Making a Tsuba

Let me start by saying that this is a quick, easy and practical approach to making a tsuba, using a mix of traditional and modern tools and materials. This is one way that I make tsuba and I encourage all reading this to explore other tutorials, methods and techniques to help expand your knowledge. This is only a tiny peek into the enormous world of crafting fittings for Japanese swords. It will hopefully be a fun project for beginners. This tutorial is intended for making a tsuba for production level swords.

There are many options for nearly every material, tool and technique I will show you and price for these things vary quite a bit but what I’m using here is on the lower cost end.

What you will need

Metal of choice:

I like to use different metals depending on the project and look I’m going for but for this tutorial, I’m using a standard mild carbon steel. I usually buy it online pre-cut and approximately 1/8″ thick by 3″ x 12″, if available. Sizes may vary depending on the vendor but I feel the minimum width and height for katana tsuba is about 3″ so I stay close to that. Thickness also varies and I’ve used thinner and thicker pieces but prefer steel to be about 1/8″.

I don’t know the exact composition or purity of the pieces I buy but I haven’t really had any issues with using them so far. I think the last time I bought some, they were around $4 a piece, including shipping. Many sellers are happy to cut them into individual pieces upon request. Something like this.

If you’re going with a metal like copper and especially when it’s thick, you might want to experiment with different blades sizes and blade lubes because it has a different feel and “personality” than steel. Each metal has had a notable difference for me but so far only small adjustments were necessary to adapt.

Jewelers saw and blades:

There are saws around $15 – $20 that come with a supply of assorted size blades and then there are saws that could be $200 and up and also many that are in between. I’m using one that cost me about $15 a few years ago that included a gross of blades and free shipping. I’ve since replaced the blades it came with and usually stick to brands that cost about $5 a gross. I tend to use 2/0 – 4/0 blades most of the time but feel free to experiment with the different sizes to see what you’re most comfortable with. Make sure you have at least 10-12 blades for a basic tsuba, you’ll likely use less but better to have extra than not enough. Here is a standard package deal.

And here’s one with a bench pin included.

Blade lube:

You will need some type of lubricant while cutting with your blades. I’ve used machine oil with good results but I like beeswax better because it’s less messy. Any household tool or sewing machine oil should be fine. Bee’s wax

Glue:

You will need some type of glue to adhere the template we will use to the piece of metal. I like using a two part epoxy that I always have on hand but any strong, quick drying glue should be fine. I don’t recommend cyanoacrylates since they can become hard and brittle and crystalline in some cases. You want it to be strong enough so the paper won’t start to lift while cutting.

Files and sandpaper:

You’ll need something to refine the shaping and smooth the edges once you’ve finished cutting the tsuba. I use a mix of standard and needle files as well as sandpaper and steel wool. All the files I use for projects like these are store brand or generic and are the lowest cost options. I have purchased several needle files for about $8 – $12 a set, sometimes cheaper. If you continue to advance in this craft, you may choose to upgrade some of your tools but for this basic project, the cheap ones do just fine. I use an assortment of sandpaper and steel wool that I always keep on hand. Here is a standard affordable needle file set.

Eye protection:
You will be using tiny breakable blades and will be blowing metal dust around so good eye protection is a must. You can get a pair of safety glasses for a few dollars. Here’s a good style.

Additional optional tools:
small hammer
pliers
clamps
dremel and bits
metal punch
stencils
electro-etching kit
muriatic acid
baking soda

Step One – Designing your tsuba and template

The first step of making a tsuba is thinking of an idea for shape and design. Plain and round might be a good place to start. For this tutorial I used a basic mokko shape template I already had but the shape you choose shouldn’t make a difference for this project. Most commercial katana tsuba are around 3″ diameter, the design I’m using is about 2 3/4″ wide by 3″ high.

You can freehand sketch a tsuba shape or trace one you have on hand or if it’s round, simply use a compass or a round object that’s the same size. You can even design the shape digitally and print it out to scale or print it from online stencils/templates. You can also copy my template and print it out to scale. For many utilitarian or rustic tsuba styles, these shapes did not have to be perfect and can even look better when they’re not, so don’t stress over this part.

Once you have the tsuba shape picked out and drawn, find the center and make a mark. We’re going to add a nakago-ana, which is a cut out in a shape that is often described as the silhouette of a Perrier bottle. Again, this shape doesn’t have to be perfect at this level. It’s approximately 27mm high by 6mm wide but can vary widely depending on your needs or preferences.

Center this shape on the mark you made. The purpose of this shape is to provide an empty space for the sword’s nakago to pass through. For most tsuba made of steel, you would want the space to be wider and taller than the actual nakago, as to prevent the tsuba from making contact with the nakago and possibly damaging it. In this tutorial I will be showing you how to add sekigane, which will be added to this bottle shape we just made.

Addition of sekigane:

Technically, you can just use the nakago-ana alone to make a tight friction fit to the sword without adding sekigane. If you want to do it this way, just skip the next part and make your nakago-ana opening as close to the actual dimensions of your nakago as possible, a bit smaller is better. Final fitment will be done when you are actually mounting it to the blade.

Sekigane are metal bits that are added to the steel tsuba and act as a buffer between the nakago and hard steel tsuba. They are softer and less damaging than steel, typically made of copper. Sekigane are also often used to allow the tsuba a more customizable fit. They will be friction/compression fit into spaces in the top and bottom of the nakago ana.

If using sekigane, you want to add some cut outs to the bottle shape for them to fit into. We’ll be cutting a couple of mm above and below the nakago-ana’s top and and bottom as well as on the sides. Shapes of sekigane cut outs can vary a lot and can even become part of the aesthetics of the tsuba. I’m using a combo of shapes just to add variety, I’m going with a round top and rectangular bottom. Add whatever shapes you want to the drawing of the nakago-ana. There should be at least a few millimeters of copper between the nakago and tsuba when the final notches have been cut.

For the bottom sekigane in my template, I will start with a cut out for a piece of copper approximately 11mm wide by 4mm high. I position it so the bottom of the bottle shape is about halfway in the top of the rectangle. I then draw a circle approximately 6mm diameter at the top of the bottle so the tip is about halfway in the bottom of the circle.

My template also features an indication of where the seppa will be positioned. You can add this to your drawing as a reference but it’s not necessary. It can help when planning other design features on the tsuba, such as the hitsu-ana and etched design I will be adding to mine. You can simply place a standard seppa on your drawing and trace it, keeping about the same distance from top and bottom and sides of the tsuba.

Go ahead and add hitsu-ana or other cut out shapes to your drawing if you’ll be using them. Adding this bean shaped kozuka hitsu-ana is completely optional. Unless your mount will include the actual utility pieces these hitsu-ana are cut for, exact positioning and placement won’t matter too much. Studying other tsuba with these cut outs will give you a better idea of what’s available.

Once your tsuba design is done and you’re satisfied, I would recommend making a copy of it to keep on file and to use as the actual template. I have several different shapes of tsuba I keep on file to use as templates or for quick reference or to add to or change as needed.

Step Two – Cleaning the surface of the steel plate

I use sandpaper, scotch pads and steel wool to clean the surface of the steel plate. I’m only going to be adding the template to one side so I only clean one side now. Make sure it’s flat and clear of any rust, dirt or grease. I wouldn’t worry too much about every little marking and surface blemish at this point, it only has to be clean and smooth enough for the template to adhere securely.

Step Three – Applying the template

Spread the glue on the surface of the cleaned steel plate as thinly as possible. Cut out and apply your paper template and smooth out across the surface. Let it fully dry.
You might want to use a thicker paper or different glue or different color ink, whatever allows you to see the shapes you’ve drawn more easily.

I’m using a self printed paper template for this project but you can transfer design elements in a number of different ways, including making a separate template out of thin metal to use to trace the shapes on or use carbon transfer sheets or etching sheets or even free hand scribing directly onto the tsuba. I think the way I’m showing you is one of the easier ways to get started but feel free to change this up.

Step Four – Cutting the main shape

Place a new blade in the saw, teeth facing out and down. Apply wax or oil to the blade. Secure the steel plate on a table or bench pin with clamps or fingers or even in a vice. Find a good light source, put on your safety glasses and begin cutting. Depending on how the pieces of steel were cut at the factory, there might be a very hard edge that will be difficult to cut through. If this happens, I use a file to remove the outer layer, until the blade can get a good bite.

Keep the saw vertical and aligned and use slow and steady strokes while following the line as closely as possible. If in doubt remove a little less material than needed, in this case cut outside the line instead of on it, and you can refine it later on with a file. Filing to shape generally takes longer than cutting so don’t leave too much extra work for yourself. The more you practice, the more precise and efficient your cuts will become.

Each blade will only last so long so make sure you have plenty of blades on hand before beginning a project like this. You can kind of start to feel when the blade is going to give out since the resistance will change when the teeth become dulled and the metal blade starts to fatigue. If you’re sawing too quickly and your fingers are in the path of the blade, you can wind up with a broken piece of blade in your fingers. So again, go slowly and stay in control and try not to have your hand that’s holding it be anywhere near the blade while cutting. Let the blade do the work, a lot of pressure isn’t necessary and can cause you to break more blades.

When a blade breaks or stops cutting, replace it the same way as before. Also reapply wax or lube to the blade as often as needed throughout the cutting process, especially when turning corners.

Step Five – Drill pilot holes

Now that you’ve cut the outer shape, it’s time to drill some pilot holes through the steel and cut out the inner shapes. I use affordable generic carbide drill bits, 1/16″ diameter or so. Ideally a drill press would be used but I often just use my portable drill/driver. You could even use a hand powered drill if that’s what you have.

Mark where the holes will go, drill slowly, use lubricant and have some backup bits in case they break. Usually, one hole per cut out shape is all that’s needed but larger shapes might be better with more than one pilot hole.

Mild steel is fairly easy to cut and drill through but depending on the composition and possible foreign bits, welds, etc., it could be more difficult. The thicker the piece, the more time it will take and you would probably be better off using a press at that point. Other metals can cut and drill differently. Thick copper can be be quite difficult to cut and drill so you might need different tools and methods with materials like that.

Step Six – Cutting out the shapes

Load a new blade in the saw, teeth facing out and down, starting with securing the bottom of the blade. Then feed the top of the blade through the hole you drilled in the tsuba, bottom first so that the template is right side up and visible when cutting. Then secure the top of blade into handle and tighten the remaining retention screw so there’s a little tension in the blade but not too much.

Apply lube or wax to the blade and place the steel plate on a secure surface. I use a bench pin but it’s not necessary for this project. You can also secure it in a vice if you prefer. You can hold it down with your fingers or use clamps.

Start cutting. Use smooth strokes while keeping the saw blade vertical and aligned. It will probably take a while to get used to cutting with this saw but it’s not that difficult to get decent results the first time out on a basic project like this if you’re patient. Like with any craft, the more you do it, the better you’ll get and more precise your work will become.

If in doubt, removing less material with the saw might be better since you can always go back and remove more with files, provided the space is big enough for files to fit. Otherwise, final sizing and shaping can be fine tuned with files. Do the best you can with the saw but remember that it’s not the only way to get final shaping.

Step Seven – File the edges

Now that the inner shapes are cut out, go ahead and start filing all raw edges, outer and inner. Use larger files for the outer rim and smaller ones for inner edges and finer details. There are many options at this point for how you shape the edges. You can keep the edges fairly squared, like I’m doing in this example or you could round them to whatever degree you like or you can add a raised rim if that suits you better. You can leave it in a rough finish or you can go full out and polish it to a mirror shine. I’m going with a medium finish.

The finish of the inside walls of the nakago-ana doesn’t have to be perfect since it will not be seen when mounted, I just give it a once over pass with a file to remove the sharp edge. I give more effort in finishing the hitsu-ana cut out.

If using sekigane, you will want to add a slight chamfering to the edges of the cut outs you made for them on both sides of the tsuba. I use a dremel tool with a thin cylindrical bit but you can also use a needle file. These sloped edges will give the copper pieces something to lock over later on.

Step Eight – Clean up the surfaces

Again, there are many options as far as how you finish the surfaces of your tsuba. You can do a multi-step polishing to achieve a mirror shine or you could add surface texture or make it look beat up with randomly placed marks or anything else you like. You don’t even have to add a patina to the tsuba if you don’t want to but if you will, the surface should at least be cleaned of any dirt, ink, glue or anything else that would prevent the patina process from working. I like to give it a soak in acid for a little while before I decide what to do. This softens the look of the surface and cleans off most dirt and debris.

I put a little muriatic acid in a plastic container and lower the tsuba in gently with a copper hook. I leave it in there overnight and when I remove it, the paper template basically falls right off. Many of the deeper scratch lines and marks are removed or at least lessened. I will now prep for the next part of my tsuba creation, including giving the surfaces a few passes with fine sandpaper or steel wool.

Muriatic acid or any other type of acid is not necessary to complete this process, you can skip this part completely and use only sandpaper or other polishing tools or equipment that you feel comfortable with.

You can get muriatic acid from most big lot hardware stores or pool supply shops. Obviously be very careful when using muriatic acid, it’s not as bad as molecular acid alien blood but it isn’t completely safe either! I use a mask and eye protection when dealing with it and always make sure to wash the workpiece thoroughly and neutralize the acid afterward. Avoid getting any acid on your skin or in your eyes and don’t breathe in the fumes. I neutralize the acid by applying a paste made of water and baking soda to the tsuba after I rinse and clean it with soapy water.

Step Nine – Adding sekigane

For the sekigane, you need some copper as thick as or thicker than the tsuba. Applying a masking medium to the surface of the copper helps show markings much better, I use standard generic blue writing ink applied with a brush. I also have lots of scrap pieces to choose from, many already including the mask from previous projects. You can buy copper pieces online, like this.

I place the tsuba on top of the piece of copper, with the masked side up, so the opening for the sekigane is right over the copper. I then use a marking tool to mark the outline onto the surface of the copper. I do this for the rectangular shape at the bottom and the round shape at the top.
Next you cut the copper pieces out using the jewelers saw. I hold onto the small scraps with pliers while cutting. You then use files to fit the copper pieces into their respective slots. The fit should be very tight, so go slowly, and you shouldn’t be able to place them in with just your fingers.

When you have an almost too tight fit, use a small hammer to tap the pieces in, one at a time or if you have some type of metal press you can use that too. Do this on top of a very solid surface, an anvil being ideal. It might need some force to get them all the way in. You will probably see the copper deform as you hammer it in, hopefully filling over the chamfered edges on one side. Once the pieces are in tightly, try to force excess copper on the other side to fill over the chamfered edges there as well. I use a metal punch and hammer while the tsuba is on a solid surface so I don’t accidentally knock the piece back out.

The final fit should be extremely tight and shouldn’t move, even with pressure from either side. They should be stable enough for later on when you will cut and file the opening for the nakago and fit it to the sword. These sekigane can be removed in the future so you can add new ones if putting the tsuba on a different sword.

You can clean up the sekigane a bit at this point and make sure that the copper doesn’t have any high spots that would prevent a flush fit of the seppa. I use sandpaper and a block to do this. The neatness or messiness of this part is up to you, once mounted this area won’t be seen but if you prefer, you can spend all the time and energy you want making it as beautiful as you can.

Step Ten – Adding another design element

For this example, I will show you how to add an electro etched design element to the tsuba surface. This is a fairly easy process if you’ve got the equipment. If not, this is a completely optional part so feel free to skip it. If you don’t want to add an etched design, you can instead add another form of cut out, called sukashi. It can be any shape or design you’re capable of doing. Or, you can simply leave things where they are and move on to the next steps.

I like to use vinyl stencil applications to do my etching with but any ink or substance that will stand up to salt water can be used as a mask. I simply cut out my stencil and apply it with it’s self adhesive backing to the chosen and cleaned spot on the tsuba surface. I make sure the seppa won’t interfere with the placement. According to the rules of tsuba design, a good place for a single design element is on the right side of the tsuba omote, the side that faces the tsuka.

Once the stencil is firmly in place, I attach the positive end of the etching kit to the anode (tsuba) and negative to the cathode (q-tip saturated with salt water) and begin etching, I change the tip when it gets thick with black. After about 5-10 minutes of etching, the design is deep enough in the metal and I can stop. I remove the stencil, clean up the surface a bit and it’s done. There are plenty of electro etching tutorials and lots of info on the net, you should have no problem learning how to do this easily and quickly. This is a good etching tutorial.

Electro etching isn’t a traditional tsuba making process but I like it because it allows another level of detail and decoration I can use in lieu of carving with chisels. It’s easy and fun and it’s limited to only what stencils and masks you can create.

Step Eleven – Adding any final touches before patina

So before the tsuba is ready for patina, this is your last chance to add any other details you would like on either side. More cut outs, more etching or more surface texturing can be done at this point. I added a touch of some different texturing just to show it here. Normally, I would choose a texture theme and fully commit to it but for the sake of time, I just added a tiny sprinkle. Again, you can go to town on it and add some great visual features if you like. A good way to add texture to the surface is by using assorted punches with different designs on the tip. I make my own by carving into the ends of standard metal punches with files or dremel. You can also buy punches with textured patterns already included.

Once this final step is done, it’s ready for final cleaning and patina. I’m not going to do that in this tutorial since I already have a couple of patina tutorials already up. Please refer to them to finish your tsuba project.

You’re done! You’ve just finished making your own handmade functional tsuba and can now go ahead and mount it to your sword or leave it for display. This was a quick and easy version and obviously is a million miles away from some of the masterpieces that have been made throughout history. I hope this sparks an interest in this craft and you go on to learn more advanced methods and make more beautiful tsuba. Enjoy!

I’m in the process of giving my tsuba a patina, the splotchiness will smooth out with further applications and refinement. I’m using an off the shelf metal patina formula for steel and just followed product directions. When I’m finished with the patina, I will give the tsuba a coat of microcrystalline wax to help preserve the color and finish.