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Gasam

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Everything posted by Gasam

  1. Heyas, Updte for those interested: this tsuba was able to pass NBTHK Hozon shinsa. It was not submitted for TH. Papers are pending and it will be interesting to see exactly what they say :-) Thanks to all who helped above.
  2. Heyas, Tokubetsu Hozon example. It is the same smith, yes?: http://www.ricecracker.com/japanese_swords/past_swords/s1/s1-3_omidaijo_tadahiro_katana.htm Cheers,
  3. I agree. But unsure how much we can discuss ongoing auctions.... Cheers,
  4. Heyas, Having recently tried to photograph some nihonto with sad results despite top notch kit, kudos to the photographer! This is inspiring and I will try to learn this art. While people happily let me do their family portraits (I have a small studio, and its not my occupation, just a hobby), and are happy with the results, nihonto photography bested me in ways I had not foreseen, even after reading up on metal photography :-) Congrats once again. Will try to do better next time :-) Quick edit: It could be misunderstood that I mean good pictures come only from the best equipment. This is not true. Better gear brings only more options to you, and to a degree better performance. It does not a better photographer make...
  5. Heyas: I think if say your Sadamune was ruined in a fire, that would be unacceptable. Saiha then would be bad compared to having the original, but far better than having what basically now is a Sadamune blank. You would want the person you thought would best do the original justice to perform the saiha. Interestingly, there is a film on youtube about a sword smith making a sword for a shrine, he performs yaki-ire on the blade without any clay, trying to recreate an old type of (i belive) choji hamon. He fails the first time, only part of the blade is satisfactory after initial polish. He reheats and performs yaki-ire again. This time he succeeds and the blade is polished fully and presented. I would think, technically, that is also saiha, but in this case for a better result, and therefore desireable. But still saiha. Or am I mistaken i calling this saiha?
  6. Heyas, And if someone was expert in saiha, would they mark the nakago as saiha, or could they perform the rehardening without creating excessive sori, dry flat looking steel, and without the water shadow? If so would we even know thet rehardening had taken place?
  7. Gasam

    Shakudo / Bronze

    Thank you both. I was able to purchase the menuki. Somehow, somewhere, someone decided converting them into cufflinks was a great idea. Not sure I agree, but here are some pics anyhow. Should be fairly easy for knowledgeable person to take off back plate if I decide to someday. The menuki are Kirin, originally Chinese (since also Japanese) fable animal. I like them. Might even see if someone can redo the gold decor :-)
  8. Gasam

    Shakudo / Bronze

    Heyas, Sorry for the newbie question, but buying more and more tosogu it seems :-) Can shakudo readily be mistaken for bronze if you are not generally dealing in Japanese antiques? Might be getting a pair of menuki described by antiques dealer as "patinated bronze", they look really black, shakudo like to me. Not that I am a connoisseur of shakudo, but from what little I know. Cheers,
  9. Gasam

    Old Red Gold Patina

    Heya, One of my hobbies is metal detection. Old processed gold is sometimes found in my area, on account of viking activity hereabouts. For instance they used (and i suspect other cultures as well) what we call payment rings. Spiraled up thick-ish wire of gold put on fingers and suitable chunks cut off to pay for whatever you were buying. They are found sometimes, (alas never by me it seems), but they are never patinated in any way that I have seen or heard of, certainly not red-ish. Sometimes a bit dirty looking, but thats about it. So you are right, it must be another property that patinates it somehow. But gold can change color no? If you drop it in quicksilver, or so I heard as a kid. The jewellers here will know if that is true.
  10. Thanks guys! Greg: the other pictures are pretty much the same, but I will attempt to do some indoor pictures with studio lighting time permitting. Might work better :-)
  11. Hi again, Thank you all:-) I love this naginata.
  12. Heyas, Again some sample pictures from todays experiment. Whis wakizashi was made by Maeda Sadahachi, who used the mei Nobuchika, while he was studying under the notable shinshinto swordsmith Osaki Suketaka. It has a koitame hada. The hamon is once again why I chose this piece, it is very thick and to me perfect doranba. This piece received a tokubetsu hozon also. Again, this is not a for sale ad, just to show some pictures of it :-) I had a shirasaya made for this piece. It has always come off very nicely in the past. Not so today despite using my best technique. Must get one of those implements and a wooden mallet it seems :-)
  13. Heyas, Thought I would try to take some daylight pictures of a few nihonto. This effort has thought me many things (and for new knowledge one must be grateful, right?). Firstly, I believed that my photography skills would safely lead to rather excellent pictorial reproductions of shiny metallic objects, all the while showing their finer details in glorious high definition. This was too optimistic :-) Also, do not raid the linen cabinets for just any piece of white fabric to display said nihonto on. Some fabrics will rapidly cover anything with lint and fibres. Ah well, since the photos were taken, here are some of them. This naginata has a fine koitame/komokume mix in the hada. The hamon is yokoyama choji. The amazingly perfect choji midare hamon (to me at least :-) was what made me buy this piece. Sorry for not doing it justice in the pictures, I have a lot to learn it seems. This piece received a tokubetsu hozon paper. Just for the record, this is not a for sale add :-) Will post some wakizashi pictures next. Enjoy those who will :-)
  14. Heyas, This practise was described I believe over several pages in Markus Seskos Tameshigiri book. Its on loan now so cannot check but there should be further references there.
  15. Heyas, If fakes are this good, its annoyingly scary.. Ah, edit, just saw the other replies..
  16. Can also be used for mixing fragrant ingredients to add to bath water in the spirit world :-)
  17. heyas, I have seen such wheels used for grinding up ingredients for different medicines in some Japanese movie I cannot recall the title of now. Ingredients were put into the "tub" and wheel grabbed at axle on both sides of wheel with hands and moved back and forth to grind/mix ingredients. So I don´t think something has to be missing from the wheel, or that it has been mounted necessarily. As I recall (and correct me if wrong) black powder is impact resistant/stable so wheel could be used for mixing it?
  18. Heyas, It is a very long and tough appreniceship, out of the (increasingly) few who start it, many do not finish, or so I am sure I have heard without finding my references for it at this time. This brilliant film of some 50-ish minutes follows a master polisher and his 2 apprentices through everyday life and is well worth watching. It has been posted here before but here it is again:
  19. Hah, Shows how wrong one can be :-)
  20. Hi, It looks genuine to me, but someone will answer with more authority :-)
  21. Tsuba received. Quickly and smoothly as on earlier occations :-)
  22. Hi, I don´t know much about tsuba...but there are signs of it having been mounted I think? (diferent shade of colour from the seppa?). On the other hand, would not the seppa cover part of the design at the mune? That to me indicates that there is something not quite right about it, but you mustn´t take my word on this. Know too little about tsuba as I said :-) But learning slowly...
  23. Oooooh, I can´t believe I won the prize I hoped for :-) How cool! Thanks and congrats to all winners :-)
  24. Bump for the good cause :-)
  25. Saw this this morning and realised (i knew this of course) that there will be so many nihonto I can never own. Hope to handle and examine some high end blades some day though :-) I like also the little story at the end of the description of Tsuruta-sans trip to London to bid at Southebys 30 years ago :-)
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