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My understanding, as per this site, is that aside from a star stamp any stamp, perform none more so the seki, indicates non-traditional in some manner. This means either: 1. not tamahagne 2. Not hand forged 3. Not water tempered (oil quench) Any one or combo warranted a stamp to prevent buyers from being mislead into paying a gendaito price from a showato. Regards

This thread is useless without pics. Of the possum, not the sword/cousin.

Jason, its not the stamp so much as the documented way in which they were made. I believe mass-produced machine made from railway steel. Again, very nice swords that I understand were the preferred choice for martial arts cutting when real nihonto were too precious. Well made and historically well documented military usage. http://www.h4.dion.ne.jp/~t-ohmura/gunto_114.htm No info on the seller, other than list many items that seem real enough. Regards

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... NA:US:1123 I have heard they are good cutters, but wow, cheaper to get real nihonto at this rate. Regards

Muki, Intended equates to skill in being able to reproduce the desired effect. Unintended is the opposite. Maybe lucky, maybe the opposite, but if not a desired/predicted outcome then it shows a lack of skill, even if its a good thing for a given blade. Regards

Eric, I am liking this thing more and more. All those mekugi! And such a cute little rabbit. Very cool. best regards.

Sounds fun. I dabble a bit in the making of stock blades, getting into heat treating and all that with a recent coal forge acquisition, and the fast realization its not large enough for my wak. ;( So much to learn and that darned day job always interrupting. Best of luck. Regards

Interesting. I have heard a good polisher will burnish such that hada can still be seen in the Shinogi-ji. Never have seen that much activity however. Regards

I'm not aware of there even being orange tassels. Is the concern that this is repro or a dye job? If repro it was a scary good job. Regards

Looks red/brown to me. A bit faded perhaps. Regards

Good advice from Rich. Might try a test with a matchbook cover (or similar) to get a guage on the thickness; the cover should be about .025', BTW. I have a loose tsuba on a gunto mount and decided to get some extra seppas to "fix" it. Mine only has two, and I have seen some with many so seemed the natural think to do. They were quite thin (from Fred Lhoman), but I found even with one the handle would no longer line up and the saya lock no longer worked. Odd it could be loose and yet such a tight tolerance. I think the issue with mine is lateral as opposed to front/back play; I effectively tried to eliminate by clamping it down with the tsuka, which clearly is not the way to go. Was thinking perhaps make a copper shim (from a waterpipe coupling) as it can be later removed with no marks, but as its not used for iaido I only notice the rattle when applying uchiko to the blade, which I ought not to that often anyway. Regards

Bumping this thread to say thanks to Clive for the great work. One of the few places with details on the Nio school, which I have taken a recent interest in. Regards

That is an ugly nakago. I think it time to take the red pill. PS> In case the idiom does not make sense: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redpill

I recently had a go at this myself on an old nthk paper with success thanks to the help here. It includes a ppt with e-kanji that can be pasted into search engines etc: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=8910 I also found the below useful as it shows some nthk paper translations. Mine was so old that none matched exactly, hence much added fun: http://home.earthlink.net/~steinrl/origami.htm Regards

Mine arrived today as well. Brought some light to rainy so-cal. Regards .

Jason, the "small mune" comment I believe relates to the low mune-machi seen on some of the page 2 pics. I do believe that a low machi can be a general sign of tiredness and repeated polishing. The before pic does not show the nakago area so hard to say what this polisher started with. Steel cannot be put back on, of course. Perhaps others can comment as to what generally happens when a sword has a low machi but is otherwise OK? I doubt you would want to alter the nakago to put one back, so seems you must live with it. As best I can tell Jason's has no core steel showing and the hamon does not run off the ha so seems serviceable as both art and weapon. Possible it has seen its last polish but I'm no expert and slept at home last night. Regards

David, welcome to the forum. You are getting good advice. Meanwhile, check out below for some good info on care: http://www.nbthk-ab.org/Etiquette.htm I wish my grandfather was so endowed. Regards

The before pic hurts my eyes. I think it looks nice. What is that white band near the mune in # 4? Seems high for utsuri. Regards PS> Have you mentioned the details on period/school/smith yet? Edit, was not aware of muneyaki. Thanks.

Jason, that first pic seems quite nice. Sorry I cant advise on better pics as I have same problem. Thanks for posting.

Interesting thread. I guess only the owner can put finger prints on it. And, is that a tachi? He displays as such. On a related note, anyone catch auction kings last night? They auctioned a samurai sword for over 4k. I think owner wanted 2.5k. The expert glossed over the mei. Looked real to me but seemed a bit high. The buyer was proud he owned signed art. Hope its not gimei.

I should have mentioned I'm on xp. I can confirm the linked .zip has more than a few .jpegs that should be easy to use in any os with a slide-show style screen saver function. To include way too long in the tooth redhat fedora core 3 Linux server. And, you can add your own. Who wants pics of their kids and last year's vacation when you can see Japanese steel! Regards

But, not clear how to extract the pics from the .scr file. You could always amass your own pics and have a custom show. Having said that, and because of this thread, I am now running the nihonto screen saver and like it. Not sure how many pics are included and therefore what feat to recreate on your own. Some nice eye candy in there though. Regards

Ford, thanks for posting. Truly inspirational. Best regards

Need pics of the blade, to include tip and complete tang. No stamp may mean: 1. Traditional (dubious for this example) 2. Non-traditional made before stamping started 3) Non traditional, had a stamp that was removed 4. A Chinese fake (afraid may be the case here as the nakago/tang does seem crude) Only better pics can differentiate.

Piers, thanks again for the confirm/tips. Edit: Having mulled more I believe that Reinhard's point was more to the effect of the shinsa judge being a bit too "generous" in naming the better known/revered Suwo rather than Choshu province for this smith. If so what is the motivation given its a Shinteisho (low level) rating? Why go half way? I only have one shinsa under my belt but cannot say why the judge would have done me any such favor. Again if the judge is out to defraud why not issue a better paper? [end edit] Reinhard, I think I follow and appreciate your candor. I have no doubts its a work by a mediocre smith, hence the reason I could afford it. The real question is should I execute my initial plan to have it polished? But that's best left to a new thread. I'm happy if its from Kanbun era and not gimei, meaning it was made by a "Kiyoshige" of some type. I understand the shodai (of the choshu Nio's) was rated the better (of the 6-8 smiths), and in theory this could be his or the nidai's work based on the era stated. The shodai was also known for "quality horimono" as per below. Whether he was just riding the coat tails of the real Nio school's fame I cannot say. Frankly, there is not much info to be found on the Nio school period, genuine or usurper, so either way it seems a minor school. Most of what (I think I know) came from Clive Sinclaire's site; I pray he takes no offense to an in line posting here: http://www.to-ken.com/swordregister/no60.htm Choshu province (or Nagato) is not one normally associated with great sword production, although the tsuba makers of Hagi, the capital city of the province, were renowned. During the koto period, the main school was that of Sa Yasuyoshi who went to Choshu from Chikuzen province. In shinto times, the Nio group moved to Choshu from neighbouring Suo Province and became known as the Choshu Nio. It is probable that they were invited and patronised by the Mori clan to service their swordmaking requirements. As for the naginata under discussion, it was made by a member of the Kiyoshige group, the founder of which, Hachisaemonjo. Fujishiro lists Kiyoshige as Chujosaku and states that he was a good carver of horimono and may have come from Yamato province, but I believe he is referring to the sandai. As with this naginata, the works of this smith are said to resemble late Mino Seki work, although his better works resemble Naoe Shizu (Kaneuji). There appear to be seven generations named Kiyoshige all signing in the manner of this naginata and sometimes including the name of Hagi. They worked from the middle shinto period (about 1660 – 1st generation) up to the end of the shinshinto period. It seems that they may have a close connection with the previously mentioned Nio school as Kiyoshige was a common name of the Nio and the character for Nio was certainly included in the mei of the nidai, at least. However, it is thought that the present naginata is by a later generation, maybe the sixth or seventh, dating from Bakamatsu period (the mid-19th century).