HABAKI

[Grey Doffin]

Ron's thread about his tiger habaki got me thinking. Habaki are the best part of the koshirae for me. Anyone care to share pix of great habaki?

Here's one I own. Silver foil in the process of patination or tarnish, depending on your point of view.

Grey

[runagmc]

Here's 2 I like,

[runagmc]

Here's a nice pic of one with shakudo foil,

[Bugyotsuji]

Good friend of Lorenzo and me is a Shirogane-Shi Habaki maker and has a stack of lovely habaki in his workshop. Some he has made and some have come off swords that needed habaki replacement. Shall I get a shot of two of those?

[Surfson]

The one by Brian Tschernega is remarkably good. I wonder what he would charge for one like that?

[cabowen]

The one by Brian Tschernega is remarkably good. I wonder what he would charge for one like that?

 

$$$$

 

By the way, there are two things I don't care for in habaki: foil and shakudo.....Foil seems to invariably tear at some future point, and the shakudo patina also seems to scuff or rub itself off with time....Have seen this happen many many times....

 

Another thing that I watch for is too aggressive of pattern on the surface. It can abraid the koiguchi like a rasp and over time, ruin a tight fit.

 

I have always preferred solid silver or copper, which with the rising commodity prices, are becoming the new gold....

[Grey Doffin]

Hi Piers,

Yes; please get pix of nice habaki. Keep them coming.

Grey

[rkg]

Here's a solid gold one...

 

Best,

 

rkg

(Richard George)

[Dr Fox]

And here is one on a WW2 pilots sword, from a sales site.

 

Denis.

[Jean]

These kind of habaki are often found on treasure tantos:

 

http://members.chello.nl/tfujimot/

 

Go to the sword for sale section and click on the "Sekishu Naotsuna" and stroll down

[Soshin]

Hi Everyone,

 

Here is my favorite habaki. It is mounted on a Meito that was owned by the Kii Tokugawa Daimyo Family. Enjoy.

 

 

 

Yours truly,

David Stiles

[Ron STL]

The most beautiful habaki came on my mumei Juyo wakizashi attributed to Sa Hiroyasu, found in old shirasaya, totally out-of-polish (10%-20%) but with this fantastic habaki! When sent for polish/shinsa I neglected to request the same habaki be used and of course, it came back with a newly made gold foiled dbl. habaki! Oh how I regret not knowing better, but I would bet the habaki ended up on the polisher's sword! Sadly, no photos.

 

However, locally, there is a fantastic habaki on a locally owned sword (possibly later generation Kunikane w/cutting test) that we always wanted to be "right." Unfortunately, as fine as the carving is on this habaki the mei is just not correct for Nagatsune (as signed). This kind of thing will always puzzle me, how somebody can be such a good carver and not use his own name. It's been awhile since seeing this habaki and honestly, I don't recall the base material (photos seem an untrue color...) but it has shakudo inlay, gold inlay, fine carving...fun piece! Fortunately, I did save photos of this habaki (attached).

 

Ron H.

[Curran]

I like this thread. Favorite so far is the one RKG posted, though he must show the tanto that goes with it.

I have a Goto menuki and kozuka set designed for a tanto that would go with his habaki, though it might be too much mon on a small blade?

 

Here is an antique ones from a Yasumitsu sword.

[peter]

hello all,

some stunning examples, here are mine just to keep it going,

Peter

[SwordGuyJoe]

Here is one on my O-Kissaki Seki Kanehide gendaito wakizashi.

[Lindus]

Fun stuff and some glaring example of "Bling"

Roy

[Lindus]

One of Fords early work.

Roy

[Mark]

Grey has seen this habaki before, but it is an interesting one

[Tcat]

I am the proud owner of this example of Brian Tschernega's work.

 

[Lindus]

Another little oddity.

Roy

[Marius]

What about Fuji-san?

[Eric H]

Some different habaki from my collection. The quality and appearance of habaki goes usually with the quality of the sword.

 

01 - solid Silver - late Edo

04 - late Edo

the others are modern times

 

Eric

[Ron STL]

This habaki was on an interesting sword recently brought over for look-see (I forget which sword right now)...but the upper part of the habaki is actually concave. A little hard to see on the picture, but I've never come across a habaki made this way before. Just interesting.

 

Ron H.

[Curran]

Eric:

Love the antique #4. Beautifully understated piece.

 

Who made #7. European artist?

 

Ron:

Concave? Yes, that is off the beaten path. Photo certainly doesn't show it. Any chance of getting a side or angled photo of it?

[Eric H]

Who made #7. European artist?

Curran

The modern times habaki were all made by Japanese Craftsmen.

 

Eric

[Jorgensen]

Here is my addtition to habaki thread. Habaki is on a Daisho set. Fell over the picture on Bonhams. For those interested link is here: http://www.bonhams.com/auctions/19121/lot/3215/

[Eric H]

Curran, I have forgotten to ask you on what criteria you believed the habaki 07 was crafted by a European. To my knowledge there is nobody capable to perform habaki on this level in Europe.

 

Two other habaki from my collection

 

1 - Edo period

2 - late Edo period

 

Eric

[george trotter]

Here are a pair with complementing picures (Sumida River again?)

From a daisho by Naotane 1840 (daito) and Yoshimitsu/Teruyoshi (shoto).

From Western Australian Museum Coll.

Regards,

Geo.

[Gabriel L]

The most beautiful habaki came on my mumei Juyo wakizashi attributed to Sa Hiroyasu, found in old shirasaya, totally out-of-polish (10%-20%) but with this fantastic habaki! When sent for polish/shinsa I neglected to request the same habaki be used and of course, it came back with a newly made gold foiled dbl. habaki! Oh how I regret not knowing better, but I would bet the habaki ended up on the polisher's sword! Sadly, no photos.

 

If I understand correctly, you are saying the polisher stole your habaki? That is shocking if true. Why on earth would you not immediately contact the polisher and ask why he didn’t return your original habaki? This makes zero sense to me.