Francis Gastellu

Thank you Jim, so much to learn and I should probably pace myself a little bit Agreed. For the piece I am working on now, I am combining what I've used in the past with shibuichi 40/60, which I haven't used before. It's one thing to think "light gray" and "dark grey", but it will be interesting to have a piece that actually shows them both in contrast to each other, and to silver. I should be able to do some patination tests this weekend on a number of additional alloys, I'll report my "findings" here. Perhaps this thread can continue to capture more of my notes in the future, a

I had some fun trying to carve a swallowtail butterfly at about 1/7th of its actual size Originally just a practice piece, I'm now looking to inlay this into a larger composition. This is shibuichi 20/80, so should patinate fairly dark. Cheers!

Being fairly new to irogane and rokusho patination, I'm trying to get some understanding of the basic color palette that is available to me when planning a composition. Although I have been able to find some good information here and on other sites, I was hoping that people with more experience could fill in some of the gaps in my understanding (or correct it if it is wrong!). I only have (limited) experience with copper, 20/80 shibuichi, fine silver and 24k gold. My current notes have the following: - Copper will shift color from orange to brown and eventually to red given enough ti

I'm sure someone with more experience could comment, but I've seen these on wood and metal alike. From what I can tell, changing the angle of the file and/or the pressure tends to make those go away, and I my feeling is that this happens when (even a slight) chatter and the angle of the file teeth get together "in phase". Caveat: I don't really know what I'm talking about

I am so glad he did. Both forums are incredible resources, even for people like me who are a little late to the party. Thank you!

Thank you so much Ed! Here's the tsuba mounted on the sword. There are a couple more carved/inlaid elements: For anyone interested in the other aspects of the build, see this thread (in another forum, I hope that's okay to link to). Cheers!

Unless the other three sides all have 1's, it seems to me there really are only winners Love the concept I really like those little carvings!

Thank you both for the very kind words!

Thank you so much for the advice. I have this kind of wheels but did not think about using them that way! I've used bullet point silicone rotary polishers with good results, but it took me some time to accept that using them for this purpose with the rotary tool, even at slow speed, was just asking for trouble

I've recently completed a japanese blade, and I thought I'd share the tsuba (guard) here. It's the first time I do this kind of inlay on that scale. The young vs old bamboo dichotomy symbolizes growth, while the waning and waxing moon stand for the opening and closing chapters of our lives. I spent most of the time on the obverse side with its many inlays, and I made more than a few mistakes. There are still visible signs of my crimes, but I'm (mostly) okay with where I ended up. The reverse side features a simple katakiri carving. It doesn't look like much, bu

Beautiful tools! Thank you for sharing.

Such lovely work, I love the simplicity and the elegance of both the carving and the painting! Thank you so much for sharing the additional photos

This was intriguing enough that I bought myself a copy, perhaps this is the beginning of a new adventure for me, thank you

Oh boy!

This is indeed very sweet! and quite elegant. I am wondering how you attached the cord in the back? It's ok if it is meant to stay hidden!