steveboy
Member
Measure twice, cut once.
Posts: 368
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Post by steveboy on Jul 13, 2023 19:00:34 GMT
Terrific work! Good for you for going the extra mile on this.
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Post by hyakkihei on Jul 14, 2023 16:24:27 GMT
Thanks guys! I'm really glad I took the steps to do it more properly this time.
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Post by hyakkihei on Jul 28, 2023 20:27:36 GMT
I have some minor updates. The silver plating on the oval seppas and the habaki was worn, especially badly on the seppas, so I looked to having them re-silver plated, and contacted a company for that. But... they wanted 250 euros for it, which i felt was a bit overkill. So I looked into a liquid called Silver plater, which supposed contains silver and deposits a layer on copper alloys or silver when applied and polished, and with a few rounds it should put a good looking silver layer on it. Well, I went and tried that, especially since it was only 10% of the price the company quoted me for. And the results are pretty good, no more copper showing through the habaki. I completely redid the seppas with it ( can't really see well due to lighting but the seppas are like a mirror finish silver. So that worked well. Additionally I got my hands on a tassel for the tsuka. The reproduction ones just don't look right, they're just not good enough, so I got an original. Thing is, since it's original, it's old, so the silk it quite stiff, and feels like i could tear it apart if i really tried hard enough. It's not a huge issue since it won't be used excessively, and i don't intend to remove it from the sarute. However if someone has suggestions on how to restore flexibility or rejuvenate silk, I'm all ears! A new saya is also on its way.
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steveboy
Member
Measure twice, cut once.
Posts: 368
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Post by steveboy on Jul 28, 2023 23:51:28 GMT
Thanks for the tip on the liquid silver plater! That could be really useful. Is it this Nushine stuff?
Re the sageo, yours looks a lot like the Sanada-Himo sageos I've gotten. They're a traditional weave going back a long time, and they're beautiful and really well made, but very stiff. I've been leery about rolling them tight and unspooling them to loosen them up (the way you do with a new belt in martial arts), so I've just kinda left them as is.
Glad you're posting your progress on this!
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Post by hyakkihei on Jul 29, 2023 0:23:52 GMT
Thanks for the tip on the liquid silver plater! That could be really useful. Is it this Nushine stuff?
Re the sageo, yours looks a lot like the Sanada-Himo sageos I've gotten. They're a traditional weave going back a long time, and they're beautiful and really well made, but very stiff. I've been leery about rolling them tight and unspooling them to loosen them up (the way you do with a new belt in martial arts), so I've just kinda left them as is.
Glad you're posting your progress on this!
but it might be the same kind of stuff as Nushine, I've not looked into Nushine myself. I managed to find a place that still sold the 50ml bottles, which are like 20 bucks.
I see, so they're supposed to be kinda stiff if not used then? I won't mess with it too much then, no reason to risk it. And thank you! once I was finally able to get that wakizashi done I kinda really got into this as a hobby, doing these small little projects is a lot of fun. I have the saya on the way, and after I have that, I can even look into restoring the old saya, see how much I can
salvage it.
EDIT: Looked into that nushine, seems to be the same stuff as Silver Plater, same description, same instructions.
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Post by hyakkihei on Jan 28, 2024 15:26:14 GMT
It seems I can't help myself but pick up project swords. I bought this from someone in Japan, pretty much as a test piece to see how well I can handle the rust on the blade and practice polishing on. The rust on the blade wasn't a huge ordeal apparently, it was mostly surface rust, but the koshirae on the tsuka are another matter. The fuchi and kashira are so deeply rusted, that removing the rust from them basically made them unusable. The part wrapped around the tsuka is barely any different. it was already broken, and now that the rust is mostly gone, it has lost most of its structural integrity. I'm thinking I might need to fabricate a replacement, or find something online, but the thing is... I have no idea what it even is or what it's called. I've never seen a tsuka like this, so I'm very lacking in information. Does anyone know what that metal band around the tsuka is called?
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Post by larason2 on Jan 28, 2024 18:59:43 GMT
Hmm, should have just polished off the red rust with cowbone or magnolia charcoal and called it a day. I'm not sure the metal band has a word you're going to be able to discover easily, and replacements aren't really available, so you'll have to make a replacement. In Japan, they use "iron" to make these, but in practice it's basically wrought iron. It's not that easy to get wrought though, I ordered some from a smith in Australia through etsy. For a bit more, if you message him before ordering he can probably hammer it flat for you. If you have experience, it won't be too hard to make. If you have any trouble let me know. To finish it, it's best to patinate it the traditional Japanese way. Jim Kelso has a good recipe on his site, which I can also give you tips on if you want. Another strategy is just to solder the breaks with silver solder, polish the metal to make it look ok, repatinate what you have with traditional patina, glue it back in securely with nikawa (hide glue), and call it a day. Won't be perfect, but a lot less work!
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Post by Jussi Ekholm on Jan 28, 2024 19:21:00 GMT
It is called 筒金 - tsutsugane
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Post by hyakkihei on Jan 28, 2024 20:38:25 GMT
Hmm, should have just polished off the red rust with cowbone or magnolia charcoal and called it a day. I'm not sure the metal band has a word you're going to be able to discover easily, and replacements aren't really available, so you'll have to make a replacement. In Japan, they use "iron" to make these, but in practice it's basically wrought iron. It's not that easy to get wrought though, I ordered some from a smith in Australia through etsy. For a bit more, if you message him before ordering he can probably hammer it flat for you. If you have experience, it won't be too hard to make. If you have any trouble let me know. To finish it, it's best to patinate it the traditional Japanese way. Jim Kelso has a good recipe on his site, which I can also give you tips on if you want. Another strategy is just to solder the breaks with silver solder, polish the metal to make it look ok, repatinate what you have with traditional patina, glue it back in securely with nikawa (hide glue), and call it a day. Won't be perfect, but a lot less work! With all the rust gone, that metal band is really not in a salvageable state, I think. And it didn't even get rid of all the rust, there were some parts that refused to go away. Very fragile, but at least it retains its shape, so I can trace it to fabricate something in its place. once I figure something out to replace or repair it, i'll absolutely hit you up on information on the patina recipe!
@jussi Thank you. I don't get a whole lot of results on google from it but the few I do get are exactly that, so now at least I know what I'm dealing with.
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Post by hyakkihei on Apr 19, 2024 10:04:31 GMT
A lot of time passed since last update. since the entire thing was covered in rust, I tried using evaporust to get rid of it, it left a pattern on the blade because of the rust and the carbon moving to the edge of the metal from the derusting process, but I think it's in a good state to try and polish it eventually. I put a new fuchi and kashira on the tsuka, got one of these mekugi that you screw in with a bar with a tomoe mon on it ( I love the hojo mon on the kashira btw ) And while I was buying a kaigunto koshirae from a collector here, he threw in a tsutsugane when I told him I was working on trying to fabricate one myself. It didn't quite fit so it needed some modifications, but it's on there now and I rather like it. It doesn't completely cover the faded parts on the tsuka from where the old one was rusting onto the tsuka and the glue had been, but I'll call it good enough for now. Before pic with most of the new parts but the old rusted tsutsugane New tsutsugane, last pic shows the part I added material, I re-lacquered the entire thing black, it was already black to begin with, but since I added material and part of the old lacquer was flaking, was kinda a must. Hell, I never expected to find a replacement tsutsugane, I'd been looking since I first became aware of what they were, and had only found one other one online. Full wakizashi
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Post by larason2 on Apr 19, 2024 16:14:56 GMT
Wow, that turned out pretty good! I like how it left the blade, seems pretty conservative to me, and the pattern looks nice. Glad you could find a tsutsugane! It's amazing what some collectors have in stock!
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Post by hyakkihei on Apr 19, 2024 17:52:43 GMT
Wow, that turned out pretty good! I like how it left the blade, seems pretty conservative to me, and the pattern looks nice. Glad you could find a tsutsugane! It's amazing what some collectors have in stock! Yeah he must have a huge collection, was a really nice guy, I first bought some gunto parts from him, a replacement semegane, a sarute and a kabutogane because the one on mine has some weird black tar-like stuff on it that won't come off and i didn't want to risk destroying it like i did to the semegane...
And I went to pick those up in person. Then his deal with someone else for a kaigunto koshirae fell through, and I was interested. I had mentioned needing a tsutsugane to him and showed him a pic later, and he dug one up from his collection and sent it along for free. Awesome guy It's quite worn, but it's all in one piece and I love how it looks, it's the version of the saya with the lacquered samegawa too.
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