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I have received a Chinese
tamahagane production sword for a review, which is in preparation,
requested by the company that markets some exclusive lines. While the
blade itself is very healthy and well made, the mountings were not to my
liking and so
I decided to design a new set of mountings. First the mountings
design which can be found here
and of which this page is its materialization, superbly done by Randy
Black.
Below, there is a series of photos taken by Randy on the development
of the remounting work.
The Design:
My aim was to go for a low key, yet precious looking mountings with
the kurikata, seppa, and fuchi-gashira in silver.
After the earlier fuchi-kashira that I sent did not fit the width
of this blade, I designed a new set with a simple groove.
The idea behind this design is that, not being a nihon-tô, neither an
antique blade, it would not look right to me to have traditional fittings
to match a production blade which by itself is inherently contemporary,
reason that explains a contemporary design with features such as the round
seppa that play an important part in the black tsuba which is
entirely neutral. At the present moment, my interest in the role of the
tsuba in the mounting of blades is little. It is what designers and
artists would call an evolutionary stage on the incorporation of tsuba as
a decorative element. It has been reduced or disguised with other ways
such as the round seppa in this case. |
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The habaki in forming
stage made from Silver Plate. |
Habaki in finished
stage. |
Silver Seppa in
fabrication. |
The making of the
Tsuba. |
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| The
fuchi-gashira made of silver in various stages of fabrication. Last
picture shows silver menuki in fabrication stage. |
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The fabrication of
the Tsuka. The next several pictures show the making of the core,
attachment of Same with Lacquer |
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| and wrapping the Silk
Ito. |
Here we see several
stages of the itomaki, plus the beginning of the ura knot. |
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The final knot on the omote side.
Perfect workmanship. |
Tsuka finished and
mounted. |
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The tsuka in perfect
alignment with the saya. |
The beginning of the
saya in poplar wood. |
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| The gluing
of the halves, the checking of the fitting and two views of the saya
in its final shape. |
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| Now the
saya is being primed and then lacquered and prepared for finishing. |
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| The horn kojiri. |
The koiguchi
with the silver ring accent. Two views of the mounting of the saya. |
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The round seppa with
an also round black tsuba just 5 mm bigger, provides a most unusual
set of mountings considering also that the fuchi-gashira have been
built proportionally to the 14 inches tsuka. |
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Habaki in silver.
Fittings were also done entirely by Randy under my specifications, and
it turned out to be exactly what I expected. |
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Two studio pictures
of the saya with the silver kurikata and silver ring
plus the aspect of the round seppa. Note the perfect wood
lining of the saya and the superb itomaki. |
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| The
mountings with the blade in and with the saya by the side,
finalize the review of this mounting project. |
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