anyway to speed up making a tsuba look old?

[Christopher Lee]

I generally don't like the look of the silvery white iron on tsuba. anyway to speed up making it look older? By the way, this is regards to a modern reproduction tsuba on a very often used iaito.

[J.Hemingway]

Dig a hole, toss it in, water it, dig it out the next day....

[Paul Smith]

One of the methods used by the Japanese was urine so you could always ... oh never mind.

[John Lundemo]

Originally posted by Christopher Lee
I generally don't like the look of the silvery white iron on tsuba. anyway to speed up making it look older? By the way, this is regards to a modern reproduction tsuba on a very often used iaito.

Alittle Birchwood Casey gun blueing slightly deluted with warm water and with a soft cloth rub some in. If it don't take then there is oil or lacquer or something on the part. You must make sure part is very clean of all oil. With a solvent use fine matt pad to rub it in if need be, but you can control it to a light brown to a dark almost black in seconds . Rinse well with warm water and dry well, then oil her up viola. Or just piss on it hahahah

[Howard Clark]

The nicest patina for steel is brown, IMO. The best way to apply that look is to deliberately rust the tsuba, the with a stiff brush or steel wool take all the "loose" rust off and rust it again, repeat the process until you are happy with the color. Then if you want it to turn black instead of brown, boil it for a few minutes in clean water. Urine works fine as a rusting agent. If you have a cat, you could bury it in the litter box. Cat urine will make it black very quickly (don't ask me how I know this). Most any slightly acidic liquid (water based) will induce rust. For best results you need a "damp box" (closed container to promote high humidity and warmth). Good luck.

[Karl Foster]

What about leaving it in lemon juice, or vinegar, to acquire the desired look?

[Erik Andersson]

Well, both are sligthly acidic and water based, so they should work I guess. Can't say anything about what colouration might be the result though, so unless anyone elsecomes by to fill in the details, you might wish to experiment on som scrap metal first.

[John Lundemo]

Piss sounds like fun, but is not as fast as the oxidation solution I spoke of earlier. 20 seconds not even, in this oxidation solution (birchwood casey or some kind of gun blueing)and you will be surprized, dark as you want, then matt to taste! Personally I like my piss in the dirt, grass, or toilet, not on my beautiful Tsuba. Yopu can find this oxidation fluid gun blueing in wall mart or sporting goods store

[E.B. Erickson]

Hello all,
Lemon or vinegar will leave a silvery-grey matte finish. But if you let it sit for a day or so in a humid environment, it should start to develop rust.

Howard Clark had the best idea for browning, it's the way guns and hilts were browned back in the old days, and the more times you repeat the light rust/wire brush cycle, the deeper and more durable the brown will be. For a variation on this treatment (which will work with anything that will rust steel), leave the rust on until it starts to form scattered small crusty spots, and then wire brush. This has the effect of adding tiny rust pits (if you want larger pits, wait for larger crusty spots to form), so you get some texture along with the color. Repeat this until you're happy with the appearance.

--ElJay

[Andi B.]

I have used water with salt for a few days...

[Robert C]

It depends on whether you want to "antique" it or just give it a nice color. For antiqueing Andi 's method looks good. The japanese have developed many treatments to color metals and most I believe use various organic compounds. Gunsmiths have used buing and browning both for hundreds of years. The cold bluing solutions won't really do much for you . Bring it to a gunsmith for a deep rich blue. For brown make a steam box - The steel is exposed to steam for a while , the loose rust carded off with steel wool or brushThe process repeated until you get desired result.

[Brian VanSpeybroeck]

I have used table salt and hydrogen peroxide. I mix it in a old spray bottle and mist it onto clean steel fittings.

It'll rust the steel before your very eyes! It will even steam and smoke as it reacts with the steel. The rust is not very durable but if you rust it, then let it sit a couple of days where it's moist/humid and then repeat a couple of times it looks pretty cool.

When you have a layer of rust built up, boil it in a pan of distilled water and wipe with a coarse cloth or steel wool. Repeat as necessary till you get it as "antiqued" as you like.

A teaspoon full of salt to 4 ounces of peroxide or so...it ain't rocket science and the reaction passes quickly.

Brian

[Christopher Lee]

thanks for all the ideas and input! I will try it out!

[JMSpiller]

I am seriously loving this thread. I'm more into Euro blades, but if I ever do make my dream katana I am definitely going to carefully choose a tsuba and piss on it.

It's old, it's authentic and you just can't beat it for a nice personal touch.

yeri

[David T Anderson]

I'm liking this thread too, esp. since I have a SeiDoKai tsuba blank sitting here that I want to finish up and use for a modest Christmas presentation. Any more ideas?

Now pardon me while I go clean out the catbox...

[Christopher Lee]

Ok, I've tried the urine route on an extra unmounted, but expendable tsuba. It'll be the testbed...

So far, I've discovered that only the parts of tsuba where the original factory patina/black iron finish/paint is still intact--it won't rust at all, at least not after a long time.

The parts where its the bare, white iron rusts slowly if you dip it in a bucket of urine...but the killer is when you take a paper towel, soak it with urine, and wrap the tsuba in it and store in it a hot, humid place. Next morning, you can see that its a pretty thorough rust and that it may have even "eaten" microlayers.

I'll try saltwater and hydrogen peroxide next weekend when I get home...

Hey, anyone have this happen to you where after a heavy day of training and you get alot of sweat on the tsuba and tsukaito and leave it in your silk swordbag over night, the next day you find salt deposits on the tsukaito and rust on the tsuba even on parts where it still has the paint or orginal finish?

[David T Anderson]

I'm bumping up this thread to report that antiquing is proceeding apace on my Sei Do Kai tsuba blank.

After an initial fine sanding to take the roughness off, I've been using Brian's formula of hydrogen peroxide and salt, and while progress is slow, it does a nice job. After about 8-10 applications, with the last few overnight in a 'damp box' [actually a covered plastic margerine container on the hot air vent filled with damp paper towel shreds], the tsuba is starting to look as though it has seen some years. I give it a moderately vigorous rub with steel wool after each session in the box, and it has mostly lost any really smooth surfaces and all the toolmarks are obscured.

I figure another two weeks of this, and it will be ready to blacken and polish to create some highlights, and then wax for a final finish. I'll post some pix in the near future if I get some good ones...

[Brian Chan]

Say I have some copper based inlays on a steel tsuba- is it okay if I use these techniques and then rokusho (I have tried neither yet)

I wouldn't want my inlays to dissolve and fall out!
so, would it be good to patinate the steel first, then the rokusho, or the other way around?

[MumtazB]

Originally posted by David T Anderson
.....I figure another two weeks of this, and it will be ready to blacken and polish to create some highlights, and then wax for a final finish. I'll post some pix in the near future if I get some good ones...

Whats an easy way to wax a piece for a final finish?

[Paul Mullins]

Chlorox or mayonasse

[David W. Johnson]

There's another post running around here on this same subject. One poster suggested a detailed description of how to use peroxide, salt and vinegar. Others reported excellent results. Now, I can too. Worked like a charm. Looked much better after I let it sit overnight. Do a search for those three ingredients and the word "spray" as he uses a spray bottle in the process. It'll come right up.

I got the spray bottle at the dollar store along with the ingredients. For just a few dollars, I have the makings of producing many beautifully black fittings.

Good luck.

dwj

[N. Creel]

Originally posted by David W. Johnson
There's another post running around here on this same subject. One poster suggested a detailed description of how to use peroxide, salt and vinegar. Others reported excellent results. Now, I can too. Worked like a charm. Looked much better after I let it sit overnight. Do a search for those three ingredients and the word "spray" as he uses a spray bottle in the process. It'll come right up.

I got the spray bottle at the dollar store along with the ingredients. For just a few dollars, I have the makings of producing many beautifully black fittings.

Good luck.

dwj

That would be this thread. http://forums.swordforum.com/showthr...threadid=34771

Nathan

[R Lunardi]

Hi everyone,

The above posts have left some interesting ideas, so I have placed 6 round iron disks into the following, Vinigar, salt water, lemon juice, cat pee ( don't ask ), a mix of all above as well as left one out side in the elements.

I will post what happens soon.

[David W. Johnson]

I once had a cat pee on my ammunition. I shot it anyway. The brass was splitting like crazy. Threw it all out rather than try to re-load. Powerful stuff. Take care! Bio-hazard!

Different line. I am making F/K out of brass. Gun blue works great on it for a dark blue or black look.

Anyone know of a way to turn brass brown? I want my next kat to use brown tones.

Thanks.

dwj

[Don Nelson]

The tsuba you get from Fred Lohman come with an almost deep midnight blue-black finish. This looks a little "too new" to me. I'd like to age that a bit.

I've no idea what kind of metal they are made of.

Would the techniques described here work for those as well?

Don