Mikeeman
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Post by Mikeeman on Aug 2, 2015 21:13:22 GMT
So, since I have received my first nihonto ( and the following backlash from doing my own polish on it), I have decided to at least preserve the original parts that I received with it. The problem with this, is that they are very old and very brittle. The tsuka came split and had a few splinters break off of the mune side and has what appears to be termite damage, the wrap was undone and broke, and the rayskin on it had a crack in it. I didn't receive any fittings for it. Since I plan to remount the katana it's self, I had planned to make a display box to preserve all of the parts that I got with it. So my questions are:
1. Can I resoak the rayskin to lay it out flat in the display box? It already has a rip/tear in it, but I'd like to spread it out flat so you can see the whole thing. Since it's rayskin, in my mind, it should just become pliable so I can lay it flat and let it redry one more time for long term storage.
2. Is it ok to glue the splinters back in place and put some kind of lacquer over the wood to prevent further rotting? It's in pretty bad shape and very brittle. It's only going to get worse if it's not protected.
3. Is this common practice? I know I've never seen it done, but I thought it would be cool to have all the original stuff on display under the sword in it's new mountings.
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Mikeeman
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Post by Mikeeman on Aug 2, 2015 21:22:11 GMT
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Post by chrisperoni on Aug 2, 2015 21:42:04 GMT
Dude, forget about all that "ooh, don't polish it, don't fix it up yourself" mumbo jumbo. Maybe not every time, buy this time at least, I think you are FINE to do whatever you want to this nihonto. You know it's condition and so on so just go for it. Make a presentation out of it. Just this once let's all not worry about the value. Let's believe that it's in too crappy a condition to worry about. For the rayskin try soaking it in warm water and see how it reacts to being flattened out. If it doesn't like it then stop. For the wood- go for it.
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Mikeeman
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Post by Mikeeman on Aug 2, 2015 22:21:29 GMT
I've already done a rough shaping polish about 2/3 up one side of the blade. No going back, now. It's going really good, though. The blade is very rounded off (I'm assuming from somebody using steel wool on it. At least, that's what it looks like) so it's taking a while to reshape the geometry. I can see a lot of activity in the steel with Ferric Chloride, though. Turning out great, so far. I just wondered about the rest of it.
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Post by Jussi Ekholm on Aug 3, 2015 0:15:27 GMT
I guess that they might carry some sentimental value. Hard to say if they carry any historical value, depends how old they actually are. Determing the age will be above my skill even if I'd see pics. I have one old trash saya that I sawed to pieces so I could show people some details about saya. Haven't really taken it anywhere, it's just in my "junk box". I think there is some educational value in old pieces. Also one member of our nihonto group has a great display of various partial tsuka. It's been shown in few of our public exhibitions and I think it's great to have small things like these as it might spark an interest in someone. Then you can start a conversation of tsuka if someone looks them long enough.
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Mikeeman
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Post by Mikeeman on Aug 3, 2015 0:50:05 GMT
I just took some pictures for Dan Davis, as he was interested in my blade, and looking at the pictures I took, I'm not so sure this is the tsuka for this blade. Thoughts?
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Post by Cottontail Customs on Aug 3, 2015 3:36:46 GMT
Personally, I doubt the tsuka has any real value other than for study. If you want to glue the splinters and add a coat of lacquer to help preserve what's left, I don't think you're going to do any harm. I don't know what the samegawa looks like but if it's not a seriously beautiful piece, you could probably go ahead and flatten it out if you want. I would do so with room temperature water and try soaking it for 10 minutes or so. If it's still not pliable enough to flatten at that point, let it soak a little longer. If it's really old and fragile, you might wind up with not much to save but but if you use hot water, it will most definitely disintegrate.
I still think the nakago has been altered as it seems too short for the length of the blade but then again, I know very little about antiques. The lower mekugi-ana makes me think the nakago used to be longer and the mune/ha machi have maybe been moved higher up since then and a new higher mekugi-ana made.
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Mikeeman
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Post by Mikeeman on Aug 3, 2015 4:26:41 GMT
Well, here's what Dan Davis had to say:
"Perhaps, but not at the moment.
Here is what I can tell you so far: This blade is definitely suriage.
The deep rounded curvature of the nakago-ha as it is now is the result of a "stupid American trick". If you find the one who did this, kick his ass.
The patina which has not been removed from the nakago indicates the blade is very old.
There are two mekugi-ana extant in nakago; the one closest to nakago-jiri is sized for katana while the one closer to habaki is sized for wakizashi.
Both mekugi-ana appear to have been punched. This along with the patination on the nakago sets the date of conversion to wakizashi somewhere during the mid to late Shinto era. In other words, this blade was shortened approximately 270 years ago. Original manufacture could be centuries before that.
Shape of blade at this point could be either bizen or soshu. Further examination is needed but the blade lamination method is either shihozume or sosho kitae.
Original length of this blade was somewhere around 26.5 inches which would be typical of soshu-den katana (2 shaku 2 sun 2 bu).
I will stare at it some more tomorrow."
I went ahead and flattened out the rayskin, but I'm really glad that it's something cool. Even if I did a lot of "polishing" in the blade, I'm amazed that it's something that has a history like that.
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