blucool

Just picked up this sword and was curious if anyone had any thoughts on age/era or just in general on the piece? Total length of sword including tang is 15.5" and blade is 1.25" across at the widest point, I'm guessing this is a cut down? I put several close-ups of the wild hada which I find most interesting. Thanks for any thoughts or input!

I was actually told the tang was "cleaned" (by the looks of it, with a stiff wire brush) by the former owner, which also messed up the crisp lines of the mei kanji. That being said, I didn't pay too much for it and I am certain that at the very least the hamon/tempering is definitely genuine. Any thoughts on the mei translation?

First of all, I realize these are not the clearest images, unfortunately this is the best I can do for now. Any help on translation for smith or date is greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance! Philip

Any assistance in translating this signature would be greatly appreciated, thanks in advance!

Would it help with translation if I posted a few images of the unsigned tanto itself?

Need some help translating the signature on this gold-foiled habaki. The habaki appears to be the top half of a two piece, and comes off of a mumei tanto that I recently aquired. I will be posting pics of the sword soon but was wondering if anyone could shed some light on this signed piece? The only character that may be unclear on the pic is the 4th, which seems to be a short horizontal line with a dot above it. Thanks in advance for any and all help!

Bad link was not intentional, my apologies if it caused problems for anyone. Thanks for the translation on the mei as well.

Hello, can anybody help me with a translation of the signature here? Purchased the sword at an antique mall and have not had much luck making sense of the mei. Thanks!

I've read that a large percentage of blades crafted during the Showa era were oil quenched as opposed to the traditional water quenching. Is there a way to tell the difference between oil and water quenched blades just by appearance alone? Also, why is an oil quenched sword considered less desirable than a water quenched blade, all other things considered equal. Thanks!

I agree, looks like a nice signature on a junk blade. This is an odd one though, its hard to imagine someone going through the work of chiseling this detailed signature as well as the horimono all for a cheap knock off blade? Any chance the signature/horimono engraving are somehow done by machine? Regardless, still curious to get a translation on the mei if anyone can make sense of it!

Can anyone make heads or tails of this signature? I've never run across anything quite like this.....

Bungo, are you saying it does or does not resemble the hong kong sellers swords?

I can see why the rust might look bogus, at least from the pictures. It actually looks far darker in person, almost like a very dark brown paint. I tried some different lighting and I think this pic below conveys the appearance of the tang relatively well. Here's a close-up in more realistic lighting This picture shows what I believe to be a straight hamon which seems to run the length of the blade. Area where tang meets blade, also can again see a faint hamon

sorry for the duplicate images ....meant to post this one. Thanks.

Very cool, thanks for the insight. Are you saying the characters themselves are upside down or the order of the characters is reversed from the standard? Also, is there any indication as to the age of the blade from the signatures? In any case, here's what little I know on the blade. Bought it yesterday at a local antique shop and was told it was a very recent estate sale purchase and that they didn't know much else about it. I have a couple decent machine made "replica" nihonto so thats really all I have to compare it too. Interestingly, it feels much heavier (but more balanced) than my machine made knock-off blade although they are almost identically sized. I don't know if it matters but I also noticed the hole in the tang looks like it was reamed or chiseled out as opposed to drilled clean. Here are a few more pictures, thanks again for taking the time to reply with any thoughts.