Katsushiro: Tsuba Work
Feb. 10th, 2010 09:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kiyakotariI spent some time with my mild steel tsuba blank today. I'm planning on taking it to work with me tonight and using the tools there to begin the process.
Here is the tusba blank itself, totally unaltered.
This is my draft of the pattern. Ignore the slight lopsidedness of the lines - that's an illusion due to the angle of the picture, and not present on the actual tsuba.
I plan to approach the shaping of the tsuba in three stages. The first stage will involve removing the excess metal from the sides of the circle, making the overall shape of the tsuba more like an oval than it currently is. I will probably be doing this with a belt grinder, chisel, and files, even though the belt grinder isn't a traditional tool for the job (it's cheating, I know - I'm totally content with that).
The second stage will probably be done entirely with chisel and files, and be a bit more difficult. This is when I will take the "bites" out of the sides of the oval. I am not yet set on the size of these, since they seem to vary a bit throughout the series.
The third stage will be the finishing one, when I use files to smooth the edges of the shaped areas, do any refinement that is necessary, and round the outside edge of the tsuba itself.
After that, I will have to decide if I want to do any chroming or plating, and how to approach that.
This afternoon, I also received the bare wood tsuka that I ordered, so it's time to start looking into modern lacquering options and weighing the pros and cons of paint-with-varnish vs actual lacquer. Katsushiro's katana appears to have a lacquered handle with no tsuka-ito or same. This is...perhaps not the best option, considering sweaty palms and all that, but it's what he seems to have going on. ^_^;;
In other news, my throat is slightly worse today, a little bit ticklish (which is new - before it was just tight-and-phlegmy), but still not at all bad enough that I need to call in sick to work. However, I did take![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
aaronstjames' advice and forgo the gym again today, so as not to tax my immune system. I might go for a relaxed workout in the morning after work, though - do maybe half of my usual routine, so I don't start to backslide, but don't push myself too hard, either.
Here is the tusba blank itself, totally unaltered.
This is my draft of the pattern. Ignore the slight lopsidedness of the lines - that's an illusion due to the angle of the picture, and not present on the actual tsuba.
I plan to approach the shaping of the tsuba in three stages. The first stage will involve removing the excess metal from the sides of the circle, making the overall shape of the tsuba more like an oval than it currently is. I will probably be doing this with a belt grinder, chisel, and files, even though the belt grinder isn't a traditional tool for the job (it's cheating, I know - I'm totally content with that).
The second stage will probably be done entirely with chisel and files, and be a bit more difficult. This is when I will take the "bites" out of the sides of the oval. I am not yet set on the size of these, since they seem to vary a bit throughout the series.
The third stage will be the finishing one, when I use files to smooth the edges of the shaped areas, do any refinement that is necessary, and round the outside edge of the tsuba itself.
After that, I will have to decide if I want to do any chroming or plating, and how to approach that.
This afternoon, I also received the bare wood tsuka that I ordered, so it's time to start looking into modern lacquering options and weighing the pros and cons of paint-with-varnish vs actual lacquer. Katsushiro's katana appears to have a lacquered handle with no tsuka-ito or same. This is...perhaps not the best option, considering sweaty palms and all that, but it's what he seems to have going on. ^_^;;
In other news, my throat is slightly worse today, a little bit ticklish (which is new - before it was just tight-and-phlegmy), but still not at all bad enough that I need to call in sick to work. However, I did take
aaronstjames' advice and forgo the gym again today, so as not to tax my immune system. I might go for a relaxed workout in the morning after work, though - do maybe half of my usual routine, so I don't start to backslide, but don't push myself too hard, either.
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Date: 2010-02-11 06:18 am (UTC)Does the lacquered grip of the handle then get bound with twine or wire, or is that a different option?
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Date: 2010-02-11 06:48 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-02-11 04:53 pm (UTC)This.. looks like a katana guard..? Am I seeing it right.?
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Date: 2010-02-11 06:09 pm (UTC)I am taking care of myself, don't worry. ^_^ Drinking plenty of fluids, making sure I eat, and sleeping a lot. I didn't go to the gym (so far - may break down later and do it) today, but I did spend my 30 min lunch break at work on a treadmill to make up a bit for all the slacking I've been doing, workout-wise. I usually do an hour on the treadmill when I'm at the gym, so that's way below my norm, and I also only went...like...2 MPH the whole time. (Which is about half of my average speed.) It was a nice, easy walk, and I wasn't particularly tired at the end, but it made me feel a bit better about the not-going-to-the-gym thing.