Plain ordinary tsuba

[Copycat]

Hello All,

 

Please see pictured tsuba.

 

Has anyone seen a similar tsuba before? Is this even an antique Japanese tsuba?

 

Kind regards,

[Copycat]

With plain simple decorations

[Larason2]

I'll leave more definitive answers to the experts here, but just looking at the texture of the metal, it looks like steel, maybe even stainless steel. The scratches and "decoration" look like someone was playing with it with something sharp. It does look a bit like a navy gunto tsuba, but it's the wrong shape. So probably a reproduction of some kind. 

[cdrcm12]

Could be WW2?

 

I have a similar plain mokko-gata steel tsuba that came on a civilian mounted showato blade.

 

Looks like it has been mounted with the shadow of the seppa visible.

[rkg]

cleaned?

rkg

(Richard George)

[Copycat]

1 hour ago, rkg said:

cleaned?

rkg

(Richard George)

Yes, with Autosol. The tsuba was rusted. 

[Dan tsuba]

Hello Kees!

 

Welcome to this fantastic forum!  I noticed in your last post you said the tsuba was cleaned with Autosol!  Where you just "having a go" at the members, or did you actually clean it?

 

Many members will tell you never to clean a tsuba in that way.  Personally, I enjoy a bit of rust on my tsuba!  What I do is take an old toothbrush dipped in gun bore cleaner and clean the tsuba.  Let it dry and then dip it in mineral oil (wipe off and let it dry) to protect it from further rusting 

 

There are other ways to clean a tsuba using deer antler bone or other bone.  I am sure other members will tell you how to best clean any other tsuba you purchase that are rusted.

 

With respect,

Dan

[Copycat]

6 minutes ago, Dan tsuba said:

Hello Kees!

 

Welcome to this fantastic forum!  I noticed in your last post you said the tsuba was cleaned with Autosol!  Where you just "having a go" at the members, or did you actually clean it?

 

Many members will tell you never to clean a tsuba in that way.  Personally, I enjoy a bit of rust on my tsuba!  What I do is take an old toothbrush dipped in gun bore cleaner and clean the tsuba.  Let it dry and then dip it in mineral oil (wipe off and let it dry) to protect it from further rusting 

 

There are other ways to clean a tsuba using deer antler bone or other bone.  I am sure other members will tell you how to best clean any other tsuba you purchase that are rusted.

 

With respect,

Dan

Hello Dan, thank you for welcoming me and giving great tips. 

 

I cleaned it on my own initiative. Removing rust without scratching is easy with Autosol in my experience. 

 

Edit: Autosol will also remove some patina

[Dan tsuba]

Hello again Kees.

 

You don't want to remove the patina from the tsuba.  It is my understanding that all tsuba are purposely "rusted" (called flash rusting) to create a patina. 

 

Some other tsuba have a "pickling" type solution added to them to create patina.  I am sure you can find out more information about that stuff on the forum. 

 

Remember to look at books and reference material about tsuba.  This is a great hobby and I hope you will enjoy it for years to come!

 

With respect,

Dan

[roger dundas]

And what about the use of "Renaissance Wax" to protect the existing patina ?

I think that I am correct in saying that major museums AND Ford Hallam use this wax as a protective finish on tsuba and many other very important treasures.

Roger j

[Larason2]

Removing the patina usually isn't advisable, as it is considered to reduce the value. It's also not that easy to repatinate it! Jim Kelso has a recipe on traditional Japanese iron patination on his website. It's a bit finicky, but it looks great:

 

https://www.jimkelso.com/tutorials/ironpatina.htm

 

Renaissance wax is considered the best, but it is pricey and hard to get. If you want the best it's worth it, but you can also get by with small amounts of other kinds of furniture wax. Here's a video where Ford Hallam goes over how he waxes a tsuba:

 

 

[1kinko]

A very little Renaissance Wax goes very long way so it’s pretty cheap for what it does. There are many formuli for iron/steel patinas.  If you don’t know what the original patina was you just have to pick one that looks good to you. They do usually take several trials and can be pretty frustrating to get a perfectly even patina. You can still find several discussions of the various formuli and their results in the archives of Following the Iron Brush.