Geraint

Dear Bob. Yamashiro Kaneiye. A reference example here, https://www.shibuisw....com/ELkaneiye6.html All the best..

Dear Tyler. While you are working things out it is important that you don't clean anything, some light oil on the blade is all. The tsuba looks very nice and this was once a nicely mounted sword. Go slow on this one. All the best.

Goodness, Steve, a Tankgewehr! What a beast! All the best.

Aaahh! You know when you are moving up an echelon in your collecting life when you can say that you are buying a better type of rust! All the best.

Dear Ryan. As this is in the 'Translation' section I was anticipating some kanji but I don't see any. Post in the 'Nihonto' section for more opinions. Any help that anyone is able to give/suggest will come from overall pictures of the blade and kissaki. Colour is always difficult to judge from images but given that some areas of the nakago appear quite clean while others are deeply rusted I would guess that the nakago has experienced rust damage as opposed to developing a good patina and that this is a heavily shortened sword. The shape of the nakago also suggests this to me but that might be rust damage to the edges. All the best.

Dear David. Check reply in the Translation section. All the best.

Dear David. Have a look here, https://www.bonhams....615-1868-dated-1862/ This seems to be the same smith so, the nakago on yours does not seem to be suriage to my eye, possibly machi okuri though I may have missed the photograph that shows the machi in your posts. Tachi mei is credible for this smith and given the period then it is perfectly likely that this was always intended to be the sword it is now and therefore not ever a nagamaki. Bear in mind that Shinshinto often copied shortened Nambokucho swords and that would account for the sugata, in other words it may have been an attempt to copy the sugata of what was an original nagamaki. Hope that helps. All the best.

Dear Jake. For once in a very long while I find myself disagreeing with Jean. If this is a yoroidoshi then it's for poking people from a long way off! I think this blade was made as a shikomezue and therefore is post Haitorei, As such I wouldn't invest too much in the mei which is likely to be at best an honorific. This is one of the nicest blades of its type I have come across, true shobu zukuri. All the best.

Dear Max. Things to look for: Reproduction tsuba with poor surface finish, odd assortment of seppa, almost always in pairs so an even number and of the same shape and material on an original koshirae, fuchi cast in one piece - genuine fuchi usually have a different metal base soldered in, hilt binding as already eloquently described above. The blade I think is Japanese and it has a quite nice habaki that may be silver foiled. The signature is questionable but the way the nakago has been treated is a disaster, destroying not only patina but also details of the signature. The same buffoon, (pun intended) also sanded up the blade destroying the sugata. My guess would be that someone had a blade with a saya and threw together the other bits, gave it a good old scrub and stuck it in the auction. For an understanding of how the nakago should look see the sword that Piers linked to, for other details see posts from Grey and William. Hope this is a start for you. All the best.

Chandler, that's a really good plan you have and well done for your study so far. All the best.

Dear Anthony. Please forgive me for making some assumptions but here goes. You might do better to check the original website here, https://kyodaioriginals.nl/shop/ If you are interested then negotiating with the seller might do you a better deal than via an auction platform. However, your comment, ' Looks great for that old', suggests that you are perhaps not too familiar with this field and maybe don't recognise that this sword will have been skilfully re polished by an experienced Japanese restorer and fitted with in shira saya, which is how Japanese swords are maintained and collected. The sayagaki by a well known expert is a nice addition. Your question mark after the phrase 'unsigned' also suggests that you might not know that tachi from this period are almost always shortened by moving the tang up the blade, you can't shorten from the tip because you lose the hardened edge in the boshi. Thus a great many tachi lose their signatures in this way and the seller has elected to call it a katana because of this. The NBTHK papers are a well regarded way to confirm the original maker. (As an aside, and nothing to do with the sword itself, I am always a little hesitant about those who sprinkle capital letters throughout their item descriptions as if they somehow add weight to the statements.) Once again please forgive me if I have made too many assumptions but if you are considering this kind of outlay it would be as well to be informed. All the best.

Dear Evan. Welcome to NMB. Here is a comparison example for you. https://world.seiyud...m/product/tu-060320/ All the best/

Dear Jerry. As John has said but to answer your question the name of the tsuba type is a shitogi tsuba. Look up under that name or efu no tachi as John suggests. All the best.

Dear Sean Welcome to NMB! Nice find. While I understand the back story this sword has very little to do with WWII. Because of the condition it is hard to tell very much but this looks like a naginata naoshi blade, i.e. one that has been converted from a naginata into a wakizashi. This would have happened before the war and the blade itself might be some hundreds of years old. It's had a hard life and someone has attempted a re wrap rather badly. Rule 1: Nothing more than a gentle rub for the blade with a cloth and some light oil. It does look as though someone has attempted restoration and they might have done something to the blade but you might be able to find a hamon in there and it would be interesting to see what it does near the kissaki or point. I think the tsuba has had the same 'restoration'. Depending on where you are it would be good to show this to one of the members in hand. All the best.

For the second look up 'Chinese trousse' . All the best.

Dear Tanner. Welcome to NMB! What you have is indeed a Japanese tanto, albeit in a Malaysian kris scabbard. The tang seems to have been shortened and the blade shows some wear from previous polishes so 1700s to 1800s is as good a guess as any. It is in rather sad condition but please do nothing more than wipe the blade with a soft cloth and some light machine oil. Others will be along to add to this in a while. All the best.

Dear Drew. That's a relief. So, tsuka/hilt out of proportion with the sword, fittings are poor quality and have sloppy gilding over silver which is not seen, habaki/blade collar has a stamped number, something only seen on a particular type of NCO sword, also the habaki is poorly shaped, hilt binding only overlaps in one direction whereas it should alternate, also the knot to finish the binding near the kabutogane is wrong. scabbard has two suspension mounts, sometimes encountered but very unusual for a Shingunto, blade geometry is poor, particularly the very ugly kissaki/point which should be well shaped and have clear lines, metal is a badly pattern welded job with acid etching to reveal. Here is a fairly standard Shingunto to compare, http://www.firearmsc...th=59&product_id=226 There are many others available and if the bug has bitten then some reading here will be of interest. http://ohmura-study.net/906.html I've linked to the page which details mounts so that comparisons are easy but there is a whole host more. Any questions directly related to military swords will get a better response if you post them in the Military Swords section of NMB. Hoper some of that helps and welcome to NMB. All the best.

Dear Drew. Yep, that sure is an old blade! Made maybe more than a week ago in China! Run. Run and hide. Edit to add: Drew, it occurs to me that you might already have bought this, in which case if you would like some of the pointers as to why it is a recent fake then do please ask. All the best.

Dear Khalid. So what you are looking at is a Showato, by no means is this an ancestral blade so that's that out of the window. That is either misinformation or sales pitch. Missing ito, same and menuki, easily done but at a cost, and do we assume that it has a saya? As Ed suggests not a lot more can be said from these photographs other than the blade appears to be in reasonable condition. Let us know how this turns out for you. All the best.

With regard to the idea of removing such an amount of metal the best technique to remove a mei relies on the way in which mei are cut, i.e. the punch used displaces metal rather than removing it. A skilful removal of the mei would be done by pushing metal back into the mei to obscure it rather than filing the whole nakago down to depth and hence inducing the situation that Piers relates. As is always the case the restoration that you can spot is the one done badly. All the best.

Detailed account of Ian's experience with that armour is pinned as the third thread in this Katchu section if you are interested. All the best.

Dear Ozdamri. Very hard to say much from small images of just one side, do you have photographs of the backs and the mouths? They look good so far. All the best.

Dear George. As each sword is different the chances of 'finding ' a tsuka and koshirae to fit are very, very slim. Each is hand made to fit the specific blade. Should you wish to find some fittings and commission someone to make a koshirae then this is likely to be an expensive project for this little one. Shirasaya would be a good bet in this case, they can be made with an integral wooden habaki. All the best.

Dear George. From your pictures I think the original shape has been altered but from the tang end. Forgive me if I state what is obvious to you but from your questions I am assuming that perhaps you don't know that shortening of Japanese blades is done from the tang/nakago precisely to preserve the hardened edge in the tip/boshi, which is what I think you are referring to. As Jean suggest the nakago looks long, too long. I think the machi have been moved and the nakago reshaped. Have a look at some tanto on line and you will see what I mean, I think just less than a 50p piece has been lost and you can see where the nakago swells at that point. All the best.

Dear All. The clue about the tsuba, in auctioneer speak, is the phrase, 'together with', which always implies something additional. Even at the starting bid the total inclusive of fees would be £3600, perhaps they are getting carried away by the presence of papers? All the best.