KizuKazu

Hi guys, This is a nice piece but either very old so that the mei has worn down to be unreadeable, or expertly done to look that way. Either way, it's a very good piece. It's in standard gunto koshirae but the Japanese officer ripped his family mon off. I get Bizen Iye something (Toshi) then Mi Something, something, something that looks like Mitsu but has a strong vertical stroke in the middle above the horizontal stroke so can't be Mitsu. The date next to it must be an annecdotal day that something was done to the sword to be on the omote with the mei but I get Gen or Ten but nothing of the second kanji. There is Bonji and crude kanji all over the place. I can't read that. There is Kazu as usually found in Kamakura Ichimonji Bizen swords but that is a little hopefull. The work does look like Kamakura Bizen or a very good copy of. The wear of the mei on the omote looks genuine. The original mekugi ana is the top one. The lower one lines up for the shin gunto koshirae with silver to tightening the mekugi. This blade looks like it has been polished once. There is almost no narrowing of the blade from nakago to polished blade proper. It looks like something that has been kept in the family for a very long time and not been used, like a family heirloom that was given to a son the family never expected to see again, hence the removed mon. But it's easy to get carried away with "Whoa, maybe...". It's an odd length of 22 1/4". I know that some of the kanji are too worn down for anybody to read but I'm hoping that "Bizen Iye ? Mi ? ?" might mean something to someone. Thanks guys.

Thanks guys. A panel shop I guess. Makes my skin crawl to think of the association but I'll outline the case and quiz them on the pitfalls. As I said, I don't think this is a pro job, as even having had a chrome-plated blade, I didn't recognise it as being such. The finished product is anything but shiny so hopefully that's the result of not preparing the blade properly. What are these people thinking? I find old Kamakura swords in almost perfect condition from other Vet's. I just found a sword with gaku mei and kanji all over both sides and the mune of the nakago, in full civillian mounts with family mon on all kodugu, tsuba and the perfect original urushi saya under the leather combat cover. It was hitatsuta and looked shinshinto but the most perfect, intact and well-preserved piece I have ever found from a Vet. I've had pieces in such condition that came from Japan as souveniers from occupying forces but not from the field. The old vet, a wonderful gentleman who personally received it from the Japanese officer turned out to be a distant relative. Then his son stated that he wanted the sword. Damn. The sword of the original posting is a heafty Nakano Kazunori. He won 1st seat at the 1941 Exhibition. Thanks guys. KK

I have a katana by one of the best Gendai kaji but some fool has chrome-plated it. It was not an obvious plating. I don't think the plating stuck as it should have, it looked more like fine spider rust, as I have had another fine katana by a top smith with horimono that had also been chome-plated but that was obvious. It was "all shiny and new" looking. Uggh. It was polished out in Japan. Unfortunely, it wore down some very fine horimono during the process, more I believe than would have been neccessary in a polish had it not been chrome-plated. I was recently told by another collector that chrome-plating may be chemically removed without disturbing the underlying polish. He was going to get back to me with the chemicals to use but never did. He is a seasoned collector and knows his stuff. Does anybody know how I may remove chrome using the correct chemicals? I have searched the Web, discovered a range of different suggestions but nothing I would be confident to try on a good blade. Appreciate any help. KK