Brian

Definitely a real Japanese sword, hand forged and antique. Adding spurious signatures is a tradition going back many hundreds of years, it is very very common. There are various reasons, you can read about them in the FAQ above the forum.

I think that's the most "heart" likes I've seen on a post. Guess that indicates exactly how gorgeous this blade is. Congrats!

Condition is faaar from bad. Minimal rust (get some oil on that blade) and a visible hamon. Enough to enjoy as is, until someone wants to spring for a proper polish if it warrants it. Where in the US are you, so we can see if there is someone near who can give an opinion?

All of them. Different angles and light falling on it shows different features. You start with 1 usually.

Whether gimei or not, swords in these mounts have considerable interest, and it is definitely worth looking after and having checked out. I would see if I can take it to one of the various US sword shows, and get some eyes on it. I would expect this predates WW2 quite a bit.

Also suspect Chinese. Never seen that sort of gold wave-work on a blade.

Wonder where @Bugyotsuji has been?

You can work it out from this pic...there is only one way it can go in that shows the part you are seeing. It moves only 2-4mm I expect.

Agreed. Otherwise new collectors come here and take these posts as gospel. You remember how adamant Darcy was about disputing every case where uchiko was advocated, to make sure people didn't think it was encouraged.

Your spring goes here.

Not really following you. The pics I posted are the same as your mechanism. The coil spring goes where they show it, on the square shaft. Your circled sear fits in like you can see in the pic, acts as the release. The tail hook goes into one of the holes....looks like yours has multiple to set the tension differently. The spring for the sear is shown on your pic. Looks like the trigger moves the bar forward and backwards just a fraction to release the sear.

Not directly related, but an interesting thread for anyone repairing one. https://www.muzzlelo...ma-matchlock.162819/

Found online..

It's a wartime arsenal blade. So whether it's worth buying or not depends on whether you're collecting wartime militaria or handmade swords, and the price. Can't say much about the fittings. They aren't military, so either swapped out, or civilian mounted. Can't even tell if that tsuba is Japanese or not, need more pics.

Can't put it together in my head easily, but I suspect in hand I would be able to assemble it quickly. I think the circled part goes in edge-on....in other words, 90 degrees to the way we see it now. May be that way up, or it may be upside down. The curved part would be the part that the back of the match holder bears against when cocking, and the projection would lock into the notch on the match holder. The spring for that part is riveted to the plate, the circular spring is for the match holder. Hard to explain, and only a theory. But all looks workable.

You just don't give up, do you? You make up some fantasy crap theory, and then you just get more and more ludicrous in trying to validate it. Who is to say? Well....US. You know, the leading English discussion group on the subject in the world with members including Japanese experts and others from over 32 countries. Yes..US. Don't you even consider the fact that there isn't a single person here agreeing with your made up theory? "This person has hit rock bottom....and has now started to dig"

Quality is good. Although I'm not qualified to say, I think it has a chance of being shoshin. Also this is a fairly unusual case of it actually being made as a menuki first, not just being a menuki-style ornament.

Worse kind of obvious Chinese fake. Just a minute researching fake Japanese swords would show these as the most common type. Try and get your money back.

Ford loved to rip a silly theory to pieces. He would have made short work of this.

There are 2 schools of polishing. Fujishiro and Hon-nami (which has various schools within it) I think it's possible that certain polishers specialize in either hadori or sashikomi. Perhaps @Andrew Ickeringill can share some light on this?

I really wish Ford was still around. Sigh.

There's about 2100 emails I wasn't able to harvest....and many of them would be in divisions unrelated to this case...so I have no idea if it will reach anyone relevant, but worth a try. If 1 or 2 are real people with influence, it can start some progress. The idea is to make it inconvenient for them, enough to have someone actually investigate. Most times parcels are just misplaced or lose their tracking info, rather than actual theft.

Bombard them with emails. Find their Facebook page, and post the story there and be angry but polite! Warn people against using their service. Find them on Twitter...post about it, and tag them. Spend time online and find employee emails, and send one email to everyone in disgust. All of the above I have successfully used when dealing with companies, and usually come right eventually. A few emails I would try, cc all of them. Many may ignore you, or they bounce back. But those who don't bounce back, you know they were delivered to someone, and you keep those emails in the communication. instance-recours.laposte@laposte.fr colissimo.ewe@laposte.fr Florian.Leclercq@laposte.fr jgras@laposte.fr Gregory.Proust@laposte.fr info@laposte.fr martine.varieras@laposte.fr caio.inbox@laposte.net Romain.Lefebvre@laposte.fr berengere.brochenin@laposte.fr angela.alcindor@laposte.fr nicole.abenhaim@laposte.fr sophie.durieux@laposte.fr catherine.fournaise@laposte.fr juliette.lenci@laposte.fr sophie.gonzalez@laposte.fr ali.bouarnane@laposte.fr morgane.quentel@laposte.fr alexandra.mauraisin@laposte.fr olivier.bombe@laposte.fr frederic.crocq@laposte.fr gwenna.mottais@laposte.fr sylvain.quelo@laposte.fr philippe.pacom@laposte.fr yvan.serrano@laposte.fr jerome.batailler@laposte.fr nathalie.joly@laposte.fr didier.dulac@laposte.fr severine.paris@laposte.fr

The NMB Paypal account says you are actually quite a good source of spare change Wish we had a lot more old couches here on the forum, although we do manage to have some great old furniture here

Not going to delete the above comments, I should. But let's consider the personal stuff done and dusted please.