Jamie

Ken, I agree completely. I just arranged to buy an Unpapered sword myself. I am collector. Not a dealer. But that doesn't make what I said before incorrect. It also depends on the level of paper. I'd find it hard to argue though. Do you not agree that given any high quality sword would be worth more with juyo papers than tokobetsu hozon?

I think I see why they might say soshu. It appears there is some tobiyaki towards the tip. The hamon doesn't look soshu to me though. I am no expert nor am I as experienced as mr bell. I do study soshu extensively though. Maybe with nakago photos we'd have better basis for judgement. It's still just difficult from pics though

If there is s sword worth being papered for sale in Japan, But it isn't papered with current papers there might be a reason. Papers make a sword more valuable period. So think about that.

I think it's gimei. It's extremely unlikely to start with. Next look at the work. It has a few attributes that might be considered to fall in line with soshu attributes but if you study old soshu you'll see differences in the hamon. I also don't think the signature looks right. I looked at the work first though. Also it's not mitsu mune. The work in the blade, verifies Mei. Which in this case I feel it does not. Just my .02 and probably worth what you paid for it. I think it would greatly benefit from from just oiling the blade and then removing the oil and re oiling it.

I don't have a link. But a hitatsura Akihiro Tanto was found at a pawn shop a few years ago and bought by someone. The sword was in Tampa,I think two years ago( at the show)It had been sent to Japan for polish. Unfortunately the person who sent it to Japan wasn't familiar with the polishing process and that it takes time. I believe it was said that he had the sword sent back to him and it wasn't polished to the degree that it should have been. There was a lot of talk about it at the show and afterwards here. I'm sure I missed some detail. But it was a known, missing sword. And it was sent back to the us anyway. My apologies, I am not trying derail this thread. Just showing that the myth that Japan will seize swords isn't true.

It won't be seized. That's a myth. A missing Japanese national treasure Akihiro Tanto was sent to, and back from Japan recently. Also Bob Benson has a juyo Chogi for sale on his site. If you don't want to send to Japan right away- you could send it to Bob and have it polished and shirasaya made and then send to Japan - and it would be in shirasaya and the gun to mounts wouldn't matter.

Replica

Judge the work, not the paper. Study quality and then you'll know it when you see it. I think this is why it's important to study good swords. They have attributes that lesser swords just don't have. I personally don't see the hamon running off the blade. Close near the hamachi but not bad in comparison to some of his other blades I've seen.

Don't feel bad man. It happens to many people and you'll learn from it. Just study up before investing more money.

Yari

Grey has many nice tsuba and is a very fair person to deal with. After educating yourself a bit you might check his site. I didn't link it because Stephen did above.

I have a koto Tanto for sale that has a strong soshu leaning to it in the for sale section. It's koto and got 70 points at shinsa.

But denatured alcohol will. Stephen, please know I'm not trying to be argumentative. I just agree with not using uchiko on a nicely polished sword. I scratched a blade using it when I started out. I no longer use it at all on anything in polish.

Yes it's to remove oil. But it is made from polishing stones. Microfiber soaks up oil and there is no need for it. It definitely can easily scratch a blade. Very good illustrations here.

Darcy, Have you considered putting this on Wikipedia also?. It may come up more prevalently when googled if you did that.

Please sign with your name so we may know how to address you. It's at the very least a polished old Japanese sword. Enjoy it for that while you have it. But you might consider getting some books and reading up on the subject. You'll find that you are attracted to certain things, either attributes, or schools. You can make future purchases based on this. Many peoples first sword is some rusty old thing. You can enjoy this one. You might get the conniseurs book and look through it against your blade.

This is a primarily academic website so I certainly should adhere to that. It does help beginners with proper terminology. I am a huge smartass myself, but keep it mostly caged here. No offense taken - it was all In good fun. Mariusz, hopefully you Stephen and I will get to goof off at a show sometime and you'll see what I mean.

You're right, I won't abbreviate the words in the future. My apology.

Not a lot of shinogi zukuri waks in koto though. Always there are exceptions but general rule.

Maribo, It looks this way because it's been cut down. There is a filled in hole at the bottom also which may have been the original hole. (Or was made to look as though it was cut down) The pics aren't good enough to determine much else so I don't have an opinion on the blade itself. The sun is causing way to much reflection in the pics to see any detail.

John To see this your best bet is to look at as many good swords as you can. Try to attend sword shows. I know this doesn't exactly answer your question but it provides a means for you to answer your own.

I have one also made of blue steel.

Nice display!

If you post upright pics that are a little better of the characters you'll have better luck. You might consider posting them directly to the board as many folks won't click on links. I hope this helps. Jamie

That doesn't look like shinae to me. It looks more substantial. But it's hard to say from pics. I think stress cracks. Shinae looks like wrinkles more than cracks IMO.