A kaiken ... FINAL PICTURES

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Thanks a lot folks. Hope to have some updates tomorrow. I had to finish a couple of commissioned pieces....

Steve... thanks for sharing your photos. I'm jealous of your tsuba collection. I'm actually more interested in tsuba work than I am blades at this point. Very excited to be spending a week with Patrick Hastings soon. Also jealous of your sword training. I've always wanted to practice iado... or at least kendo.. but never an opportunity where I live. The calligraphy you have is quite nice too.
 
ScottRoush said:
Steve... thanks for sharing your photos. I'm jealous of your tsuba collection. I'm actually more interested in tsuba work than I am blades at this point. Very excited to be spending a week with Patrick Hastings soon. Also jealous of your sword training. I've always wanted to practice iado... or at least kendo.. but never an opportunity where I live. The calligraphy you have is quite nice too.
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Hi Scott,

Glad you liked the pics. The tsuba collection is more of an accumulation.....three of them were gifts, one is from Fred Lohman, the "cucumbers" is modern, from a Japanese Iaito my Sensei owned and one came from the owner of CAS Hanwei, Barry Ross. The Cranes model was $100.00 at the time from CAS Hanwei and is hand cut Nanako. The mokko with the Daruma is bronze and came from Tozando, it was also about $100.00. The model with the gold inlay is a Japanese antique, paid about $400.00 for it. The case started out as tan wood with buff colored fabric, lacquered it black and added the yellow material.

You could do a similar accumulation for less than $1,000.00.:D Am always looking for great tsuba. Dick Dodge had a really nice piece at the Las Vegas Arms and Armor show for $850.00....but I didn't have the money.:mad:

The calligraphy was a gift from a fellow student.

You will be well served to study with Patrick, remember well when he started to get known.

I'd like to suggest this.....make up some blanks with wrought iron.....carve them and/or apply gold or silver inlays/onlays....texture as you wish, and then have them hot salt blued...go back in and finish out as you desired or leave them shiny and black....did this with two tsuba blanks and had them blued by Glenrock Blue, the cost was less than $100.00....and they turned out stunning.

This tsuba was done in exactly that manner....my friend Phillip Baldwin made the blank and inlaid gold in the edge....I did the texturing, put in the gold pins and did a lot of polish....Japanese sword fittings and fitting require incredible patience and hard work.:D With your skills and attention to detail, you will make some exceptional tsuba. If you choose to, you can sell the blanks to the industry....there is a real shortage of interesting tsuba commercially available for tanto.

Imo, Fred Lohman does the best steel casting for Japanese sword fittings in the world....his steel tsuba have remarkable detail, and are exceptionally strong....he is more than a little nuts, but he is a genius. He made the fuchi kashira in this photo, and the menuki were a gift from David Langenbacker.

As far as being jealous of my sword training......it has highs and lows.....After studying with him for over 12 years, Masayuki Shimabukuro Hanshi was diagnosed with cancer in early 2012 and passed away in September 2012....my spirit has a hole in it that will never close.
http://www.blackbeltmag.com/daily/t...-a-samurai-sword-master-masayuki-shimabukuro/
Best Regards,

STeven Garsson
 
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Okay.. thanks a lot for the suggestions. I really like the idea of hot bluing wrought.

As an aside.. something that a lot of folks, including you, might be interested in.. I've been cold forging the local glacial float copper into some tsuba blanks. It's very beautiful copper that sometimes has tiny veins of silver in it. And it shows a natural mokume sometimes as well..... I think there is some potential for beautiful tsuba here.

I'm attaching one piece I've been playing with.... I'm hoping to get some help refining the geometry of these with Patrick.. and then learn the inlay.

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Beautiful natural Tsuba material, Scott.

You'll have some time working with these at Patrick's class!

John
 
I'm sure that's a long and arduous process but I'll bet the results will be well worth it.....a great thread you have going my friend. :)
 
That looks really, really good, Scott!

I tend to look at swords and sword parts from a user perspective, that I why I recommended the wrought iron.....the copper looks like a wrought iron tsuba probably would....nice shaping and doming to the profile.

Best Regards,

STeven Garsson
 
Kohai999 said:
That looks really, really good, Scott!

I tend to look at swords and sword parts from a user perspective, that I why I recommended the wrought iron.....the copper looks like a wrought iron tsuba probably would....nice shaping and doming to the profile.

Best Regards,

STeven Garsson
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Interesting you bring up 'user perspective' with copper versus iron. I'm not sure if you saw a thread I had on here a couple of weeks ago about a knife I made from this same copper... it was a replica of the sort of knives that were used in my area 5-6000 years ago and they were cold forged and work hardened. Copper work hardens like bronze.. but perhaps not as well. Now.. a lot of wrought iron does not work harden at all unless it has phosphorus in it. So if an iron tsuba doesn't harden any from the hammer... then is it any better than copper when dealing with an opponent's blade that is many, many times harder? Also..wrought iron that is very high in slag can be very brittle.. whereas copper would always be unlikely to break (unless work hardened TOO much). blah, blah... the point is... it would be fun to do some cutting tests on work hardened copper and wrought iron. However.. all of what I'm referring to right now assumes that iron tsuba were actually low carbon iron and not steely bloom. I have a feeling that despite all my reasoning above.. that the iron tsuba would still be tougher.
 
ScottRoush said:
it would be fun to do some cutting tests on work hardened copper and wrought iron. However.. all of what I'm referring to right now assumes that iron tsuba were actually low carbon iron and not steely bloom. I have a feeling that despite all my reasoning above.. that the iron tsuba would still be tougher.
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My wrought iron tsuba is many times tougher than copper. Copper does work harden and makes a good tsuba, no doubt.......ALL my swords have steel tsuba....except for the tanto with the wrought iron.....trying to peen/file the nakago ana on a steel tsuba to fit is a real mofo....bronze or copper are easy by comparison. I think Patrick started with mild steel....even this is no fun to fit....many, many times harder and tougher than copper. If you look at antique tsuba, they usually have copper bits in the nakago ana to allow for new fitting....much easier to work.

Best Regards,

STeven Garsson
 
Yes.. copper is easier. Although.. when it's been truly work hardened.. the machinability becomes remarkably different. Until you've actually gone through the process of work hardening a copper blade.. most people will never see how hard it becomes. My guess is that any copper associated with sword fittings was annealed as a final step for ease of fitment. And I doubt that copper tsubas were purposefully work hardened to maximum hardness.. But like I said.. certainly not comparable to steel. To low carbon wrought iron.. depends on the alloys and slag content most likely.

Anyway... Here is the habaki after deep etch:

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Some stuff coming together. Funny... I made a mistake on the placement of the mekugi-ana (peg hole) in the wood due to not taking into account flattening the osage for the ebony spacer. But then I put the seppa on.. and it came right back into alignment. I meant to do that... :-)


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keep evolving, keep things fresh. I like to move between traditional work and traditional tools and a more Western/USA machinist approach. That way, I can make different things, or I can make similar things but in different ways. Never a dull moment.
As you know, I have followed your work for the last few years, watching as we both evolve and find more depth and breadth. It is a pleasure.
kc
 
Thanks Kevin. Believe me.. If I had more 'machinist' skills I would use them! But not having them.. something like a mill doesn't always serve me the best. I'm not going to be ditching my machines.. it's just about learning when one approach is superior to another...

I should mention since it was brought up by somebody else in another forum.. my habaki shows gaps and inadequate solder because it isn't soldered in that picture! My soft solder joint keeps breaking and I'm trying to find some hard solder to use instead. Plus.. there was something off in the overall sugata (lines/shape of the blade) that I didn't like.. so I had to re-grind a bit which means more habaki messing. At to the gap at the ha (edge).. I will probably have to fashion another machigane (the little wedge that is placed into that area).

It's amazing how each and every step in this process HAS to be done in order... at least if you are trying to get good fitment of all the pieces using a single pin. There can't be any slop anywhere.

Here is where things stand now.. I have the tsuka coming into form. Now it's time to start getting the saya to flow with it.

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Edit: Dudley.. I meant to mention about forging the copper. It isn't actually very arduous. When the copper is annealed it is an absolute joy to forge. You hammer until it starts to firm up and then back into the fire. It's so much fun after forging stuff like W2 and 5160....
 
It's looking really nice Scott and very much with your signature on it.

I use hard silver solder to close the habaki. Maybe easy or x-easy would be fine for a tanto though but you still want the high temp stuff or it'll pop open when refitting.

I really like this line as it reminds me of my own discovery
ScottRoush said:
It's amazing how each and every step in this process HAS to be done in order... at least if you are trying to get good fitment of all the pieces using a single pin. There can't be any slop anywhere.
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You not only have to go in order but all the steps have to be planned or it'll never quite work out... You have to start at the end and work back but put it all together from the beginning :confused:.... I'm sure you know what I mean..;):p
 
ScottRoush said:
As an aside.. something that a lot of folks, including you, might be interested in.. I've been cold forging the local glacial float copper into some tsuba blanks. It's very beautiful copper that sometimes has tiny veins of silver in it. And it shows a natural mokume sometimes as well..... I think there is some potential for beautiful tsuba here.

I'm attaching one piece I've been playing with.... I'm hoping to get some help refining the geometry of these with Patrick.. and then learn the inlay.
Click to expand...

wow! i missed this aside before...very cool...copper is local to vancouver island as well, one of the reasons i like to use it in every piece...but i have never come across any of our "yamagane" in the wild...hammer on!
 
SBranson said:
It's looking really nice Scott and very much with your signature on it.

I use hard silver solder to close the habaki. Maybe easy or x-easy would be fine for a tanto though but you still want the high temp stuff or it'll pop open when refitting.

I really like this line as it reminds me of my own discovery


You not only have to go in order but all the steps have to be planned or it'll never quite work out... You have to start at the end and work back but put it all together from the beginning :confused:.... I'm sure you know what I mean..;):p
Click to expand...

Yeah Stuart... I remember you saying something to that effect on one your Japanese threads. I was thinking like this in the beginning.. just not to the extreme... i.e. in terms of factoring in thickness of seppa, fine flattening adjustments, ... very touchy stuff. I would have to say that I recommend making something like this for all makers.. very good exercise in precision and planning!


Dave I didn't realize native copper was out there as well. I knew there was a connection through trade routes though... Interesting. If you ever need any.. let me know.
 
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