I had at hand was a 12V 2A power unit for a WiFi router. With the help of an improvised adapter I was able to connect alligator clips to it. This power source turned out to be far from perfect but it worked. From what I could observe, the reaction went in like impulses and maybe it went too fast. I believe for the perfect result one has to use an adjustable power source and test different combinations of Volts and Amps. I want to return to copper coating and do some experiments later on, because it is quite an interesting tool. My first experiments showed that the surface of the wire had to be prepared through and through. It might be due to previous zinc plating that I got some sketchy coating that was very tough in some places while piling off in another. Here is what I mean: However, I have to admit that this result may look a lot like the sarute in Marcin picture. I experimented a bit more with heating the wire again, cleaning it with scotchbrite and etching it in sulfuric acid. Then I copper plated the final version of sarute. After plating I let it sit for some time in the solution of water and baking soda. Then I darkened it using sulfuric ointment. 2 1 Quote
Nazar Posted August 4 Author Report Posted August 4 As I mentioned, I went through a lot of pictures of sarute. And even when it is hard to verify if all of them belonged to the swords they were installed on, I figured out not the rull, but like a general outline: one wouldn't be wrong if the look of sarute more or less corresponds to the look of hatome (sarute barrel). Which is only logical in cases like mine, where both are made of steel/iron and copper coated. 3 1 Quote
Nazar Posted August 5 Author Report Posted August 5 And here is the story of mekugi' nut making. To read this part one may turn on "I can get no satisfaction" by the Rolling Stones. I started with mekugi bolt measurements. The diameter of the threaded part of the mekugi bolt turned out to be 4mm. The standard pitch for the thread of this diameter is 0.7mm. Yet, both of my thread gauges clearly showed that the thread pitch of this bolt is 0.75mm. I ended up buying the set of taps and dies that had M4X075 tap and die. It was like some Chinese knock-off set, but it was sufficient for the brass. I sent it to my parents and asked my stepfather to turn me a couple of brass blanks for the nut. I also asked for a threaded rod so I could put nuts on it and work on them using cordless drill, small files, sandpaper and Scotch-Brite. When I received blanks I didn't have a sword with me in my workshop. Therefore the first design of the nut I recreated from memory. I shaped it using files and I chamfered the side that faces tsuka in the way the bolt head was chamfered. I used a small file to mark the groove for the screwdriver slot and cut the slot by hand using a hacksaw. To finish it I grinded a piece of broken small file on the grinder to make it thinner. I put some effort into the patina, making it look close to the copperish patina of the bolt head. 1 1 Quote
Nazar Posted August 5 Author Report Posted August 5 Now about the part where I couldn't get satisfaction. I ran through the pictures of nuts again to check the result and it dawned on me that my nut isn't correct. The flat surface I recreated on the outer side of the nut does exist in some cases, yet it is not a product of lathe work. It is the result of fixing the nut on the bolt. The mekugi nut-bolt setup wasn't supposed to be disassembled, so the nut was fixed on the bolt during sword assembling. In some cases it was just a punch on the bolt end, in others the nut was punched, while in some ultimate cases it looked like the end of the nut and bolt were hammered and then punched. And I managed to misinterpret the result of this hammering for a design made on lathe. I also made the nut slightly bigger in diameter than it is supposed to be. There is quite a variety of mekugi bolts and nuts. Which is understandable as they likely were turned on lathe by hand. So, similarly to the sarute I worked out a kind of guideline for the mekugi nut: one wouldn't be wrong if he made a nut that would be as close as possible to the bolt head, starting with dimensions and shape and finishing with chamfers. Therefore, I had to remake the nut. I worked on another blank. This time I achieved quite a nice result. I even managed to imitate traces from the lathe cutter. And again, I put some effort into the patina. The result might have been perfect if not for one thing. One of the ends of the threaded hole in this nut blank was chamfered by my stepfather. And I managed to not notice that until I roughly shaped the nut. This resulted in small imperfection that is barely noticeable by the naked eye (the nut has 7.4mm of outer diameter and is 3mm high). But it clearly stands out in close-up photos. With the nut in place and in close-up photo the incorrect chamfer is quite visible. Quote
Nazar Posted August 5 Author Report Posted August 5 So... I took the first nut and reshaped it. This time the traces of the lathe cutter weren't that good, but the patina might have turned out to be even better. Here is how it looks in its place. 1 Quote
Nazar Posted August 5 Author Report Posted August 5 And here are some photos of tsuka with both sarute and nut installed. 3 Quote
paul griff Posted August 5 Report Posted August 5 Hello Nazar, First class work and excellent narrative … Regards, Paul. 1 Quote
Nazar Posted August 5 Author Report Posted August 5 13 hours ago, Brian said: Amazing work, really impressed 10 hours ago, paul griff said: Hello Nazar, First class work and excellent narrative … Regards, Paul. Thank you Brian, thank you Paul! It was a pleasure to work on this sword. Quote
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