ROKUJURO

I would have expected this post in the TRANSLATION section, as the title implies.

I hope Paul will read it after five years....

Andy, did you read and understand MORIYAMA-SAN's post?

Same issues here in Germany. Sometimes slow loading, but website not available most of the day. Probably again the aliens....

Charles, whoever made these photos, they don't really help for an assessment. The contrast is too low to show details. I am not criticizing, I am trying to help. I am (mostly) German.

Jeff, just lowest drawer! Keep it to scare the children!

Traditional Japanese craftsmen are not known for bad work or even fails. That 'decoration' might even be intentional, we will never know. Perhaps just creating a randomly uneven texture? Besides that, an unusual WAN-GATA shape!

Charles, photos made on a white background are useless.

Jeff, I don't want to hurt your feelings, but I do not find much positive to say about this. While the MEI seems to be chiseled surprizingly well, all that remains is difficult to categorize. I hesitate to call this a TSUBA, and I doubt it was made in Japan.

Francisco, the blade photo gives an idea of the SUGATA, but to say more, detailed photos are necessary. Unfortunately, your blade is in bad condition, so it is possible that even good photos may not hold sufficient information. I have no blades for comparison so I cannot comment on the authenticity. Just from the NAKAGO, it looks KOTO to me, but this is only based on images. For making better photos, please look into your PMs.

Francisco, you did not show the blade but only the NAKAGO. Signatures can be faked, and in your case, the NAKAGO has been 'worked' on. I don't think it has its original shape. The age of a blade is not only determined by a signature, and in addition, quality and condition are much more important than age.

Well, Damon, the interpretation of the right picture is quite clear. It is marked PTSD, and imagining the stress of a combat or duel situation, I can understand that.

Frank, have a look into your PMs.

I am confident that Dale could show a dozen copies....

See above!

YOKOYAMA probably.

Luciano, we have a "WANTED TO BUY" section.

Rob, we will probably never know how they were made, but you can come closer in case you could clean out the underside carefully. If UCHIDASHI technique was performed, you would see the chisel traces. If the surface texture looks bumpy, but smooth, casting is more likely. As far as I know, soldering and brazing are rarely used in TOSOGU making.

Hi Lewis, it is just the opposite. The long KITAE WARE are incomplete welding spots, mostly caused by insufficient temperature in the folding/fire-welding stages. They are often seen on the MUNE as results of the composite construction

John, what would happen technically when heating up a TSUBA to melting temperature? We are talking about 1.538°C. As you cannot suspend the TSUBA on a wire or so in a furnace, you will have to place it horizontally on something flat that would be more heat-resistant. As all metals are very good heat conductors, the temperature on the upper side of the TSUBA will be the same as on the underside. So while you are trying to create a "like-melted" texture on the upper side, the underside will do the same and take on the texture of the material it is lying on. Now the details: A clay-based ceramic board that could withstand temperatures of about + 1.500°C was not known in Japan and is not known elsewhere today. In high-temp ceramics like porcelain, silicon-carbide boards are now used which withstand temperatures up to 1.700°C (theoretically). In traditional porcelain firing in China and Japan (about 1.350°C), special fireclay-based boards were used which had a short life-cycle. So I am afraid we have to discard the notion of YAKITE SHITATE being a "superficial melting" process in TSUBA making. As the term YAKU implies, fire plays a role in the process, but it is not aimed at melting. Coming to GAMA HADA, we should have a look at a toad's skin first (see images). I am not speculating how it would have been made on a TSUBA; there are several ways to do it, and none is fast and easy. Looking at your TSUBA above, my comment would be (not looking at the NAKAGO ANA shape which is off) that it was made by casting in coarse sand. You can buy TSUBA like these cheaply as souvenirs (see images of my souvenir TSUBA below).

This tag looks unusually "fresh" in my opinion, compared with others that have been shown here.

This is not really an inferior method in MENUKI making. If you look at the very detailed outer structure, it cannot be achieved just by pushing material in and out. But I admit that one should see these MENUKI cleaned in-hand to be sure.

Calabrese, I was told that this method is not lost, but if a goldsmith wants to apply it, a special exhaust system with recuperating filters has to be used.

It was perhaps not a humorous remark but a misunderstanding. The MENUKI have obviously been made in a "lost wax model" casting process instead of UCHIDASHI.