Amateur restoration correction on iron?

[blackwatercreekllc]

I have seen a couple pieces floating around that was thinking about purchasing but they have been "restored". I have used this stuff called Van's instant gun bluing before on steel/iron that has been "restored" to return a nice patina.Was curious if anyone has used it before on fittings and what your thoughts are. It is a little misleading as it does not really "blue"- it "browns". I have a quite a few things that turned out with a very nice age appropriate patina after using.

[kusunokimasahige]

Hello David, having read several of your postings and questions I feel that most of them would be better suited on either the

Bladesmith forum or the SFI forum. The questions you ask have little or nothing to do with care for the Japanese sword and its fittings.

 

Care for Japanese swords is a science in itself, and only if you start reading a lot of books about the subject you will grasp the intricacies of the entire process from forging to the end polish, as well as the making of and caring for tosogu.

 

Please try and read for instance the articles in this link :

 

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=12614&hilit=reading+list

 

And do ask for help on literature on this forum. The members will without hesitation point you to several very good books

on the Japanese sword and its accoutrements.

 

KM

[runagmc]

This might be a better forum to ask,

http://followingtheironbrush.org/viewfo ... 33163b550d

 

Also, you should let them know what you're wanting to work on, to make sure it's OK. As you probably already know, sometimes things are better left alone or to a restoration professional.

[Alan Morton]

Henk and Adam

 

plenty of people on this forum have been fussing with tsuba and fittings

 

trying to drag them back from neglect to try and achieve some of there

 

former finnish or just to clean them and it is discussed on this forum regularly.

 

You talk as though he should be banned to elsewhere and you know all to do with this subject.

 

Alan

[Brian]

Fact is, the most we advocate is careful cleaning..and even then cautiously.

Repatinating and other chemical processes are a good way to ruin fittings, and using gun blue is sure to destroy what is already damaged. What may look satisfactory to you is going to look like a joke to sword collectors who spend their time looking for fake patina and can feel,see, smell and (yes) taste a fake patina.

Stick to cleaning gently. If a good patina was as close as applying (not even very good) gun blue, do you think people would spend hundreds/thousands having professionals do the work? I am in the gun industry for over 20 years, and cold blues/browns are a joke.

And no. David is very welcome here, and shouldn't take any of this personally. But when it comes to preserving genuine swords and fittings, we make our points sharp and clearly. There is no messing around, and often no going back when the damage is done.

 

Brian

[Ford Hallam]

we make our points sharp and clearly. There is no messing around, and often no going back when the damage is done.

 

:?

 

oooh er, Brian! I do love it when you're strict.

[Brian]

Ford,

As a professional restorer, and possibly the most qualified person on board to advise on this, I am very glad you were able to add such great input to this subject :?

Now how about advising on the original post?

Will instant gun blue add a nice convincing age patina? :lol:

If so...you have really been wasting all those years studying all those time consuming methods.

 

Brian

[kusunokimasahige]

Alansue :

 

In no way would I want David to leave the forum.

 

What I would like to see is him starting to study the subjects he is asking questions about. In that way, he will have more fulfillment in collecting, and less artifacts will be damaged due to ignorance.

 

We see multiple examples on the board regularly of so called self taught people cleaning, buffing, grinding, patinaeing, acid etching and "restoring" items to muck and then getting miffed when slapped on the wrist or worse for being told they have destroyed what once was something very nice.

 

The only way for many others as well as me in this case to prevent this, is to point out the errors of the persons either asking questions which make us all cringe and guide them in the right direction. True, some questions are better asked elsewhere, and evenly true one should not expect any "go ahead and do it" when clearly that would be the path to destruction of the mentioned item.

 

Any and all antiques programs on television any and almost all books on antiques state : DO NOT CLEAN YOURSELF !

I have worked in auction houses and have seen many objects cleaned to worthlessness by self proclaimed restorers.

 

That is why I was so stern in my post.

 

@Ford: I fell over laughing when you posted that image.....

 

KM

[runagmc]

Henk and Adam

 

plenty of people on this forum have been fussing with tsuba and fittings

 

trying to drag them back from neglect to try and achieve some of there

 

former finnish or just to clean them and it is discussed on this forum regularly.

 

You talk as though he should be banned to elsewhere and you know all to do with this subject.

 

Alan

Actually, I was just trying to be helpful in a responsible way. The whole reason I directed him to the other forum is because I DON'T know all to do with the subject, and they have a forum full of people who do.

[Soshin]

Dear David,

 

I would recommend the following link it has about one page of information about dealing with rusted iron tsuba in poor shape: http://home.earthlink.net/%7Ejggilbert/tsuba.htm. Keep it in mind that it is likely best to not do anything under most curumstations. Hope you find the information helpful.

 

 

 

Yours truly,

David Stiles

[Mantis dude]

I remember once I did try and do my own restoration. I can't remember where I got the formula, it was on one of the major websites, using chemicals you could get from photography?(I think). I made a batch and stored it in an aluminum bottle that I picked up at CVS for a few bucks. I thought it would make a good container. I used it and I think it did a decent job on the tsuba I was playing with. I put the rest away in a cabinet. Less than 2 months later I was in the cabinet and took a look at the "formula" canister. I am so glad that I had also put it in a plastic bag because the entire bottom was eroded. I mean gone, like it was sitting outside for 50 years in rain puddles. Like I said, it was stored less than 2 months, it just goes to show how dangerous these chemicals or formulas can be. You really want to be careful and better off not mucking with something. It was a reminder it is better to leave things alone since you can easily do more harm than good.