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Geraint

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Everything posted by Geraint

  1. I'm guessing this one, https://nihontoantiques.com/ Yes? All the best.
  2. Hi Henry. Welcome to NMB! Others here are much better at this than I am but so far I think your sword is signed 'Okada Kanesada saku', which means made by Okada Kanesada. Do you see any signs of smaller stamped marks anywhere on the nakago, sorry, the tang? The sword is in Shingunto mounts and was made and carried during WWII. Feel free to ask any more questions and to post some more photographs. All the best from another Celt.
  3. Dear Paz. Just to clarify, the description that accompanies the sword is, "Shape : Wide and thick Katana with deep Sori, longer Kissaki. The blade is nice shape. Jigane : Itame Hada well grained with Jinbe attach. visible to see the texture. Hamon : Nie Deki, Gunome midare with thick Nioikuchi and many Ashi to the Kissaki. In the Ha, there are Sunagashi and Kinsuji from the Monouchi part. Boshi is Midarekomi style". (Excuse the profusion of capital letters, I copied and pasted the original!) This would not be a description of a Showato but it might describe a Gendai blade. All the best.
  4. Dear Paz. These are long odds! Basically you are hoping to buy a sword by a well regarded maker from a very experienced dealer in Japan, without papers and with his express opinion that it is not genuine, and indeed his educated guess as to who might have made it. Yes? Then you are asking us to hazard a guess to support your endeavour. If you want to find out have a look at what a papered Kiyondo katana would fetch and then think how easy it would be for Tsuruta san to submit this for papers and how much he would make if it passed. It's a nice sword and if you like it buy it, but buy it as what it is being sold as. All the best.
  5. Dear Paz. As regards shinsa standards this might help. http://nihontocraft.com/2015_NBTHK_Nionto_Tosogu_Shinsa_Standards.html Also if you have not already found it or bought the book this might be useful, https://studyingjapaneseswords.com/ The author is a member here. Of course in the 80 odd years of the Shinshinto period there would have been opportunity for someone to have suriage done on a sword from the same period but there are many reasons why you might find them. Some years ago there was an exhibition in London with a catalogue called, "The Beauty of Shinsakuto", while not specifically your period of interest there were several swords which were utsushi mono, copies of earlier msterpieces. Some of these were copied complete with suriage nakago and multiple mekugi ana. These were not meant to deceive of course, but in the Shinshinto period the same is possible. Add to that the possibility of passing off a Shinshinto sword as something older and more valuable by removing the nakago with the mei... I'm sure there are many other reasons as well. All the best.
  6. Dear Alex. No guesses regarding papers but the top row, extreme right represents wakamizu, the first drawing of the well water at the NewYear. All the best. .
  7. Dear Ron. The only question is why did you pick it up? All the best.
  8. DearJack. Welcome to NMB. I am sure many people will offer suggestions but just for starters here are a couple. First off, information, https://www.shibuiswords.com/ Lots of good stuff here but as you will quickly see there are few if any rules in play and it is hard to understand just who made a tsuba without a lot of practice. Of course signed ones help and there are many for sale which have papers which attribute them to a school or indeed a maker. If you go to the Nihonto Info tab at the top of the page and then to Links you wil find a ready stock of usefull resources. Check out the For Sale section here and have a look at a couple of websites such as, https://www.japaneseswordbooksandtsuba.com/store/Tsuba-&-Kodogu and http://www.nihonto.us/ As I said, many more to choose from in the links. Enjoy the journey! All the best. Geraint
  9. Wow Chris. Instant collection. Off the bat the second one, wakizashi or tanto in civil mounts is signed Uda Kunimitsu. Good find! The first one looks interesting, possibly Shinshinto and obviously the other is a Shingunto but with the nicer pierced tsuba. Edit: For the first one try Bushu Fujiwara Sadashige, not too sure about the Sada kanji but someone will correct we soon. I think the date is in Bunkyu which is 1861 to 1864. If you can get all the shots more like the Shingunto, i.e. vertical with point up that would help. A lot depends on the condition of the blades so overall shots with habaki removed will help. Well, actually photos of everything, just cause we are curious. Lovely to have three swords to explore. All the best.
  10. Dear MArk. I think you did the right thing. All the best.
  11. Dear Dow. Given the type of sword it is most unlikely to be gimei. Why do you think it is? All the best.
  12. Dear Wes. Welcome to NMB. The other side of the tang should have the swordsmith's signature on it, can we see that one please? Also full picture of the bare blade and the mounts. So far we have an early blade in WWII mounts judging from the tsuba. Looking forward to seeing more. All the best.
  13. If I remember aright there ws an article in one of the Bushido magazines about a jumonji yari that Robert Benson owned and polished himself, I'll check it out later. All the best.
  14. Dear Simon. As has been said it is a Japanese tanto, the saya is nice and the rest of the mounts are OK. As long as it's not being sold with an eye to the big name and it's cheap enough then why not? As has been said the mei is probably more of a tribute than anything, I have a Shinshinto tanto that is signed Ryokai and clearly has nothing to do with that school. We don't know how much you are thinking of paying which might change a lot of things. If you are thinking of starting to collect then, if nothing else, you can use it as a marker for how your knowledge is progressing. Let us know what you decide. All the best.
  15. Dear Howard. I wish I could get yari like that to follow me home! It's a beauty, of course it needs a polish now that you know who made it............ All the best.
  16. Dear Andrew. Well it is a Japanese sword though these pictures don't allow much more to be said. If you are not sure then the katana/wakizashi question is simple, if the nagasa, length from the tip to the notch on the back of the blade where hte habaki sits, is 30cms/12" to 60cms/24" then it's a wakizashi, longer tan that and it is a katana. Fittings look to be OK but the kodzuka looks quite nice, shame that it is actually one that has been repurposed as a table knife and then again to fit the koshirae. Look at the point where the kodzuka and the blade meet and you will see a rivet. Really can't see enough from these images to tell if there are problems with the blade other than that it is out of polish. If you are buying this from someone who knows what they are talking about, (as opposed to someone who thinks they know), then maybe, but don't pay too much for this, you will either be in for some serious restoration costs or you will have to be content with leaving it as it is. Oh, and someone else has already asked for a translation in that section of NMB. Hope this helps. All the best.
  17. If the nagasa is now 35.6 cms then even when first made it would only have been about 40cms, so we are looking at a shinogi zukuri wakizashi of about 40cms. Might just fit with Oei? Doesn't mean it's not a nice blade and after all you would not be buying the sellers opinions on this one. All the best.
  18. Well I wouldn't call it a fail, after all you have an attractive koshirae and as I said, displayed alongside the blade in shirasaya it should look great. Oh, and at that price you did well. All the best.
  19. Dear Marcus. Welcome to NMB and the fascinating world of Nihonto! Now to get the ball rolling. First of all it is a real Japanese sword and as it has no mei it can't be gimei. Bear in mind that it is hard to tell very much from photographs and that your sword is not in polish, (don't attempt to do anything to it yourself in the way of cleaning, just a wipe with some light oil). You might compare with this one, just to see the difference between a proper Japanese polish and your sword, https://www.aoijapan.com/wakizashiizumo-kami-fujiwara-yoshitake-first-generationnbthk-tokubetsu-hozon-token/ Click on the photographs to enlarge them. If your photo of the boshi is clear then it is very narrow which suggests that the tip, kissaki, has been reshaped quite a bit. It is a sugu boshi which, in combination with the midare hamon, suggest Shinto as a period. There is no yokote as a result of the poor polish. Most of your photos appear to show that the tang, nakago, is o suriage, in other words all of the original nakago has been removed. I'm a bit puzzled by the look of the nakago mune, the back edge, so hold that thought. I wouldn't get hung up on drilled/punched nakago ana as a point, have a close look and see if you can see any sign of yasurime, decorative file marks. If none then probably o suriage. Assuming what I have said is correct then what you have is a shortened Shinto sword in koshirae, mounts. Having the blade properly restored is almost certainly not worth it so study it for what you can see, read some books and compare with your sword, enjoy it for what it is and start saving for the next one. Feel free to keep asking questions. All te best.
  20. Steve, if you click on Chris' profile the others are there. Chris, for some reason your other swords show in your profile but not posted. For best results try again with a new post for each sword. All the best.
  21. I will admit to not having tried the hot needle test but there are two broad classes of plastic, thermoplastic and thermoset plastic. The former softens with heat and would fail the needle test, the later, once formed will not soften with heat and hence would pass it. Once you add inert fillers as suggested then we are left with the limited benefit that if it fails the needle test then it's not one type of plastic. All the best.
  22. Dear John. Assembly numbers are used to make sure that the same parts all fit the blade when the sword is made. These are not generally mass produced in the sense of interchangeable parts so the small shop where this was assembled stamped the number into all the bits so that once they fitted they stayed with that sword. If Naval Shore Patrol then there would be fouled anchor engravings at the end of the scabbard and the back strap of the hilt. Here is one of those. Note the straigter hilt, the absence of the shaped scabbard throat and the lack of side ears on the back strap. Also yours has acrew at the end of the pommel, Naval swords of this type generally have a flower shaped head here. Others will add to this but Police might be the answer. All the best.
  23. On the plus side Adam, it doesn't need to fit. Just display the koshirae and the blade in shirasaya with it. All the best.
  24. Geraint

    Onin or Heianjo?

    Dear Curran. Thank you for your thoughts, I'll keep studying. And thank you Luca for posting your tsuba and those photographs. All the best.
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