May I get opinions on homemade tsuba?

[OceanoNox]

There have been a few posts about homemade tsuba recently, and while I am worried about starting a trend that it is quite in line with the aim of this sub-forum, I am at a loss for educated opinions.

Since I do iaido, I have been increasingly interested in tosogu. And while flashy koshirae is frowned upon in my federation (ZNKR), I have been wanting to personalize my own sword. Unfortunately, I cannot afford the prices of the craftsmen that do made-to-order work, and I dislike the tsuba sold on martial arts websites (I have been wanting very specific decorations or themes). Thus I would like to ask your opinions on what I have produced, and what points you deem more work is necessary.

More info about the aim behind each tsuba:

Namako tsuba: There was a similar tsuba in the book 刀装具大全 (I think), but the tsuba was more elongated, and the lightning on the rim was made of silver like staples interlocking. I am not good enough for such zogan (although it was unclear whether it was nunome or sen zogan), so I made the crenelation pattern.

Gunbai tsuba: My in-laws family crest. I tried to do amida yasurime with a scriber, but didn't take into account the effect of the patination, so if anything, the effect is too subtle.

Skull tsuba: This is very inspired by a tsuba in a book by Mr. Hayashi, where the text is 切り結ぶ太刀の下こそ地獄なれ　ただに切れ切れ先は極楽 (which is a variation on a famous saying in Japanese sword arts, except the end is usually "step forward"). I tried to make a stone-like finish, but I have overdone it on the omote.

Octopus tsuba: This is the second version of this design, trying to have the octopus grabbing the mimi. Pure copper, with rokusho patination.

All the material was simply bought online, I am not even quite sure what the steel composition is. The work was done exclusively by hand (even the holes with a hand drill). All tsuba are 80mm in diameter, and between 3.5 and 4mm in thickness. The steel tsuba all have uchikaeshi mimi (which I realized later looks nice, but might ruin my right thumb during iaido). The patination for the steel tsuba was made with a solution found in a book about traditional coloration techniques in Japan (some clay, copper sulfate, rokusho, and salt).

 

PS: If this post is considered out of the bounds of this forum, I will happy to delete or move it to the izakaya.

[Larason2]

Your tsuba are very nice! The cutting and carving are quite good, and you've done the patination on them very well. They also adhere to traditional Japanese design quite well. My only comment is that usually yasurime is usually done with a file, and that I consider knowledge of the use of a file essential for good metal working. But you are well on your way, and I think that your post is appropriate for this forum. 

[Larason2]

Two more thoughts: One is that even if a piece has "sharp edges" in metalworking, they should never actually be sharp. This is also where a file comes in, or judicious use of the scraper. 

 

The other is that in the Japanese tradition, even if something is meant to look totally "straight," it should usually have a very gentle curve. Most of your tsubas have this at least on some part of it, but some like the first and the octopus one, seem to have straight edges that are too straight. Giving them a subtle curve makes them more human, and that's more Japanese.

 

I'd recommend you subscribe to Ford Hallam's patreon channel and watch some of his videos. You have good technical skill, but what is missing sometimes is the philosophy or art of the tsuba, which Ford gets into in most of his videos. Especially when you're doing utsushi, it's important to get into the mind of the original creator, and see and do things as if you were them, and spend a lot of time meditating on what it is you're conveying and why you're conveying it, what is the meaning behind it (hard work!). That will take your art to the next level.

[OceanoNox]

Carlos, thank you for you insight and comments. Indeed yasurime should be done with a file! I will try next time to make them deeper.

Also, and this especially true for the uchikaeshi mimi, I have not always taken the sharp edges off. For sukashi, I usually try to scrape at a 45 degree angle.

I have to admit that I did not even try to do an actual utsushi. But if I get better, I would try to emulate some nice iron tsuba (I do enjoy the kachushi tsuba).

26 minutes ago, Larason2 said:

but some like the first and the octopus one, seem to have straight edges that are too straight.

Could you elaborate, please? I am not sure to follow, do you mean the angle between two faces? (such as the mimi being completely square?).

By the way, I apologize for the side pictures, but the details did not come out too well when taking them straight on (you cannot see the skull or the writing for example).

 

Thank you again for the recommendations. At the moment, I have watched Ford's youtube channel, and also borrowed several books from the library on such topics.

[Larason2]

No problem! What I mean is that a flat surface, while it looks flat, should never be flat but ever so slightly curved (as Ford would say!). This applies to every "flat" or plain surface, like the side of a uchikaeshi mimi. In the case of the mimi, part of the preparation is filing it so it is slightly round (should not be easily visible, particularly to the uninitiated), say a radius of 1 degree. The corner would then not quite be 90 degree, more like 89 degree, but for all intents and purposes, it still looks square. On the face of a "flat" tsuba, it should have a slight curvature, which you can carve into it, forge into it if the material is compatible, or file it down before you start carving. The part that sits under the seppa can be perfectly flat, but that is an exception. You see Ford do this quite often. He also puts very slight offsets, say the omote of a fuchi 1 mm longer than the ura side and slightly curved, and the blade side of the fuchi slightly longer than the spine side, which are almost invisible, but that help make the piece more human. For this reason, usually Japanese tsuba are not perfectly round, and tend to be taller than they are wide, even if they are meant to look round. They also tend to make the corners of a "circular" tsuba a little bit squarer, not perfectly round. Ford does this starting at the cutting step, but for certain things like the mimi he works primarily with the file, which is also very commonly used by Japanese togishi. 

[Larason2]

Another related point is that generally, the edges shouldn't be too crisp. For uchikaeshi, they need to be a little crisp, but for most cut outs, you can round the corners quite liberally. For instance, in the top tsuba, while the mimi can be square, you should round the corners on the cut outs of the inside of the tsuba a bit more. This accentuates the texture, and makes it less "stiff" looking. This is also visible on the octopus. The heavily square edge of the cutout looks square, whereas the tentacle would look more natural if you had a gentle curve on all the "smooth" surfaces like the tops of the tentacles. Some of the octopus's limbs look perfectly straight, whereas a real octopus never does that! a gentle curvature makes straight parts look more natural, and liberally curved edges gives a more organic look. 

[OceanoNox]

Oh, now I understand better! Thank you again for taking the time to write it down.

[DoTanuki yokai]

I don’t think that the Yasuri  need to be done with a file when Ford is actually doing it with a scraper in his Video or do I miss something ? 
 

I would want to see both sides of every Tsuba before I say something but even then I’m not an expert.

I think every Tsuba should feel nice in  the hand and there should be no edges that can catch your clothes. 

 

[OceanoNox]

57 minutes ago, DoTanuki yokai said:

I would want to see both sides

Unfortunately, I cannot upload both sides at the moment (because I haven't taken photos of them).

At the very least, I can tell you that the skull tsuba and the gunbai tsuba are quite heavy, while the other are very light. I haven't mounted them on a sword yet, so I cannot confirm that the mimi will snag anything or not (or any other part).

[Larason2]

Yasurime can be done with a scraper or with a file, it depends on the particular effect you're going for, and which is easier/possible!

[ROKUJURO]

AMIDA YASURI is not the same as YASURI ME.

[Ford Hallam]

I'm flattered and gratified to read that the content of the films we put out are so well grasped, thank you.

 

Just a quick point of terms used in the tsuba collecting world for techniques and effects....for the most part they have been invented by collectors and not the makers themselves. So I'd be cautious in always trusting the imagination of an expert who may never even seen a tsuba being made.  I'm still not convinced that the melted cheese /yakite finish on iron guards was really created by melting the surface, as though iron looks that calm and gentle as it approaches 1500 degrees C And I'm almost certain that the application of chidori-ishime-ji involves no small shore birds . Sorry, losing it now, I blame the meds 

 

A linear pattern/texture can be called Yasuri (file) for convenience and by convention but could have been created by means of a file, a riffler( a bent file ) a scraper/kisage, a chisel or even a tracing punch. 

 

 

[OceanoNox]

12 hours ago, ROKUJURO said:

AMIDA YASURI is not the same as YASURI ME.

I misused the words, but the meaning was straight scribed lines in an exploding pattern.

 

11 hours ago, Ford Hallam said:

I'm still not convinced that the melted cheese /yakite finish on iron guards was really created by melting the surface

Thank you for joining, Ford. In my case, I don't have access to (char)coal or gas furnace, only an electric oven. So annealing was done at 1000℃ for about an hour in the steel case. Because the atmosphere control is not good, there is quite a lot of scale, and for some reason the tsuba blanks end up looking like partially melted metal on the surface.

If I could, I would try to get scrap metal to do oroshigane, but alas, time, equipement, and ability are limited.

[ROKUJURO]

Arnaud,

in an electric furnace, the objects are exposed to oxygen. If you could have a small charcoal fire, you might be able to reduce the effects of oxygen. You can even increase the C-contant 
Try to limit the annealing temperature to 750°C which is largely enough.

An OROSHIGANE kiln does not need much work, as it can be built with stones and clay, but you need an air supply, be that with an electric blower or hand-activated bellows. Combustion fuel is ideally charcoal which has the advantage of making not much smoke. But I understand that all these activities are not possible in a city environmemt. 

Best solution would be to get into contact with a blacksmith in a rural area.

[OceanoNox]

4 hours ago, ROKUJURO said:

in an electric furnace, the objects are exposed to oxygen.

Yes, that's what I was saying in my message. The furnace is in fact connected to an argon gas bottle, but I fear the furnace door is not well sealed when closed.

Since I did not know the chemical composition and the final treatment of the steel, I opted for the higher temperature to obtain at least soft ferrite, at the risk of grain growth (I could check the grain size from the cutouts of the namako tsuba). In the end, it didn't matter because I had to repolish my chisels several times (which might be an issue with the chisels themselves).

This soft steel/iron is not un-historical, as in a previous article, iron tsuba were measured with a Vickers hardness ranging from 77 up to 230, so very much in the range for annealed iron to well-worked iron or low-C steel (鐔集成, 中村鉄青, 1963, pp.20-26, available at the National Diet Library digital collection) (For reference, the Vickers hardness of well annealed pure iron is 60, and 90% cold-rolled pure iron has a Vickers hardness of about 224).

 

5 hours ago, ROKUJURO said:

An OROSHIGANE kiln does not need much work, as it can be built with stones and clay

A professor I met did a tatara project in his lab with his students, a one-time experiment to teach them the difficulty of producing steel. It might be possible for me to organize something like that if I can link it with research or education in my university, but we are also very much trying to work on low-carbon topics, so even with low-smoke charcoal, I am not sure if that would go through. I might try to find a blacksmith, but again, my personal funds for such projects are low, so it might remain on the wishlist for a while.