Steves87

Very nice... apologies i cannot really answer what you are after, but I can provide an example which has very similar tendril inlay, similarly 'lined' tagane ato (if that is what it is), and potentially made of the same material (in different states of patina). I must also say, the nanako on your example is quite interesting the way it allows for the inome... and then kind of forms a namban-esque seppa dai shape.... pretty cool

Also, have a look at the other thread by Peter (BIG) for traditional inlay... although not Tsuba examples, these videos show the application of coverings post tannin process. https://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/50876-traditional-inlays/#comment-530222

The kuchi-beni of Tanaka school has always given me a bit of a cliff-hanger feeling (although I Iove it)... it feels like it is almost at the point of 'friction not being enough'. I really love how the sekigane is part of the decoration. Apologies, just my .02c

Dan, I can promise you that Thomas and Manuel are correct. It is an applied finish (not metalic) that has been burnt (or 'cooked') unintentionally onto the metal plate. When the metal starts to corrode (below), it pushes the accidentally baked/cooked finish off the corroding metal plate. I admire your quest for cast Tsuba, but this particular thread will not add to the supporting evidence, if this is where you were heading (maybe you were not?) The base metal of the Tsuba in your original post has been cleaned or stabilised.... and with a mix of light/photo settings/conditions, makes it appear different to those subsequent provided images At the bottom this page is some other images of the same guard with different lighting https://rollingbrook...copy-of-project-08-5

Yes, a great idea. I might add though, transparency and accessibility (to past records/findings) are an absolute must. Otherwise it would be no different to the current closed money making systems.

Beat me to it Dale! Nice work as usual!

The rice theory is interesting, i never would have considered that, and now that you mention it, I can see what you are saying. I initially saw the dragon wrapped around a "bent" ken (bent for the design in accommodating the Tsuba shape). The picture below is my example of the ken (although a modern replica supposedly based on a historic original). The dragon is either swallowing it, or in my opinion, spewing it out... as history loves a good mythically produced sword.

Futatsu means two (like, two lobes), in what context im not entirely sure though... and admittedly, i got it from Sesko's sword encyclopaedia in the mokko section.

Also nown as futatsu-mokko-gata. Very nice guard by the way, congratulations!

There is actually three types Dan, named Wangata (bowl), Goishi-gata (convex both sides), and Hoiteibara (concave both sides). Here are some collages of 4 guards that i have in my collection. (Also on my PD website posted earlier this month, or late last that mentions these names).

Noted, I'll be on the look-out... I can't imagine they could sell it easily here though... between me and Dale scouring the very small local market, it would be hard for anything to slip through. I had a Namban guard go missing earlier in the year (West Aus), I paid through ebay with PayPal so I was fully refunded... but I suspect that the seller actually sent it to the wrong address.

Thank you Peter! The analytics do tell me if the visits originated from the forum, but I am quite interested in seeing the statistics between mobile device and desktop visits. As well as this data, I am interested in which countries the views originate from, I get the analytics from instagram too, and it appears most of my views are from Iranian cities, which i would have never thought. The US visits mostly originate from New York specifically. I am interested to see this in comparison with the website analytics. Of course, I do wonder how much of this is thrown off by vpn's.

Thank you Brian! The Tsuba section is growing too, i have a few more still to put in. Thanks Jesta, too. I highly recommend you give it a go, it is actually quite fun and depending on your work or hobbies, is a good professional development exercise that has an "ongoing" potential.

I have been collecting all sorts of things for most of my life and for a while, I have been throwing loose bids at local auction houses here in West Aus. Sometimes I might win a specific item, and not realising at the time, the auction lot is much larger and contains many other things. I often re-sell some of these items, but occasionally there are some I keep for myself. Somewhat recently, I returned to university study for a career change. As the study was curation based, I became very familiar with contemporary collections (especially the digital side of collection institutions) and as part of my personal professional development, I decided to make use of my new knowledge. Initially I created a personal Instagram account for fun, which I eventually converted to a professional account to test the algorithms for certain uni subjects. After completing my degree, I decided to make use of the website building subjects that I took, to form a gallery of my collections which runs alongside the Instagram account. Backstory done, this is the link to the beta website I am in the middle of creating for my ongoing professional development https://rollingbrook...rollingbrooksgallery . My main reason for posting this today, is to study some of the analytical data I will get from the visits, as such, you may also see this pop up on facebook at a later point, too. Go easy on me, I am not always one to share my babies and it is still a work in progress (with mobile optimisation ongoing but should be ok). I need to basically re-photograph everything again (for consistency), and I also need to write up a lot of the info for a lot of objects, but the Tsuba related stuff is the most complete of the lot.

And one mine!

And another of my favourites

I keep seeing great Tsuba and each one reminds ne of another. Here are a couple of similar ones.

Sakura clusters

This is one of the best threads in a while.... here is another of my favourites

Another I'm quite fond of

So many to choose from!

That is a good question and I have always just thought "it is wrecked", but, thinking about it, you could locally flatten the area and start again... it will make a depression of sorts, but it has got to be cheaper than starting again. In no way would I say this is something you can do on a high end item, but something like Nagoya Mono would probably handle it... see the circled area of an image I got from the below link, flattening out nanako to remedy a miss-placed strike would create a waving nanako base as seen.

Of course!

To save some digital space, here are another 4 wild things in a collage!

Nice owl guard Dan! You don't see many owls'. Here is my example: