Super glue removal from Tsuba

[Bugyotsuji]

 

 

 

 

[Bugyotsuji]

Dang, the whole message just disappeared. Grrr…

Second time lucky?

 

A friend gave me a bolo (loop) tie that he had made with a) a kenjō tsuba for a Tantō, b) a cheap metal fitment, and c) super glue. Although I appreciated his kindness, the thing filled me with inner horror. Finally today I contacted an artisan at Osafuné and asked for his advice.

“Place in a soft bag and boil in pure fresh water” he said.

It took about 20 minutes for the magic to work, but holding it in the boiling water with one set of chopsticks, and prodding and pushing with a further single chopstick caused the thing to shift and give way at last. The epoxy glue layer had become like a sheet of gelatin.

As you can see from the photo, the Tsuba itself is in fairly good condition after its two or three year ordeal.

 

[Geraint]

Dear Piers.

 

Result!  Was it Superglue or epoxy do you think?  I note that you have called it a kenjo tsuba, what makes you apply that label to it, I wonder?

 

Alll the best

[Bugyotsuji]

Two good questions Geraint.

As to the specific nature of the glue I cannot be sure and I would not know how to ask the guy without letting him know what I have done. Sssshhhh… Admittedly I used the words ‘super glue’ and ‘epoxy’ as a general catchall, but I do recall the artisan looking at it and saying ‘epoxy’ while we were discussing how to reverse the process.

 

As to ‘Kenjo’, it seemed to fit the remit, but I could (easily) be wrong. An unsigned quality piece made for presentation to a lord or leader.(?)

I’ll accept any refinement of the term and withdraw it if you think necessary!
Thanks again.

https://www.google.co.jp/search?q=献上鍔&client=safari&hl=ja-jp&prmd=ismvn&sxsrf=ALiCzsYTWxT1g5Hj1d4ZJ6aNwCb-Pv1GUA:1653402506703&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwien9SorPj3AhWDmVYBHc4nBAEQ_AUoAXoECAIQAQ&biw=414&bih=715&dpr=2

[Geraint]

Dear Piers.

 

From what I can see I think I would label your tsuba as Nagoya mono; the colour of the alloy, the nanako and the tagane marks around the nakago ana would support this.

 

I imagine that the soaking in hot water would have removed some of the accumulated dirt and the fact that it softened the adhesive is a trick worth remembering.

 

All the best.

[Bugyotsuji]

Nagoya-mono. Precious drips of information. Thank you kindly, Geraint. I’ll follow that up. 

[Spartancrest]

Could it be Mino-goto as well?  The ready made tagane-ato are a feature.

[Bugyotsuji]

Dale, Mino and Nagoya are so close to each other geographically that I have trouble separating them in my mind. The province of Mino kind of surrounded Owari (Nagoya) to their south until they were joined in Nobunaga’s time. But like Ōno and Kanayama, there were different artisan workshops in the general area with distinctive styles of workmanship.

[JohnTo]

It would appear that Piers and Dale have more examples from 'Mr Suzuki's'workshop' in Nagoya.  I started a post on 'Mr Suzuki's workshop' back in 17 Jan 2021 in order to highlight a genre of tsuba that were regularly appearing on Ebay and auction sites and often described with words like shakudo nanako, plus Mino and Goto.  They were in fact Nagoyamono and made from nigurome, the base of shakudo without the gold.  They had an identical form (see takarabune example below) with a characteristic pattern of tagane-ato around the nakago ana and NMB members sent in about 20 different designs.  In view of the tagane patterns i surmised that they came from the same workshop and this was a quality assurance marks (I have a rubbish one without the tagane marks which I assume failed QA).  Mr Suzuki was the fictitious name that I gave to the unknown owner of the workshop.

From your examples and the pics I took of another 'shakudo nanako' tsuba that I saw at Bonhams this month (May 12, lot 135, see attached) It would seem that 'Mr Suzuki' produced a range of nigurome tsuba besides the original shape that I posted.

 

So much to learn,

 

John 

 

[Bugyotsuji]

Thank you John. That would be this thread, which I need to go and read. 

 

[Bugyotsuji]

(L8r...) Hmmm... maybe I should superglue it back together again.