O-Suriage

[James]

Hello everyone,

 

Please excuse this novice question, but why don't o-suriage swords have a nakago that is a patina of the original nakago and a different patina at the place on the nakago where the polished blade has begun to rust?

So far, the o-suriage nakagos except one (see below) I have seen have had the same patina throughout the nagako.

I don't understand this - can anybody explain?

 

Here is the picture of what I should think all o-suriage nakagos should look like:

 

 

 

Of course I don't mean that all the nakagos would necessarily have the same patinas as the photo, but the contrast of the original nakago and the later addition of the nagasa to the nakago should be clear.

[John A Stuart]

James, It would have a lot to do with when kiritsuke(sp?) was done. John

[pcfarrar]

Hello everyone,

 

Please excuse this novice question, but why don't o-suriage swords have a nakago that is a patina of the original nakago and a different patina at the place on the nakago where the polished blade has begun to rust?

 

 

The sword you have pictured looks to be suriage not o-suriage. You only get the effect you describe on suriage swords as an o-suriage sword will have none of the original nakago left. Very often on suriage swords you will get two different patinations on the nakago as the blade steel rusts differently to the original nakago steel.

[James]

The sword you have pictured looks to be suriage not o-suriage. You only get the effect you describe on suriage swords as an o-suriage sword will have none of the original nakago left. Very often on suriage swords you will get two different patinations on the nakago as the blade steel rusts differently to the original nakago steel.

 

 

Ah, of course. Thanks for clarifying that for me Peter.

[Darcy]

When a sword is shortened, sometimes the entire nakago will be refinished with new yasurime. So you kind of get a "reboot."

 

Alternatively, polishers are able to patinate nakago so that it is very hard to detect difference in age. I'm not sure what the procedure was hundreds of years ago, but even if they did something very basic to age the new surface in the nakago, after a century it would really blend together.

 

Finally, on many swords the borderlines are very clear between the shortenings. I had a Ko-Yamashiro blade and it was pretty clear where the original nakago was still there, and one or two shortenings above that. Not only is the patina different but the texture of the steel's surface becomes more rough with age. So your feeling from the top blade does hold up in the case of a sword that is shortened successively.

[pcfarrar]

Here's a katana of mine that demonstrates two shortenings and the original nakago at the bottom.