Yagyu? A newbie can't tell.

[Curran]

2 hours ago, Robert S said:

Curran:  Your comment on the "grainy" texture of the steel is interesting, since there is also obvious forging in some cases.  I wonder what causes that?  Is it possible that some of these had at one time low level active rust, which has been stabilized, but which disproportionately effected one of the types of steel grain metallurgy in the relatively course grain?  Hard to see how it would have looked like that right after forging.

 

Depending upon what source you read, there is a lot of conjecture as to how they were finished.

You read things like that some where put in sand barrels and pounded before finishing.

I don't really have an opinion on that. I just like some Yagyu designs.

 

Attached is an image of one of the earlier Yagyu have this sort of filo dough layer to the mimi.

Something that strongly says Yagyu when you see it, or possibly a Norisuke copy. Norisuke copies tend to have like 2x the number of layers, so they kinda out themselves as excellent copies.

 

 

[Winchester]

Thank you everyone and OP for the great post; definitely some serious art shared in this one. 

[Spartancrest]

Curran your number three tsuba - I guess you have seen the ones in https://tsubakansho.com/page/2/ ?  A popular design it seems.

[Curran]

11 hours ago, Spartancrest said:

Curran your number three tsuba - I guess you have seen the ones in https://tsubakansho.com/page/2/ ?  A popular design it seems.

Yes, the one from the 2005 exhibit is mine.

Nice write-up by Jim. Much of my introduction to Yagyu was from him. He had a great Norisuke that illustrated the intense filo dough layers seen in the Norisuke copies.

 

[KungFooey]

I'm really grateful to everyone who replied to this question! It's turned into a great read with so much info!

 

Thank you!

Dee