Tsuba finish help needed

[P.K.Hansen]

I have a Bugei Dragonfly tsuba that I'd like to use for a project, but it has the "oh so modern" antique finnish which I hate.
It seems to be made of pewter or stainless steel or whatever - I cannot get any of my gunbluings to bite on it.
So, what will work here ? I prefer some sort of staining. No painting or coatings that need to be baked on.
Please show me a way to make it a nice brown or black.

[Skyler R.]

What I use on my tsubas is to put them over a pot of boiling water (the steam heats them and accelerates the rusting) for a few hours (I like doing it for 3 hours, though of course if you want deeper pitting then you will want to do it longer). After this I put them into the boiling water for about 30 mins then put on some choji oil and let them sit over night. After all this they will have the pitting and be turned a nice brown/black.

[Henrik Y]

Does it rust? If it does you can use a flashrust solution(see the link) to make it rust fast and then boil it in tea for 30 min or more to get a dark brown color and then wax or oil it. For me it seems that the tea gives the tsuba a bit of color atleast the one I boiled in tea got a little darker and I got a dark tsuba shaped spot in the saucepan.

http://forums.swordforum.com/showthr...ght=flash+rust

[P.K.Hansen]

I don't think it'll rust. If it would, then the gunblue should work too.
I have no idea what material Hanwei is using these days, but it's a step back - the old stuf was much nicer.

[Henry . A]

Test it with a magnet .

Magnetic means its ferrous and will rust /patina heat/blackening coatings will work.

Non magnetic means alloy non ferrous ... most likely non reaction patina.
And only a coating like powder coat or paint will work.

Henry . A

[glenncollier]

If its stainless or aluminum, I think the only route you can go is painted or powdercoated...I think a lot of hanwei tsubas also use that 'parkerized' looking finish, its not that bad imo.

Not sure if there are a lot of options besides some sort of coating... If you do figure something out, keep us posted.


Glenn Collier

[Skyler R.]

I must of missed the part about it not blueing

I would use the magnet like Henry sugested, if the magnet does not stick there are solutions out there that can blue (or many other colors, brown, green, etc..) metals that are "stanless" as well as many other steels that do not have enough carbon in them. Using google for stainless blueing should come up with some results.

If you would like to know more about the metal used or the process you may want to try contacting Bugei to see if they know.

[David Buck]

Paul Chen tsubas should be made of Iron. I was able to blue my practical tsuba no problem.

But I am not sure what material bugei demands for their tsubas, I am very suprised it did not blue. What did you try to blue it with?

[Eric Lamers]

Hes v Zweeden in Arnhem sells Gun blueing for stainless steel.

[P.K.Hansen]

David:
The old Hanwei PK tsuba was iron/blueable steel, but the new ones are not.
Thanks for the inputs guys. I might just have to try Zweeden.

[David Buck]

Originally posted by P.K.Hansen
David:
The old Hanwei PK tsuba was iron/blueable steel, but the new ones are not.
Thanks for the inputs guys. I might just have to try Zweeden.

That's lame, they must be made out of some cheaper alloy then. All of Paul Chens new moves are really starting to piss me off.

[michael wilson]

Hi Per


Hanwei are using a low grade alloy pot metal - non magnetic
gun bluing will not " Bite "

flash rusting will go a dirty brown colour - not the black as shown in the B van Spraysbroeks excellent thread .

nasty stuff -

I have seen early PK tsuba with nice blued finishes - but the newer ones seem to have this horible pot metal stuff

Mick

[Aaron Justice]

Originally posted by michael wilson
Hi Per


Hanwei are using a low grade alloy pot metal - non magnetic
gun bluing will not " Bite "

The last two blades I have gotten from Hanwei (a practical plus wakizashi of the newest gen, the bohi Musashi, and the PK standard of the newest gen), and all had steel tsubas. Recently I was just testing to see how strong of a pull one of my magnets has, and to test it I used the Musashi tsuba. It's steel.

Paul Chen has been using stainless for fittings for quite a while. I would imagine that more than anything else is the non-bluing culprit. As some have mentioned there are bluing for stainless steel.

Either way the three blades I have posted before were all versions made after the Dragonfly introduction, so I can't imagine Paul Chen would cheap out on their highest end stuff.

[P.K.Hansen]

I just tried with a magnet - it sticks to all the new ones I have, but not as strongly as on the old ones.
I guess I'll use a new PK tsuba to test different stuff on.