remzy

Id say he meant iron, i dont see why someone would use steel to make a tsuba when it could have been used for sword or something that would actually need the hardness, iron is already hard enough than it could need to be and is less britle & easier to work with. unless i missed a visual characteristic steel has over iron. But anyways, i like your tsuba, its interesting! Remy

Look like a tsuba from Ford Hallam! :lol: At first i thought it looked like shakudo, very nice patina! great look.

The butterfly and poenies tsuba "would" look better than the original one after some (very) long and (Very) careful rubbing, but it would never be a masterpiece. I doubt theres a aesthetical link between the F/k and original tsuba. Regards

A very nice sword indeed Mr Walker.

Chriso, these lines depict pine needles. I like your tsuba.

Ouch Greg, now that is a REAL bummer! the boshi could pop off with the slightest misplaced hit when handling the blade! :? looks like a good looking one too!

it share resemblance with mine: http://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=3723

How is that even possible to fuse two coins together without damaging the stamping?!?!

the latest picture does look more like a yaki ware for sure... might be something else but...

Phew! Lorenzo is our savior!

Yep, pretty much like it, even has same!

I dont know if this is a yaki ware, i doesnt look like one to me but there might be several kind! the one ive saw are more whitish than darkish like the thing in the pictures. In my view this look more like a fold that didnt harder like the rest, but this is just speculations, so take with a grain of salt. Regards

I am afraid that this is yet another secret of the craft that might have been lost.. I would think that they might heat the nakago a bit in the forge than place it over a bright red copper block like they use to straighten the blade after yaki-ire to keep it hot, then proceed to punch it with a cold punch, but all of this is speculations based on common knowledge, maybe they used more sophisticated technics that got lost.

Franco is quite right i think. Also, i was wondering if they punched the mekugi ana cold or hot, does anybody know ?

OOH i didnt knew you had to deregister these before exporting them outside of Japan.. i have seen alot of these papers sold along with the sword

Isnt this the usual police registration paper that every sword in Japan has to have at all time?

At first i thought you meant to say that this was too good to be true.

Thats very strange i thought i posted something here, i guess i meant to, but forgot to.. Stephen, what do you mean by "if wishes were horses id be bidding"?

Wow, even the nakago ana stamping is the same...

Very nice full shishi mount there Jean

Whats done is done... Still is a source of tamahagane!

Here are my humble shishi fittings for you to see Mr hennick, the menuki are a bit strange, the metal is very tin and the middle support is gone, maybe these were used as a cigaret pouch clasps at some point? im not certain about the quality... but the metal looks like brass. I do not know much about the tsuba but I love the it alot. http://i41.tinypic.com/2icbqqx.jpg http://i44.tinypic.com/301n480.jpg The tsuba is wakizashi sized, i have shown it here in the past a while ago, excuse the redundancy if youve already seen it. http://i44.tinypic.com/2v2bp1t.jpg http://i40.tinypic.com/vpcaky.jpg

Mr Hennick, i am biased to Shishi theme, both are beautiful but i particularly love the second set, Let me know if you ever grow tired of it, i love iron fittings too! Happy new year to everyone!

Hehe Richard, i guess for a person not used to the sight of nihonto, seeing one displayed might be scary. Thanks for your concerns, i decided that from now on i will only display the tsubas i have made myself in the bathroom, i wouldnt want to ruin the patina on antiques even if they are of poor quality, mine are of no consequences and could actualy use some humidity patination.

Superb job mate, the inlay doesnt look shiny so its perfect. :D