Iron sukashi suba with shakudo fukurin

[yogoro]

Iron plate of round shape with a shakudo rim cover.

Sukashi mon design of hanabashi ,myoga and flying geese.

Dimensions : 79 x68 x 5 mm

What opinion about her metal surface ?

[Soshin]

Hi Mikolaj,

 

I like these type of tsuba. To me it looks like the iron surface as covered in black or dark color lacquer. The first two photos look very shiny and reflective due to the glossiness of the lacquer.

[yogoro]

Thank you , David .

Flash enhances the shining , how I can clear coating of lacquer ?

Is there a need to clean the tsuba?

[Soshin]

Hi Mikolaj,

 

Can your tell if the lacquer clear, black, or dark green in color? If the lacquer looks original to the tsuba and there isn't major red rust developing under the lacquer I would just leave it alone. I currently have one lacquered tsuba in my collection which was originally lacquered and it is therefore left alone. If you think the lacquer was recently painted on the tsuba I would try to remove it but you need to be very careful with the skakudo rim in terms of the solvent used to remove the lacquer and touching the rim with your hands as it will also caused major discoloration of the skakudo. In the end I wouldn't work on such a tsuba because of the skakudo rim. Having a professional tsuba maker do restoration work on it might be a good idea. I hope you find the information helpful.