Engraved tsuba

[santos]

Hello every body

I’m not really Japanese but I had a job to do, on a Japanese sword ; This Wakisahi was a Santa's gift for my nephew . The blade has been forged by a friend of mine and I’ve to make the tsuba ( gard), the fuchi and the shakira.
I’ have seen lots of beautiful tsubas on internet :
http://home.earthlink.net/~jggilbert/tsuba.htm

And a few months ago I fall in love with Jim Kelso’s owl . He has a nice tutorial in his website :
http://www.jimkelso.com/inlaytutorial.htm/inlaytutorial1.htm


I choose the same theme, a owl in one side, and in the reverse side a moonlight scene .
The background is quite deep and the steel has been removed with a palm controlled tool.
You can see this tool on the third photo, you hold it on the palm, as you would hold a pebble, and you punch the chisel.

You have a closer photo of the tsuba here:
http://www.gravure-couteaux.info/photos/Tsuba.JPG

The owl is cut in a silver plate and has gold inlayed eyes. This poor animal has a little strabismus, hasn’t it ?

Thank you for reading. I expect that Japanese engravers haven’t laughed too strong

And I tell them: Come on more often to the cafe and show us your marvellous engravings. I’m very curious of your techniques, and I’m sure there are many engravers interested there.

I wish you all lots of engravings for 2008
Feliz Año Nuevo a todos.
Meilleurs voeux, bonne et heureuse année .

Jean

 

[Peter E]

Very nicely done.

Thanks for showing it.

Peter

 

[DanM]

Santos,

You might want to check the metal section of the Carvingpath forum for more of Jim's and other's work with Japanese styles.How long did it take to carve out the backgroung using the hand tools?

 

[sdcoxx]

Santos,
The moon's reflection, the owl, the tree...
I like it, Very much...
Thanks,
Stephen

 

[Dave London]

Santos
Very nice job, a lot of work for palm pushing. Thanks for showing. Also I like the hammer Dave

 

[Jim Kelso]

Jean, thanks very much for the nice tribute.

Maintenez le bon effort! J'aime votre "palm control".

 

[santos]

Thank all you guys for your comments,

Dan, I often check the Carving path forum , it’s a great website too.
I’ve spend many hours cutting my tsuba . The depth of the background is 1mm or so and the chips cut with chisel are 1 or 2/10 mm. Then it took a lot of time to erase the chisel cuts with a burr and an abrasive disc mounted on the dremel.
The corners have been sanded with a toothpick turning on the dremel and abrasive paste.
I don’t make money with my engravings, so I don’t count my time , I just have a lot of fun mounting this sword . My nephew Vincent was very happy too.

Sdcoxx, thank you, the moon reflect is gold plated with an electrolytic solution; Not very traditional …but I was in a hurry to finish it before Christmas.

Jim, Merci beaucoup,
You are a great source of inspiration for me. Your work shows me how long is still the way .
I like your approach of japanase arts using air assisted tools and traditional tools as the migaki –bake (horsehair brush)