Koshirae, before and after

[Alex A]

Being bored, as I expect a lot of us are, thought it might be an idea to start a thread about koshirae resurections or anything else regarding conservation or restoration ?. Think we have had a blade thread, but dont remember anything about koshirae.

I bought this blade on NMB a good while ago http://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/26958-kanemasu-tanto-for-sale/?hl=%2Bkanemasu+%2Btanto

There was no tsuba, menuki, seppa or kozuka and the ito was missing although there was same (ray skin) of good quality.

There was an existing horn kashira which still contained a bit of old brown thread and a basic fuchi.

I didnt want to throw lots of money at it, just wanted it to be simple as it once was.

Grey did me a good deal on a tosho tsuba and the menuki came from Aoi, Edo and only around £70.

Always a labour of love this kind of thing but happy the Kanemasu is back to how I presume...…..once was.

I still need a Kozuka by the way, but may have to wait.

 

Would be good to see other projects

[Ken-Hawaii]

Nice job of reconstruction, Alex. An obvious labor of love, indeed.

[Alex A]

Thanks Ken. Yes, always a balance from a monetary point of view. Originally, I had plans to restore the koshirae to a satisfactory level as well as have new shirasaya and polish depending on what the blade was like when it turned up.

 

Difficult buying from images, the blade had a few tiny chips that kind of bugged me a little but when the blade turned up it was better than I thought. Il live with the chips because the old polish is actually really good with fine ashi, sometimes when I look at the blade it reminds me of some Kanefusa.

 

I could have saved money and just had shirasaya made, but glad i splashed out a bit more. Goes to show you dont need to spend megabucks to enjoy the hobby.

 

Unusual long saya, but it was made for the blade.

[Greg F]

Nicely done Alex.

 

Greg