Patrick Hastings

Regular reader here, but I seldom post. I am here to learn. I do however have some experience with patina. I make and work with shakudo and iron fittings regularly. While I would not recommend that everyone start rubbing treasures with human goop. It has been my experience that face oils can promote the rebuilding and preservation of both shakudo and iron patina. Not everyone has the same chemistry though. Some peoples sweat will literally begin to eat away a patina. So I would not let just anybody rub their face on your prize piece (or even touch with there hands). For cleaning? No I would not use face oil for cleaning. Our fingers are actually mildly abrasive to shakudo patina. The Sweat oils will surely loosen up some kinds of crud, but your finger will do little to clean. It is more likely to push layers of dirty oil into crevices and create an eventual build up that will need to be cleaned with a more effective method later. That being said I believe that face oil was likely a common historical application in iron and shakudo patina. It can (from the right person) promote growth where the patina has been rubbed off and is self stabilizing once the patina has grown back. The chemistry happens to have the right constituents to work on variety of metals. It absolutely has restorative ability on the shakudo that I make and work with. While I am decorating a new fresh surface the sweat of my fingers will color the metal quite dark. It's particularly effective when the area is freshly abraded. This is also a requirement for performing Niage, clean oxide free surface responds best, but over time I think a good shakudo will darken with gentle handing by the right fingers. My finger sweat will turn fresh 3.5 percent shakudo purple black in 48 hours. For shakudo the acid and ammonia I suspect are the key components to the process. For Iron the acid and ammonia will promote rust, but there effects deplete rapidly. After many rubbing's what is left is a matrix of iron oxide that is saturated and sealed with the solids left from the dried oils of human hands and perhaps faces. IMO many of the "Good" iron patina you see today are partly composed of human residue. It might sound disgusting, but so many things were like this in the old world. People used ear wax, sweat, feces, urine, Hair, spit, for all sorts of things. It is not uncommon for these things to be listed as ingredients in old formulas for the creation of all sorts of things metallurgical medicinal, or whatever. I have not seen any formulas that require an eye booger yet, but I would not be surprised... I can easily envision a samurai performing regular maintenance to the tiny worn patches on a shakudo Kashira by gently rubbing down with face oil. In addition the oils also lend a wet look to existing patina enhancing appearance. Which might lend to the idea that your "cleaning". The wet look can disguise many blemishes. Regards, Patrick Hastings Tagane Arts

The motif shows the rabbit leaping about the waves during his crossing. He jumps from snouts and backs of sharks or alligators to cross the water. They are almost always unseen in the motif at least in sword fittings. The Rabbit lies to the predators promising them a reward if they will help him get across the waves and back to shore. They let him start crossing then try to eat him. He makes it across jumping from mouth to mouth. In the end he loses all his fur and makes it to the other side where he is found and cared for by royalty. There is more to it and many versions(in english), but that is the jist of it from all the versions I have read. patrick

Yes, the four gentlemen. I went through BFA and found very little. I can find individual components, but I am looking to study the methods of mixing the four elements in a design motif for fittings. I thought existing fittings might be a good place to start. One kind gentleman has emailed me some pics already, Thank you sir! Still no examples of menuki yet. I am imagining one menuki representing spring and summer while the other representing fall and winter, but am interested to see what has been done before. regards, Patrick

I have gone through all my books and I don't have much in the way reference for this particular motif. Would anybody happen to have some picture of fittings using Shikunshi motifs, in particular Menuki. Thank you! Patrick Hastings Tagane arts

I have it on good authority (Ford) that really good Nanako was always done with a single punch. After examining many pieces under high magnification and looking at extreme blowups in books I would have to agree. Multiple headed punches are an interesting idea, but they leave evidence behind of there use. I have been making the punches and practicing the technique for a couple years now. I doubt that I will ever able to match the old work doing an hour here and an hour there, but there is something addictive about trying. Based on my own experience one observation I can make is the pressure required to sink a multiheaded Tagane is more significant than that of a single head. Distortion of the foundation is more likely as the head count increases on the Tagane. Single heads concentrate the pressure in the smallest surface allowing a more complete forming of the dot with much less pressure over all. This pretty much eliminates ground distortion. I am still working with a rather large tool .7mm. Much of the Nanako I see is generally .5mm to .3mm I was having lots of trouble getting anything useable until Ford told me to use a larger Tagane. That helped me quite a bit. I have learned to feel the work more than see it. I use magnification, but when things are going well it matters not. I know when the Tagane is ready to strike mostly be feel. I can't imagine doing only Nanako for living. I would either go insane or lose the ability to use my hands do to repetitive motion stress. I have not yet worked up the moxy to take on an entire Shakudo Tsuba plate yet. Maybe next year hehe. Here is a picture of the Tagane head I made that was used to create the texture on the F/K shown.

The top piece appears to be a depiction of the catfish of the earth or earthquake fish. A giant dark catfish that lives in the bottom of water on land and deep under the land. The Fish is thought to be the cause of earthquakes and it is a symbol of futility depicted by showing a man trying to capture the fish with a rope and gourd. The scene underneath the fish does remind me of something sexual, but looking closer I see elements of the same theme. There is a spool of rope and the man is lying on his back with the fish laying across him the fish head facing lower left and the tail lower right. The two human feet belong to the man and he is struggling to capture the catfish. Regards, Patrick Hastings

Electrum was not a purpose made alloy. It was thought to be an element at that time it was named. That is why people no longer call gold and silver alloys Electrum. The Japanese did use Gold and Silver alloys. The Equivalent of Electrum I guess would be Aoigin. You can find examples of this in many gold decorated sword fittings. Often used as overlay on carvings and inlays. You will see it along side pure gold overlays. Aoigin appears lighter and more straw colored. It added some subtle shades of color that gently broke up what would be an overuse of one gold color. I have not seen an Aoigin Habaki yet in person. The alloy is often difficult to identify in book pictures do to variations in lighting or Black and white photos. Picture Captions will generally not define Aoigin as anything but "gold". What is the percentage of silver in your material? Regards, Patrick Hastings

Brian, it is hard for me to see this, but are there traces of solder on the copper "neck" or is that only dirt? The Hand positions and odd finger up look like he might have been playing a "Hero" flute or similar type of wind instrument. My theory is, the head was soldered to the soft metal as a means of attachment, but badly done. The other half of the flute and perhaps the other set of fingers came away with the head. If there ever was a head it may not have extended up as far as the imagination might think. I think the hand positions indicate there was indeed a head at one time. It is not uncommon for "inlays" to be soldered to iron. Some of the components of a multimetal figure might be soldered together before being inlayed into the Ji gane or soldered to it. I inspected a few examples of this technique recently. If the quality is good the piece would almost have to show damage to reveal the technique. regards, Patrick

Actually the missing head is quite intentional. This is a less common motif depicting the old lore about the folly of shaving while horseback riding. Typically the head is found on the reverse side. The Razor blade however is in fact broken away and missing from the handle which can still be seen in the riders hand. If this sound like bull, you would be correct. Sounded good though for second I am sorry, but I just read "Playfulness in Japanese art." (The Franklin D. Murphy Lectures VII). after looking at so many serious pieces at SFTK I could not help myself when I saw your headless rider Regards, Patrick Hastings

Thanks Stephen, I make a fair Habaki. I have a couple hundred one piece under my belt, but I am no Brian Tschernega. Email me the details of your project Ill let you know if I can help. Patrick Hastings

The pictures are too dark and shadowed. You might get some feedback with better pictures. Patrick

Hi Brian I don't recommend it either, but this process only works on soft metals. The mercury will not wet iron (diffuse into it). Generally a nonferrous alloy or copper is inlaid into the iron first then the Amalgam is used on that. The Amalgam will selectively diffuse into the Soft metal only. This leaves a crisp clean transition from the iron to the deposition of gold on the soft metal with no bleeding between the two. Patrick

There is a tutorial by Jim Kelso On "The Carving Path" Forum that uses an authentic technique for the setting of the raw inlay. Its much the way that I was trained to do it by Ford Hallam. It is enough to get you started. It is as good as your going to get for casual online information. Patrick

I am very interested in studying Yagyu designs. Was the Yagyu family book of designs ever made available to the public? I only have examples of a dozen variations (pictures), but I have read there are 159 designs considered first period. I would like to see them all. Any suggestions?

Hi Henry, my first post on this board. I have seen Squid on a kozuka also. Page 158. of The book Lethal elegance. As to the why? I often wonder why a particular animal has been left out so to speak. There is such a large body of antiques in existence that no one has seen it all. Each persons experience is a small cross-section of what exists. Usually animals I have written off pop up eventually as Menuki or in other fittings. Menuki have a vast diversity. I would bet that there are some whale Menuki floating around somewhere. Why does one animal become a main stream motif and others remain in obscurity? I think that is influenced by the nuances of old Japanese culture. I am working all the time to increase my cross-section. If I see some whales I'll let you know.