A tsuba from old nails

[Ford Hallam]

Last October I met and have since become good friends with a Japanese Swordsmith called Taro Asano (Fusataro). Taro has agreed to work with me to experiment with varieties of tamahagane to gain a deeper understanding of the material.

 

What I want to show here, however, is a little different. Taro forged a plate for me from some salvaged 120 year old nails.

Here are some images of what he started with, the final plate and what I did with it.

 

This is the plate drawn out to the correct thickness and lightly etched to show the grain.

 

This is not for sale at this time but if you'd like to see some other new work that is, as well as this years NBSK competition entry you find some images and descriptions on a temporary webpage on my forum here.

 

My own website server is not co-operating at the moment. :?

 

regards

 

Ford

[kaigunair]

I should be in bed by now but just had to comment on how beautiful the work is. Especially the iris and butterfly. (of course, the two which are NFS... :D )

 

Hope the move goes well!

[raven2]

OK Ford,

 

Now that is just wonderful. An amazing example of recycling. It reminds me of your comment on impermanence in my thread below.

The repatination of my tosho tsuba being replaced, In this case, by the total transformation of the old nails.

[Ken-Hawaii]

Nope - not recycling, but rather repurposing! Excellent work, as always, Ford.

 

Ken

[drbvac]

The texture and colour of the steel is amazing - is it as hard or harder to work than Tamahagane ?

[cabowen]

Beautiful work, thanks for sharing....

 

Conversely, I once saw a sword made by Yoshihara Kuniie (shodai) that was made from old tsuba!

[george trotter]

Ford, just fabulous. As always. Thanks for sharing.

Regards,

[Soshin]

Hi Ford,

 

Very nice work. Keep up the good work in you new home! :D