how do they do that ?

Bungo · March 30, 2008

one of my all time favorite, nothing wabi about this.

I know the core is shakudo and covered with seemingly seamless gold foil ( not paint ).

However, on the mimi there's a slanting cut ( not by me ) about 1 mm deep, all gold color without showing the skakudo black color ( unlike some missing gold foil on the inner wall of the kozuka hitsu-ana which shows the underlying black shakudo ). I think the previous owner made that cut on the mimi to test if the rim is solid gold ( unlikely the tsuba had an actual sword cut from street brawling).

So assuming the mimi IS solid gold, how do they " fuse/bind " that to the shakudo plate ? or...... if the rim is shakudo like the rest, how did the tsuba maker cover the plate with gold foil of different thickness without showing any seam ?

p.s. the seppa dai shows the " copper " in two different tone, just like the typical fuchi ( black outer rim, chocolate inner )

An interestingly gaudy but gorgeous tsuba ( for a daimyo with no wabi sense ? ).

Enjoy..........

milt

AZPhil · March 30, 2008

Can't help you on the How'd they do that?

But that is Beautiful.

I LIKE IT ALLLLOOOOOTTTTT!!!!!

Brian · March 30, 2008

Milt,

Just a thought here, but shakudo isn't black normally. It just patinas to a nice black (or the other colour variants) when treated with patina formulas. So if you cut into shakudo, you wouldn't see black, but a gold colour anyways. So you might be looking at the shakudo under the gold foil inside the cut

I would think the entire tsuba was shakudo with a thin gold foil covering possibly. Will check with Ford, and clarify.

Brian

Bungo · March 30, 2008

" shakudo isn't black normally "

but it's not gold color either........and there's no indication of foil cover over the cut.

The inner wall of the kozuka hitsu-ana where there's missing gold, however, is black brown color.

p.s. I will try to take pic of the " cut "

milt

Bungo · March 30, 2008

" black " line is the shadow .........

milt

Ford Hallam · March 31, 2008

Hi Milt,

it's always difficult to be absolutely certain about when analysing something like this from a photo...but here goes. Unless you'd be good enough to send it to me, I could fix that cut while I was at it

The seppa-dai area is very clearly copper, even shakudo that has lost it's original patina does not attain this sort of colour naturally. The chances of the core plate being shakudo are in my opinion very unlikely. It would be a complete waste of an expensive material which would seem to go completely against the ethos of the craftsman's tradition. Sort of an early "truth to materials" philosophy. The fact that the hitsu-ana appear black could indicate that those openings are lined though, or the copper has been treated with a specific, atypical, colouring solution.

The plate itself would have been quite well carved, up until the final detailing probably. Then a thin sheet of gold, in this case possibly 22ct ( not much thicker than a sheet of 100gram A4 paper ) would be gently worked onto the contours of the plate. It would then be fused to the copper ground, which is not a particularly complicated process. The refining of the carving and the engraved details is then carried out.

The rims is, as you suggest, an applied band of thicker gold. The seam is not difficult to hide if it was fused, or soldered. It is also not a particularly difficult thing to make a seamless band to fit around the mimi. Just think of a raised bowl, at some point the sides are vertical and it is a simple matter to take a suitable slice off a shape like that, and there you have a ring with no join line.

The band that makes up the rim is worked until it is a very tight fit to the outer shape, it is pressed into position, with a little overlap on each side, and then gently burnished in by alternating the work on each side. Does that make sense?

The dark line, in the cut, on the rim may be due to any number of contaminants but personally I don't think shakudo is a likelihood for reasons I mentioned earlier.

Hope this helps a little,

Best regards, Ford

btw, if anyone is interested, you can see a photo essay of a series of images, quite close up, showing true hon-zogan in the tutorials section of our forum. Here's a linkhttp://followingtheironbrush.org/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=195. It may provide an easy visual explanation of the process.

Brian · March 31, 2008

Thanks Ford,

I had a decent chat with Ford on the phone (ever helpful and informative) and it made perfect sense afterwards, even if I had not thought of it before in depth. You would not make an expensive alloy like shakudo, and then go and cover it entirely with gold. This would be a waste of what was a good material, and reseved for areas where it was showing for effect.

So likely better to use copper, and cover that with gold foil, saving the hassle of making shakudo for nothing. It does go against the grain of an artist and the work ethic.

Regards,

Brian

Bungo · March 31, 2008

Thanks, Ford.

The actual core metal is mentioned on the shinsa worksheet ( to the far right ).

Milt

Bungo · March 31, 2008

btw, if anyone is interested, you can see a photo essay of a series of images, quite close up, showing true hon-zogan in the tutorials section of our forum. Here's a linkhttp://followingtheironbrush.org/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=195. It may provide an easy visual explanation of the process.

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