[Luca Gallo]

Hi everybody,
Lorenzo Amati suggested me to take a look to this forum and I must say I'm amazed because of the huge amount of useful information I can find here! I can say I finally found my place!
I'm Italian, I'm 39 yo and I share with Lorenzo the passion for japanese blades and, in general for japanese arts and crafts.
I have a discrete collection of blades that are mostly naked or in shirasaya so, one day, I decided to make a koshirae for each one of them and this addressed me to the study of woodworking, laquering and, of course, metalsmithing. I collected information on books and on the internet, I purchased tools and materials and two years ago, I started testing my abilities with such kind of crafts. Now I feel quite satisfied of my skills but I have to learn many further techniques....the carving path and you all will surely help me growing in this field.
I want to submit to the community some picture of my works so to have opinions and suggestions
here's some fitting I'm working on for a tachi koshirae: an Ishizukikanamono (scabbard point) and a ashi (scabbard belt suspender) both are made of copper, I will apply a patina it to the ishizukikanamono in order to have the same dark finish of the ashi.




this is a gilded copper habaki for a kogatana



this is a double habaki for a tanto made of blackened copper (with liver of sulfur) and silver sides decorated in the cat-scratch pattern



I'm into kumihimo too, this is a takoashi sageo for a tanto made in shigeuchi style



Well I hope you enjoy my works and I wait for your suggestions!

[Mike Ruslander]

Very Nice.
What do you achieve your copper patina with?

[Luca Gallo]

Mike Ruslander, on Jan 14 2008, 02:49 PM, said:

Very Nice.
What do you achieve your copper patina with?

Hi Mike, it depends on the color I want to achieve. I use a commercial patina available in art shops in Italy called "patina nera" (black patina) that gives to the copper a black/brown finish but I discovered that if I use such patina in a stainless steel pot the color turns to a deep grey similar to the one that can be achieved on shibuichi;
Another chemical I use is liver of sulfur for browns and ferro cloride for a leathery orange.
I will soon test some rokusho I purchased in Japan during a recent trip

[Luca Gallo]

ford hallam, on Jan 14 2008, 03:28 PM, said:

Hello Luca,

and welcome to the club. Another "follower of the chisel", excellent . I'm sure you'll find lots of support and encouragement here. From what I can see from the images you've posted you have nice way with metal. You have obviously studied the original work well and have managed to capture some of that tidiness and delicacy. Your habaki in particular. So many non-japanese made ones are simply far too bulky and awkward. Yours has a fine proportion....as I'd expect from Italian design

Namaste, Ford

Hi Ford, thank you for the appreciating my works and for the encouragement. I have some nice original kodogu and habaki in my collection and actually they are the base of my works as I always spend many time observing originals in order to understand the techniques they are made by and to try to catch their aestethics

[Leon]

"you have nice way with metal"

Coming from Ford I would frame it and hang it above my bed!!

(of course I agree)

[Amati Lorenzo]

here you are my friend