Recovering shakudo.

[Geraint]

Dear All.

 

Just thought to share this with you.  Some years ago I bought a very nice wakizashi in an attractive issaku koshirae, the sword was fitted with what was described as a polished copper tsuba.  Now this tsuba is a good fit to the koshirae but I can't help feeling that it has replaced something rather more special at some time in the koshirae's history.

 

However, on inspection the tsuba turned out to be a san mai construction, two thin plates secured to a copper core with a silver fukurin.  I assumed that this might mean the two outer plates were shakudo and time has proved this to be the case.  Not the best photographs, we are in the middle of a Cornish summer so it's raining, but you can probably make out the construction and the colour of the shakudo after some time of just leaving it alone.  In hand the colour is a lovely raven blue black. The tsuba looks better on the sword and I have replaced the missing, rather small kozuka with a shakudo example to match.

 

 

 

All the best.

 

 

[Matsunoki]

27 minutes ago, Geraint said:

I assumed that this might mean the two outer plates were shakudo and time has proved this to be the case.

Hi Geraint, I was told by Ford many years ago that good quality older “real” shakudo would re-patinated itself if left alone and your tsuba proves it. 

[Steves87]

Great post Geraint,

Can you please shed some light on the storage conditions you had this guard in?

Maybe something like:

(Almost) exact timeframe.

In/out box.

If out of box, mounted or display.

If out of box (mounted or display), location in house... eg, near living/kitchen/bathroom/laundry rooms (for light/humidity/temps)... cupboard/drawer with approx frequency of opening.

 

It would be good to get an indication of these also for preventative  conservations sake.

[Chris Colman]

Before and after - Ishiguro Masatsune kozuka, purchased in 2010, kept in a standard kozuka box from Namikawa Heibei, in a gun safe that was opened about a dozen times each year. 

After photo is from last year, repatiantion could be seen after a couple of years, it took another six or seven to look almost complete.

[Geraint]

Chris, another nice example, thank you for sharing it.

 

Stephen, I'm afraid the answer is benign neglect.  I see from my notes that I purchased the sword in 2009 and did nothing at all to the tsuba.   It did not take anything like that time to recolour, perhaps four years?  It has been mounted on the koshirae all this time and kept in a sword bag for much of it.  The sword is stored in a fairly dry room in what is a pretty damp part of the world.  You can see a slightly weaker patination where the seppa have shielded it.

 

I am sorry to be so vague but having heard the same thing as Colin, ( and probably from the same source), I was expecting this result and thought little of it when it happened, just wanted to show it as an example.

 

All the best.

[Steves87]

Thanks Geraint (and Chris), believe it or not, but that is actually still very helpful. 

It is good to know that the re-patination is basically un-aided and relatively speaking, quite fast...

When you consider that this also happens in what I would call a "stored" state, it bodes well for other examples in a state of despair.