[Shaun]

Hello all,

I am curious to know if it is possible to patinate more than one colour to a single inlayed piece of metal. The reason I ask is I was looking on Patrick Hastings site and saw a tsuba with a leaf inlayed and carved with more than one colour from a single inlayed piece of metal. How is this done?

Cheers
Shaun

[Mike Ruslander]

I don't know, but knifemaker Tim Herman does a multi-colored engraving that will knock your eyes out. I've seen multi-coloring done on titanium using an electrical current to anodize the material, resulting in blues and pinks. I've done some interesting colorations on carbon steel with a torch and cooling the piece with WD-40 resulting in nice deep blues and pinkish hues that last.

[Patrick Hastings]

Hi Shaun,
You have stumbled onto the magic of Japanese metal work! (I am not Japanese, but I am magic on Tuesdays )
The colors you see are chemically induced patina. Using the Classical Roshuko Technique the piece is primped and polished then immersed in a hot bath containing a couple different Copper salts. The variation in colors is achieved by differing compositions of the alloys involved. Each piece of the inlay is a different alloy and each alloy produces a different color when cooked in the "Roshuko". One patina solution, many different colors. This provided/provides one with a Palette of colors to compose with. Gold and pure silver do not react to the process so the gold and fine silver rim on the Leaf Tsuba you mentioned remain a natural color. All of the copper and silver alloys present (I think there are seven alloys in that piece) each developed a distinct patina color of its own.
Regards,
Patrick

Shaun, on Oct 7 2007, 03:58 PM, said:

Hello all,

I am curious to know if it is possible to patinate more than one colour to a single inlayed piece of metal. The reason I ask is I was looking on Patrick Hastings site and saw a tsuba with a leaf inlayed and carved with more than one colour from a single inlayed piece of metal. How is this done?

Cheers
Shaun

[Shaun]

Patrick Hastings, on Oct 9 2007, 03:26 AM, said:

Hi Shaun,
You have stumbled onto the magic of Japanese metal work! (I am not Japanese, but I am magic on Tuesdays )
The colors you see are chemically induced patina. Using the Classical Roshuko Technique the piece is primped and polished then immersed in a hot bath containing a couple different Copper salts. The variation in colors is achieved by differing compositions of the alloys involved. Each piece of the inlay is a different alloy and each alloy produces a different color when cooked in the "Roshuko". One patina solution, many different colors. This provided/provides one with a Palette of colors to compose with. Gold and pure silver do not react to the process so the gold and fine silver rim on the Leaf Tsuba you mentioned remain a natural color. All of the copper and silver alloys present (I think there are seven alloys in that piece) each developed a distinct patina color of its own.
Regards,
Patrick

AH! thanks Patrick,
That clears things up a bit. I thought when seeing that tsuba tutorial that the main body of the leaf was one piece of metal but its not. So is the join across the middle where it changes colour is it?

Love your work by the way

Cheers
Shaun

[Patrick Hastings]

You can see here the two distinct colors of the upper and lower parts of the leaf.

The line divideing them is Hard-solder. They were cut and assembled apart from the Tsuba and then inlayed as a single piece.
Here you can see after the metal has been worked in place. In this bare raw state the metals look nearly identical in color.

After the patina process the results of the varied alloy composition are vivid.

This was a training piece layed out for me by Ford Hallam. It turned out quite nice I think. Glad you like it.
Regards,
patrick

Shaun, on Oct 8 2007, 10:51 PM, said:

AH! thanks Patrick,
That clears things up a bit. I thought when seeing that tsuba tutorial that the main body of the leaf was one piece of metal but its not. So is the join across the middle where it changes colour is it?

Love your work by the way

Cheers
Shaun

[Patrick Hastings]

ford hallam, on Oct 8 2007, 11:51 PM, said:

Hi Shaun,

I think Patrick may be on the road to a show now so be unable to reply, busy boy!, now that he's got a family to provide for .

but yes, the leaf you are refering to is made up of two dissimilar alloys soldered together before being inlaid.

cheers, Ford

Not until next week!
patrick

[Shaun]

Thanks Ford, thanks Patrick,
The work done by you both leaves me spellbound, it is amazing to say the least.
One more query on the leaf though, if the back or the leaf is one piece how did you get the gold sections into the leaf?

Cheers
Shaun

[Shaun]

Thanks Ford,
Mate is there a book that you would recomend on doing this kind of inlaying, carving, and so on that would help get me started?

Cheers
Shaun

[wunderlich]

Hi Shaun,

take a look into this one:

Oppi Untracht- Jewelery Concepts

and when you may have a look into the TCP- metalwork section you will find a thread on japanese metalworking references. For some you may learn Japanese.

Karl

[Shaun]

ford hallam, on Oct 9 2007, 10:41 PM, said:

Shaun,

yes, the book Karl mentioned has some basic stuff although it is not really too detailed nor expert. I've had a helluva time over the last 4 months trying to get my own web-site on-line but the annimations I wanted to include have been a bit of a headache. Anyway, point is, I will have a few new detailed tutorials on the basics similar to the couple I've posted here on tcp. I'm seeing a professional outfit on friday to salvage what we've put together so far so with a bit of luck and a tail wind I'm hoping to have this all available by the end of the month.

cheers, Ford

Hi Ford,
Thats ok mate I've been down that path too, I hope it all comes together the way you want it to and by the sounds of it it's exactly what I'm looking for

As for the book I was hoping for something more inline with the japanese fittings and that style of work.

Cheers
Shaun