technique

[Bungo]

http://www.esnips.com/web/tsuba

a Namban/Hizen type tsuba.........

 

question......... I can see how they do the gold nunome, but what technique/method do they used for the dragon ( the copper is patinated to a nice chocolate color ) ? The " copper sheet must have been very very thin ?

part of the dragon body is worn off at 7-8 O'clock and there hardly any indentation there to hold the " inlay ".............

 

 

milt the ronin

[Rich T]

Hi Milt, it looks like there is a fine carving running around the edge of the copper sections. if that is the case, would it not be a variation of uttori-iroe ?, as is done with other soft metals such as gold and silver ?, where the inlay is attached at the edges only.

 

Cheers

 

Rich

[nagamaki - Franco]

Hi M, R, my "guess" is going to be sumi zogan based on the materials involved and finished effects of having that painted on look.

[Ford Hallam]

Hi Fellas,

 

As you pointed out Milt, the gold is done in standard nunome-zogan. The copper is actually applied in the same way. As you know, annealed copper is pretty soft so working thin sheet into a cross-hatched ground is not particularly difficult. It looks as though the copper used was a bit thicker than the gold, it's a lot cheaper :lol: , and so has not worn as much as the gold. The fine lines engraved around the edges of both the gold and copper is merely to help define the shape and is typically done after the nunome is completed.

Copper nunome is not all that common though.

 

Hope this helps to clarify things a bit,

cheers, Ford

[Bungo]

thanks for all the info......

one more question........... Is the scale of the dragon carved after the copper nunome zogan was applied or the outline of the scales already worked in on the underlying surface ?

 

milt the ronin

[Ford Hallam]

probably engraved after the copper was applied, but both ways are possible.