Mountains

I carved the design into the shibuishi and scrubbed it with pumice powder. Next is to bring out the colour of the metal, which will also accentuate the lines, by chemically oxidising it.

Moon over water shibuishi

I was all set to start carving the moon over water theme when I took a closer look at the form and marks from hammering on the plate.




It seems much more suggestive of a landscape than a seascape and as much as I tried to draw the original theme on, it didn't work. Therefore I changed tack and have decided on a mountain landscape in katakiri-bori.

Sharp learning curve

I bought a diamond hone to speed up the process of keeping the tagane sharp. I was previously using natural slate with a much finer grit. It was working but taking ages to get a good edge. Ford hallam and others use diamond plates to cut down on sharpening time.



The diamond hone is really aggressive and I found that I had been sharpening wrong before, the smoother hone had just been more forgiving. Trying to correct my angles meant I honed away much of my katakiri-bori chisel. I actually had to go back to the grinder to correct the taper.



You can see the multiple angles.

This has made me focus on getting good flat angles at the 60 degree needed, when I get that correct, the chisel glides through the material.

Shibuishi pendant

Shibuishi is a traditional Japanese alloy, 75% copped and 25% silver.

I alloyed a piece, rolled it to 1.5mm then cut this shape out.



Forming it with hammer and stake




And soldering the back tail into a pendant loop




Now it is ready for some carving. I often go down a hill headed toward the sea after work, sometimes when the timing is right I get an amazing view of the moon rise. The shimmering on the water. No picture from my small camera can capture it properly. I'm thinking this will be the theme for this piece.

Habaki

https://youtu.be/HpR5N7T-Abo

Habaki ring

Looking at Japanese craftsmen online, I was reminded of the habaki-shi. People who make habaki. This is another fitting for the Japanese sword but separate from the normal tosogu set. The habaki is a collar around the sword before the tsuba. Normally made from copper with gold or silver leaf applied. The habaki fits the top of the saya (sheath) called the koiguchi. This secures the sword in the sheath without the blade touching the wood. Were the blade to touch the wood at any part along the length, corrosion would occur. It also stops the sword from accidentally falling out.




These are good examples






The same aesthetic principles are at work, metals and textures are used to great effect. Rough files are used after polishing to create the lines.

There is a sense trepidation like that of sumi-e where the movement creating the lines happens once with no going back.

Birds in my hedge progress

The morning light seems to be best at capturing some sense of depth. Still quite a way to go