Several holes blade tang

[Dan tsuba]

Hello all!

 

So, I have a question about sometimes seeing several holes (mekugi-ana) drilled in the nakago of a blade.  If the blade was cut down from a katana to a wakizashi I can see where a new hole had to be drilled to accommodate a new tsuka. That is probably why some blades have a mekugi-ana that appears at the top of the nakago.

 

Also, I don’t think the “old blades” were mounted using two mekugi?

 

But what about the blades that were not cut down that still have several holes in the nakago?  I can only figure out that instead of mounting a new tsuka and drilling the hole in the tsuka to match the previous hole in the nakago; it must have been easier to mount the new tsuka un-drilled and then drill through the tsuka and the nakago of the blade at the same time to mount the new tsuka? 

 

That seems like a lot more work than just using the same mekugi-ana in the nakago to mount the new tsuka.  Is there another reason for more than one hole in the nakago?

 

With respect,

Dan

[Ed Harbulak]

If the machi was moved up a little bit, then it would be easier to use the old tsuka and drill a new hole in the nakago. Or if a new thinner tsuba was used a new hole in the nakago would be needed. There are lots of possibilities, including making a blade look older than it really is.

[Jacques]

This topic has been discussed extensively.
There are many reasons to drill a new mekugi ana, the most common for long ubu blades being a change of mount i.e. one katana mount and one tachi mount for the same blade. 

[Dan tsuba]

Thanks, Ed and Jacques, for your valuable knowledge,

 

I have another question pertaining to the holes in the tang of the blade.  Now I am fairly certain that the Japanese sword craftsman (at the time) did not have electric drills with titanium bits (hey, but what do I know, I could be wrong – just a little humor!). 

 

And drilling through cold steel, I imagine, could be quite a challenge in the “old days”.

 

Is it possible that the craftsman could have reheated the tang of the blade to drill the hole for fitting a new tsuka?

 

With respect,

Dan

 

[ROKUJURO]

Dan,

not all MEKUGI-ANA have been drilled. In older blades they have been hot-punched by the smith.

If you heated up a piece of metal to make drilling easier, you would certainly ruin the drill! So drilling a NAKAGO in the EDO period was probably just very slow.

Modern high-end drill bits are not made out of titanium, but they can have a titanium nitride coating.

[Dan tsuba]

Jean, my friend-

 

Thanks for the great information!  So, when you state "hot punched".  Could that mean that the tang was reheated to punch the new tang hole for the new tsuka?

 

So, what was the "abrasive" used on a drill during the Edo period (for "slow" drilling) to drill a hole in the tang, and did they use water or oil to lubricate the drill?

 

And of course your knowledge of modern drill bits is appreciated!  I was just referring to some drill bits I saw described on "Harbor Freight" tools!

 

Onward!

 

With respect,

Dan

[ROKUJURO]

Dan,

when I wrote "hot-punched by the smith", I meant to say that the first MEKUGI-ANA in a KOTO blade was probably done as a later manufacture step prior to YAKIIRE (hardening) and also prior to chiselling the MEI.
Looking at later blades, you often see a MEKUGI-ANA going through a KANJI of the MEI. In most cases, this is an indication of a drilled MEKUGI-ANA, made after the smith signed the blade. 

Punching a hole of course means heating up the NAKAGO at least to bright red. That could even be done later in the life of a blade (by cooling it with a wet rag), but as far as I can imagine, it was certainly not done inconsiderately nor unnecessarily.

I have no information on the drilling technique as far as NAKAGO are concerned; unfortunately the old sword-masters left no DVD for us to see.   But I know that small drills existed and were used in the TSUBA manufacture (ITO school et al.). So I can imagine that a hardened drill-bit could be used on the not-hardened NAKAGO, but these were no spiral drill-bits as we have them today and certainly had a very slow progress.

But hey, that was before time was invented, so they had a lot of it!