rkg

Hey guys, One of the items I shot for the next KTK exhibition catalog was what I believe is a first Jingo - a decent one is amazingly good (I feel honored to have been able to study it for a while while I photographed it - the composition and jigane is enough to make you quit collecting pre-edo stuff :-) ), and has little to do with the original image posted. In response to the fine crosshatching in the last post, while this is often the case, On the jingo I photographed it appears that the crosshatching was very deliberately and carefully filled with brass by the maker to give the impression of worn away inlay. As an aside, I have a ko-shoami piece where you can see the crosshatching and the remnants of a silver coating which I'd guess was originally applied in such a way as it would wear off very quickly producing this effect - isn't that called surikomi zogan? Best, rkg (Richard George)

Nick, First of all, it sounds like somebody used naval jelly on it? For some reason I've found that surfaces treated with this stuff seem more resistant to rust than you'd think (I know, this makes no sense because naval jelly is just phosphoric acid mixed in with some goop to make it jelly-like so it will hang on the surface with enough acid to do some good, but that's been my experience with car restoration, so YMMV...). As far as repatination goes, I tried several things before I knew any better. Don't do it - the patina will look OK to you until you see an actual piece from the school... There are certain self proclaimed patination "experts" in the US whose pieces you can spot immediately especially if you put an un-jacked-with piece from the same school next to it - they often have a funky blue tint and/or smell like an oil refinery... there's like one guy in the US that can do it "right". What can get you an OK finish is time - one way to do this is to put the piece outdoors where it won't get rained on/can't get carted off by curious animals/children and let it sit, checking it occasionally - bright red rust is bad, and you want to remove that with a cloth (I tend to use something fairly coarse like an old cotton sock) or possibly a piece of ivory or antler if you let it go too far. Hit up Jim Gilbert's site for a far better explanation of all this stuff than I can give off the top of my head.... a pointer is: http://home.earthlink.net/~jggilbert/Cleaning.htm Best, rkg (Richard George)

James, Thanks for the info on your piece. Mine didn't have a showa stamp which made it confusing... I don't know what to say about the quality - as can be seen, it doesn't look like a lot of oil quenched pieces, so... Best, rkg (Richard George)

James, Just out of curiosity, did this piece also have a "shin gane Iru" stamp shown as item #vi on page 227 of Fuller & Gregory's blue book? (apparently it was originally mis-translated in their red book). I have a piece made by Masafusa that has this stamp in addition to the stamp you have a pictured - some images are in a web directory at: http://www.rkgphotos.com/masafusa/ (pardon the bad composite) - the stamp like you have is not pictured - its on the back of the nakago Also check out Slough's book on pages 65 and 98. both pieces show this stamp. Anyway, after looking at the piece for a while, I now believe its some sort of non-traditionally made piece, with the stamp indicating that they used kobuse construction. The hamon doesn't really look oil quenched, but atter looking at it for a while I realized that there appears to be no nie (see images) - so is it modern steel that was water quenched, or oil quenched or what?... Best, rkg (Richard George)

Hi, I'm embarrased to even ask this, but... Does anybody have a source for inexpensive reproduction Japanese fittings? Specifically, I'm looking for some tsuba, menuki, kozuka, kogai, and fuchi/kahsira that have a LOT of gold or silver (colored) decorations on them to use as photographic subjects (I'm working on yet another way to photograph fittings, and...). I don't collect stuff like this so I'm not terribly interested in investing in some originals (a repro pair of gold menuki will reflect the same as nifty early goto ones (well, not really, but it will be close enough for my purposes)). Anyway, any help tracking down some shiny klinkers would be appreciated. Best, rkg (Richard George)

Pete, I'm glad you liked it. rkg (Richard George)

Henry, Ah, the ol' Pocket Polish... This whole subject of polish/patina is very interesting - For example, a lot of the pieces in the Sasano collection were seriously over-cleaned (the sad part being that Sasano himself realized this late in life and had to live with the damage he had done...). Some argue that the original patina on iron pieces can't be replaced once its gone (its a thin layer of all these esoteric compounds formed by whatever the tsubako originally used to patinate), while others think that the patina morphs with time and handling is what brought out stuff like tekkotsu in the first place (though obviously metal patterns were brought out later by acid etch by the tsubako etc.,). I've tried "pocket polishing" iron tsuba in the past, but after looking at good pieces I don't do this anymore - its too easy to overclean, knock off "crud" on the insides of the sukashi that help date the piece, and polish areas that you really don't want polished (sekigane, inlays, the area around the nakago, crevices that shouldn't show wear, etc.,.). IMHO, you're better off spending some "quality time" with your pieces using a cloth for the polish. Less is More... If its got more red rust on it than that, what did you buy it for in the first place rkg (Richard George)

Hmmm... Bathroom mount... do you use a KatanaKaka for that? :D Or do you just need a katanakaka for this piece? rkg (Richard George)

Hi, After more effort/grief than I'd ever imagined, I've FINALLY got done with the 2005 Kokusai Tosogu Kai exhibition catalog supplement that has been mentioned here occasionally in the past. it is available at lulu.com - a pointer is: http://www.lulu.com/content/1179116 We ended up creating this because the original catalog had to go to press before photography of the pieces being shown at the exhibition by members outside of Japan could be organized. The curious thing about this exhibition was that the Japanese members submitted mostly kinko work (all excellent pieces, BTW), while the US/other members submitted mostly iron pieces. Anyway, its done... Onto the next thing. If anybody is considering using lulu.com for a publication feel free to contact me about the process. Best, rkg (Richard George)

Hey guys, On the crazy high tsuba, you'd have to look at the winning bidder and the seond high one - rumor has it that there are a couple of crazy(rich) tsuba collectors out of Europe that tend to bid up stuff to stupid prices, usually when one finds the other is interested in/is bidding on a particular piece... rkg

Andreas, Sorry to take so long to reply - I've been doing about 10 things at once, and... Yeah, this photo was done on a big sheet of plexiglass - I don't recommend glass, as its harder than your sword - and even with plexiglass you have to be anal about getting/keeping it clean(dust can be abrasive) and careful not to move your piece around on the surface. I used a macro lens, though I'm not sure what to recommend for your pentax as I'm not sure how much height above the piece you have/what lenses are available for your camera - just be sure the lens can resolve more than your sensor can across the field of view and you'll do as good as you can (there are a couple of sites that do objective tests of lenses). you can also squeeze out a bit more effective resolution by turning the camera so the sword is in the diagonal. Good Luck, rkg (Richard George)

Hi, Sorry, I got busy and didn't get a chance to reply... I'll run all the replies together to save on postings... Note that I found I had messed up the masking in the nakago ana and have reposted a fixed version of the picture to the same location. Curran: The method does look about ready for prime time, so I guess I can talk to people about that now. Mr. Hennick: While it does look like what people call a ko-uda piece to me, number of pieces I've actually been able to study is small :-/ It doesn't help any that it seems like ko-uda is a dumping ground for nanbokucho yamato pieces that the shinsa team can't identify - kind of a proto "shinto bungo takada" :-) Darcy, It was a test run, so I didn't have the lighting set up for the boshi, and actually didn't have the nakago illumination set correctly, so it washed over the hada towards the munemachi, but... as per your emailed comments I also redid the post process on the photo posted above to (hopefully) fix the pixellation issues... Best, rkg (Richard George)

Hey guys, After nearly 2 years of helping to close the family business its mostly done (YEY!), and I FINALLY have some time to start fooling around with high resolution sword photos again - If you're interested, please check out the test photo at: http://www.rkgphotos.com/recent_stuff/ko_uda.jpg I reduced its dimensions by a factor of two to keep the file size down, + I can see there was a bit of image degradation due to the jpeg compression, but still... Its a 2 megabyte+ file, so it might take a while to load for you. Not what I'd call a final by any means, but... Enjoy, rkg (Richard George)

Hey guys, I was doing some photo testing and thought somebody might appreciate this... Note the sword cut on the mune in the center of the photograph, apparently with some of the other guy's sword still stuck in it Sorry about the "choppy" mune line - this was a test shot and had some glare from the mune showing on the support surface that I quickly masked off... Best, rkg (Richard George)

Hey guys, Ouch! Think of this as a learning experience - shipping sharp pointy things requires a fair amount of care - remember that the sender is liable if somebody is injured by a sword in transit in additon to the damage that can be sustained by the sword/koshirae itself That said, a really good way to ship un-mounted pieces is to use the "Chris Bowen" method - you get a plank of wood big enough for the sword to lay on w/o sticking off anywhere (I like to use oak), mark the nakago ana on the plank, drill a hole there, wrap the blade as appropriate for your level of paranoia, punch a hole through the packaging at the nakago ana, and then tie or wire (Mr. Bowen recommended copper wire) the blade to the plank through the ana - you can then tie or duck tape the wrapped blade to the plank in many places to keep it from moving. Best, rkg (Richard George)

Did Alf mean 1531?? I don't see a date on the back side - how did he get a month? Best, rkg (Richard George)

Hi, I'm not sure I'd go with the pin vise - as you point out there's the potential for disaster if you get too energetic (ivory "lead" snaps and you run a gouge across the tsuba, etc.,.). I bought a big bag of ivory chips and chunks from a musical instrument maker sometime back, and can usually find SOMETHING in there that will work - I have a few pieces that are beveled and come to a point - these seem to work pretty well for fine work - so much so that I've taken to occasionally "sharpening" them to maintain the shape...). I like the idea of an ivory pencil - maybe I'll have to chuck up one of the chunks in the lathe and round it off sometime... :-) Best, rkg (Richard George)

Hi, First of all, great find! Second, its edo period, not endo period :-) third, I've always thought a handachi style koshirae referred to a piece that was worn "katana style" with the koshirae; saya having a kuirkata for this - this has a single ashikanamono mount, kinda like a later koshirae that was meant to be worn with western garb or something - could some expert out there clear up my confusion on this? Best, rkg (Richard George)

Hi, It does look waay yellow - try setting your camera for tungsten lights in the white balance settings), or reshoot the tsuba with something white or grey somewhere in the picture and use your photo editor to tweak to the right color. These could be fixed pretty easily, but it seems every photo editor has a different design philosophy/set of tools so I can't give you a specific suggestion on how in your application (some let you tweak the color temperature, some have a "normalize" function, some have a "photo filter" so you can crank in an equivalent of an 80A, some only have some kind of "auto fix" feature, some you have to manually tweak colors, etc., etc.,). Best, rkg (Richard George)

Josh, I think I've managed to make pretty much every mistake there is when it comes to buying nihonto, so I thought I'd take the time to reply to this. Let's see, where to begin... First, which books do you already have? Pick up Nagayama's if you haven't already... I used to think it was terribly important to go buy a small fortune in books and study a lot before buying your first piece - I no longer think this is as important as getting to look at a number of swords and discussing them with third party(ies) that are not going to try and make money off selling the pieces you are lookg at to you. For that reason I'd suggest attending a sword show or 10 before buying a piece instead, preferably with some "sword buddies" (as my wife seems to keep calling my friends who collect) and really look at some pieces, learn about handling and what various activities/problems look like, what pieces make your jaw drop, etc.,. You can also join the NBTHK and attend their exhibits/kantei competitions at the various shows - they usually have some pretty good pieces to study. Second, I feel that I should mention that most edo or earlier swords have probably earned their retirement, which is why they tend to get put in shirasaya separate from their original koshirae - there are a number of problems storing pieces in their original koshirae that are best avoided. If you want a piece to heft/handle regularily in its koshirae/leave out, you might consider getting a modern piece of some kind instead - a gendaito or one made by a modern smith (either Japanese or Gaigin), and have a koshirae made for it to suit you - Edo koshirae are fragile and are actually kind of hard to preserve in a lot of cases - not something you want to handle much. I finally ended up doing this so I could have something to "leave out" to show people/handle in koshirae - and leave the good stuff in the vault until you're sure they aren't gonna wave it around and stick your juyo piece into the ceiling, etc.,. Third, I don't think they are that hot an investment at this time (even if they did get mentioned in the May 07 edition of Worth). I'd posit that it might be better to not think of them as something you'll end up selling for more later, but rather more like art, which you purchase to enjoy. The bad part is that inevitably as you collect and learn more your tastes/ideals will change and you'll probably end up selling pieces at sometime in the future - because of this, I think most people are best served by only buying pieces with the "3 Ps" initially - Papered, Polished, Perfect. Anything less will be more difficult to resell. And you have to beware of several other issues that make swords hard to sell - there is a Japanese price guide that prices based on a "typical" katana which they define as >=~27", is ubu, and has no problems/is a representative example of the smith's work - usually pieces like this are also a fairly easy "sell" when you need/want to, and those "minor problems" like being machi okuri, suriage, have condition problems, etc., come back to bite you at selling time. Wakizashi as a first piece are a two edged sword (no pun intended) - you can get an example of a particular smith's/school's work at a very resonable price, but there are a lot of them/they are very difficult to resell in general and usually unless got a fantastic deal, you will at best break even on them... And you might do well to look at a few top grade gendai as well, granted I think there were fewer good gendai smiths than the market would indicate, there were some very good smiths and some of the pieces are very nice (and make great candidates for the "leave out" piece - they will probably take another polish w/no problems, and are sufficiently inexpensive so that if they get trashed you don't cry in your beer much). And one always has to ask themselves why a piece is being offered out of polish - one helpful hint - polishing risk is very real - I've had several pieces polished, and even with the advice of "experts" on whether or not to have it done, I only came anywhere near "breaking even" on one. I used to think buying your first piece from a dealer was important - I also no longer think this is true, unless you know what you "should" be paying. There really are a lot of swords out there, and I think the saying "there will always be another" is very true. Anyway, I've probably typed too much - Good luck on your first purchase :-) Best, rkg (Richard George)

I've got a few ut there, mostly macro work though - I haven't done much overall work since I upgraded my cameras - got some good ones using a 6x7 medium format, but I've never had any of them drum scanned to put online (again, it became obvious I couldn't shoot much more than a tanto overall at high resolution with an 8MP camera). I'm going to upgrade to either a 1DSII or its replacement in the near future, but I'm going nuts post processing tosogu photos for a book on fittings for the KTK right now and have like NO spare time to think about it... hot light = continuous (usually tungsten) light - I now use photoflex starlites with 1000W bulbs in soft boxes. - you can try remote controlled camera flashes as well using your camera's ettl metering system - this seems to work much better than studio lights for this (though you need a herd of flashes to do much good). Gotta run, rkg

Thanks for the comments - I've actually got better work to rotate into my website, but don't have the time right now. On the lens distortion - you can go to the following test site and pretty much figure out where the lens distortion is minimized for a particular zoom: http://www.photozone.de/8Reviews/index.html Thre really isn't a single focal length for all zoom lenses where they have minimum distortion. On the apeture setting, maximum 'sharpness' depends on your sensor resolution vs. the resolving power of the lens vs. diffraction effects. A lot of consumer lenses "peak out" in resolution around f/8, but again, it depends partially on what lens you're talking about , and partially on physics (you can't get around the rayleigh limit...). Again, you can check the above site or do your own resolution tests (google koren lens test) to objectively see where your lens/camera combination peaks out... The good things about these 1.6x crop cameras is that 1) they use the centers of lenses, where a lot of them are actually fairly good, and 2) you get a lot more depth of field, so you're not having to try and shoot stuff a f/16 to get it sharp top to bottom... On lenses, When I want the "best" picture I can get, I usually use a prime of some kind - there are a couple of issues with zooms - first is the distortion thing (there's only a small region where there's no distortion (and sometimes they distort badly across their entire range), resolution in general (these lenses are extremely complex, and you have issues with design and actually how they were assembled - its usually a good idea to test any zoom after buying it to see if there are any problems (the old "brick wall" test is fairly quick)). The second is a little issue called "transmissivity" that most manufacturers try and avoid talking about - a lot of these modern zoom lenses have so many elements that they actually lose an appreciable amount of light going through them, so you end up with a slower shutter speed for a given apeture for correct exposure. Primes tend to be simpler designs (so they get correctly manufactured most of the time), are distortion corrected, let through more light, and are (if its a good lens) capable of out-resolving your camera's sensor so everything looks sharp. On the "picture book pictures" - these were mostly done with medium/large format cameras in the past - and honestly, getting a overall sword picture that "looks like that" with anything less than a 12 MP or so camera is dicey - you can figure the number of pixels - the human eye can only resolve somewhere between 215 and 400 PPI depending on the contrast of the subject (which is why most cameras tend to put their "native resolution" at 240PPI - looks sharp for "general" photos). for example, taking a 20D's sensor size (3504x2336), going across the diagonal and dividing that by say 215PPI would only allow you to get an object what, 19.5" or so at a high resolution - same calculation with a 1DS MKII sensor gets you to 27.9" Fortunately, you can probably get away with slightly less resolution for most stuff. Take 180PPI - at that range, the numbers would go to ~23" for the 20D and ~33.3" for the 1DsMKII. Empirically, I've seen work done with a Canon 5D that is comparable to "those pictures", so you can probably go lower, but this gives you some idea of the tradeoffs. The second issue is that swords, particularily with the black backgrounds have incredibly high contrast, so you have issues with rendering them for print - You have to print at like 400DPI or more to make the aliasing "jaggies" small enough so they don't catch your eye. I'm still wrestling with whether this is a "real" problem or not (I'm thinking I can solving it by doing iterative resampling), but other people I've talked to are convinced it is, so... On the studio flash, its a pain because of trying to get the exposure right and observing what actually will end up being photographed (things seem to look different between what you see with the modeling lights on and when the flash itself fires) - but gives you a Very Fast effective shutter speed, so you don't have any of the issues with vibrations that you have when trying to use "hot lights" (which take a fairly long exposure, even with monster lights (a 1000W light in a big softbox isn't as bright as you'd think). I'm still using hot lights for this because I can see the "end product" in real time - speeds up things a lot, given how touchy lighting is on swords to make them look their best... Sorry for the diatribe... rkg (Richard George)

Leroy, The sigma 17-70 doesn't seem to be too bad a lens, as long as you aren't shooting it at or near 17mm, which shouldn't be that much of a problem, as you probably should be shooting with it at ~35mm to minimize the barrel distortion. As far as a recommendation goes, it kind of depends on what you are trying to capture. for closeups, I use either a 100mm macro or my Tamron 180mm macro (sharpest EF mount lens I've ever used), and actually for overalls I usually try and use a prime and shoot diagonally (50mm macro), though I've also had good luck doing this with a 17-40 f/4L as well. I'll also sometimes use a 24mm shift lens to get out of the picture and have no distortion, though most people can get away with just shooting off axis a little to accomplish this. Was your comment about tripod size because you are shooting down on the piece? if so, you may want to think about improving that setup as well so you don't have to use your lens at its shortest focal length - the simplest solution is to get a bigger tripod and a Bogen right angle tripod arm so you can hang the camera out over the piece more easily. I usually end up using a sandbag on the ground to tie the other end to as a counterbalance. If I recall correctly, the XTi doesn't have shutter lockup, which is a bummer as it helps a LOT when you're trying to get high resolution photos (the mirror slapping up makes stuff jump all over the place - which is bad because you are going to be shooting stopped down (which usually means slow shutter speed unless you're using studio flash or incredibly bright lights) to get enough depth of field). About the best you can do is get a matthews baby boa bag (or some sheet lead) and wrap it around the head or arm on the tripod to damp vibrations and use the timer or remote control to trigger the camera. Or you can go to a studio flash setup for illumination to get the shutter speed back up, but this is usually quite a pain (seems like the modeling lights don't quite show what you're going to see + its a pain to get the exposure right - even with a flash meter it takes some testing...). As an alternative, you can just use your existing tripod by using it closed as the boom and attach it to something that isn't going anywhere (ladders, sandbags, clamps, and rope can be your friend here). Good Luck on your endeavor... Best, rkg (Richard George) http://www.rkgphotos.com