Plain Copper Tsuba

[Brian Ayres]

I have this plain copper tsuba I picked up a couple years ago. I am curious how common they are as I cannot seem to find other soft metal tsuba that are unadorned. Do I not see them because nobody shares something so simple?

It is 8.05cm wide and 8.15cm tall. The thickness is 3.75mm at the rim and 4.5mm at the nakago.

 

It has one sekigane added to the bottom.

 

There are a couple wear spots on the patina and some wax on the ura.

[Brian Ayres]

Here is a straight on picture

[peterd]

Hi Brian, Ko kinko ? nice patina from what i can see.

Hope someone  with more experience will comment

Pete

[Marius]

Looks like low grade shakudo. Not ko-kinko, too thick for that. 

Read this article here:
http://www.arscives.com/historysteel/japanesekoshirae.article.htm
(go to regulations of the Edo period, you'll find your tsuba there)

[Brian Ayres]

Thanks Marius. That helped. I bought it thinking it was shakudo from the darkness of the patina but was second guessing it as copper.