Geraint

My family and I are deeply shocked by this news. We managed to spend some time with Ford many years ago when he was down this way, a truly great artist craftsman with a thirst for knowledge and understanding. He has left us too soon and will be greatly missed. Our condolences to his family.

Dear Jeremy. Just to back up a little, and forgive me if I over simplify but you did say you knew nothing about the sword. This is a sword in Shingunto mounts designed and carried by officers during WWII. It has a pierced tsuba/guard which is a nice sign as most are not cut through, the mounts are in generally good condition and it has an unusual black lacquered saya. As is often the case it has been fitted with an earlier blade, you know all about the signature. These are often described as familyy blades but that is known not always to have been the case as desperate measures meant that there was a call up for blades to equip officers later in the war. At the base of the blade is the habaki/blade collar which is unusual in being silver foiled and with the marks that Maxime mentioned. Gimei means that the signature is not by the smith that it claims to be. I can't see much detail of the blade and some of the marks suggest that a previous owner may have polished the blade, bad news and please don't clean or polish anything, just a wipe with light oil will do. I see that someone else has replied while I am typing so all of the above may already have been covered. Ah, not all but John's a specialist so his words are to be taken seriously. All the best.

Dear Paris. You may have somewhat missed the point. Finding tsuba labelled as tachi tsuba is not hard but for various reasons these descriptions are not always accurate. Example 1 Clearly the design works the way it is displayed, ie for a katana, so more properly described as tachi shaped. Example 2 Never described as a tachi tsuba, and for good reason. The hitsu ana are clearly original to the design so this would be for a handachi koshirae. Example 3 A recent tsuba of tachi form, most likely for handachi koshirae. Once again more properly described as tachi shaped, Example 4 The most interesting because it is made by tachikanagushi and the question is was it made as it is now or were the ryo hitsu added at a later date. (This site is worth visiting often if you want to learn about tsuba.) Worth noting that tachikanagushi is a group of makers most of whose output comes from the Muromachi period. You may find this thread interesting. All the best.

Dear Paris. When did you see a tachi with kozuka and kogai? All the best.

Dear Eric. For what it's worth I think the idea that this tsuba is cast is a misleading suggestion. There is nothing to suggest this. All the best.

Dear Jean. Just to add to your post and referencing the oshigata provided by Jacques, as I understand it tachi mei is often seen in katana but not usually for wakizashi and tanto. All the best.

Dear Florian. This may not be what you are seeing but have a look at the last line of the description of this tsuba, http://www.nihonto.us/KO KATCHUSHI RM.htm Whatever you are seeing that's a lovely tsuba. All the best.

Dear Francois. You may find the information you seek here, https://shibuiswords.com/papers1.htm and here, https://nihontocraft...hinsa_Standards.html All the best.

Dear Maurice. I shouldn't bother if I were you. From what we have seen so far this is a recent reproduction. It is possible that better pictures may prove otherwise, but................ All the best.

Dear All. Good spot Dale. Jay and Stephen are almost certainly correct about the use of a lost wax process for this tsuba, however the range of metals now used in additive manufacturing is immense at this point, from one reference, Aluminium alloys Cobalt-base alloys Tool steels Nickel-base alloys Stainless steels Titanium alloys Precious metal alloys Copper alloys Processes used include electron beam and laser fusing, though the properties of the finished component need some working out. (I think that this level of processing would be far too expensive to make it worth the effort for this type of tsuba.) It gets more and more interesting as the days go by! All the best.

Dear Sam. Compare here, https://www.ima-usa....riant=40001105690693 All the best

Dear Jackson. The whole koshirae is a reproduction. First question, is the blade anything better? If it is a genuine blade that for some reason has been kitted out in this way then why not shirasaya? For me there is not a lot of point in replacing one reproduction koshirae with another............ Your call, of course. All the best.

Dear Sherif. With just these to go on not a great deal can be said but guessing suggests that the first is gunto mounted but with a civil tsuba so possibly an earlier blade kitted out for the war, the second looks like a civil wakizashi. (This really is a guess but might be signed Sadayuki.) Not sure what Zyn is but using it anywhere near a Japanese sword might be a 'sin', fittings included. You might find it easier to post more images if you resize your photographs. Look forward to seeing some more. All the best.

Dear Ron. This might be a start. https://japanesearts...mission-of-mr-watson You'll need to scroll down to 'hadamono'. All the best.

Chris, another nice example, thank you for sharing it. Stephen, I'm afraid the answer is benign neglect. I see from my notes that I purchased the sword in 2009 and did nothing at all to the tsuba. It did not take anything like that time to recolour, perhaps four years? It has been mounted on the koshirae all this time and kept in a sword bag for much of it. The sword is stored in a fairly dry room in what is a pretty damp part of the world. You can see a slightly weaker patination where the seppa have shielded it. I am sorry to be so vague but having heard the same thing as Colin, ( and probably from the same source), I was expecting this result and thought little of it when it happened, just wanted to show it as an example. All the best.

Dear All. Just thought to share this with you. Some years ago I bought a very nice wakizashi in an attractive issaku koshirae, the sword was fitted with what was described as a polished copper tsuba. Now this tsuba is a good fit to the koshirae but I can't help feeling that it has replaced something rather more special at some time in the koshirae's history. However, on inspection the tsuba turned out to be a san mai construction, two thin plates secured to a copper core with a silver fukurin. I assumed that this might mean the two outer plates were shakudo and time has proved this to be the case. Not the best photographs, we are in the middle of a Cornish summer so it's raining, but you can probably make out the construction and the colour of the shakudo after some time of just leaving it alone. In hand the colour is a lovely raven blue black. The tsuba looks better on the sword and I have replaced the missing, rather small kozuka with a shakudo example to match. All the best.

Dear Jonas. I cannot help you with the signature but the state of the koshirae is not very good. It looks to be lacquer over horn fittings. Nothing wrong with that however; kozuka and kogai are rough replacements of what might have been quite nice examples, the overall condition is now rough with quite a lot of damage and some very unfortunate attempts to restore, viz the shoddy overpaint on the dragonfly kojiri. It might have been quite nice once but now............. Your cash, your call but this will likely be one of those that you stick in the back of a drawer after a day or two. All the best,

Dear Jake. Some of the indicators are: the flattened shape of the tip/kissaki, the poor shape of the tang/nakago, the mei/signatgure is cut rather than chased. the fittings are low quality, the hilt wrap/tsuka ito all crosses one way. If you want to compare with the real thing to get your eye in then have a look at, say here, https://nihontoart.c...th-3x-certification/ All the best.

Thank you Mike, an interesting story. It seems that Mountbatten brought back several swords, at least one is screwed to the wall in Britannia Royal Naval College in Dartmouth, a kaigunto in that case. It would be interesting to track down all his presentations. All the best.

Judging by the size of the nakago ana that first one must be for a nag-inata! Don't worry, I'll show myself out. All the best. (Just to explain the confusion a nag is a slang word for a horse in the UK and tsuba with large holes in them are often described as for naginata. They are always better when you have to explain them!)

Dear RJ. Can we have a first name please? This might be Bishu Osafune Sukesada. If you think this is in good condition then don't buy anything yet. Compare here, https://www.toukenko...&katana_A030320.html and in many other places. The hadori, if it is even that, on the sword you posted is at best amateurish, the shape of the nakago is odd and the boshi needs looking at. Does this sword have papers? If so then let's have a look. Personally I would walk away from this one. No, actually I would run. I see I have been beaten to it. All the best.

Dear Don. If you feel that then start having a look at horimono to compare with this one. Enjoy the journey. All the best.

Ah, I begin to see I think. Descriptions of hamon are not as precise as most sources of information would suggest. For a diagram one might illustrate a consistent hamon shape and some smiths do this very well. Generally speaking hamon are not quite so cooperative and once you move away from identified smiths with distinctive hamon patterns then everything becomes a little more subjective. Have a read of this thread for examples and comments. There is also some interesting stuff here, http://www.ksky.ne.j...sumie99/yakiire.html You might have to follow the links around a bit for this one. A lot of hamon descriptions are 'something or other with....' For example Mino den suguha is often described as suguha with fushi. As to toranba think high waves, the example we are looking at is more swells, so the description is suguha in places with swells, lots of ashi and yo which describes what is going on inside the hamon. Any use? All the best.