Is gold or suasa 'better'?

Shakethetrees · 30th December 2015, 06:23 AM

Is there any authoritative information available giving the composition of suassa?

I suspect it is a somewhat variable mix that was determined by availability, local tradition, or even the smith's personal composition.

There seems to be a good deal of color variation.

Alloys have always fascinated me, especially the ones that go against the Western tradition of maintaining a certain gold or silver standard.

What comes to mind are the many Japanese alloys developed for sword mount furniture, where minuscule amounts of precious metals were mixed with copper and other metals and treated with various chemicals achieving colors unavailable to traditional western metalwork.

This is something that should be studied.

30th December 2015, 06:23 AM	#1
Shakethetrees Member Join Date: Apr 2014 Location: Louisiana Posts: 363	Is there any authoritative information available giving the composition of suassa? I suspect it is a somewhat variable mix that was determined by availability, local tradition, or even the smith's personal composition. There seems to be a good deal of color variation. Alloys have always fascinated me, especially the ones that go against the Western tradition of maintaining a certain gold or silver standard. What comes to mind are the many Japanese alloys developed for sword mount furniture, where minuscule amounts of precious metals were mixed with copper and other metals and treated with various chemicals achieving colors unavailable to traditional western metalwork. This is something that should be studied.