Stephen

please click on the link and let me know if it come up ok. http://home.earthlink.net/%7Esteinrl/kanji/zodiac.htm its working on Rich's end but not mine ...all i get is some code

heres a nice wak to go in the fittings if you don t have a sword with them nice blade at a fare price. http://www.nihontoantiques.com/fss157.htm

a few hits on Doc Stiens site. http://search.freefind.com/servlet/free ... y=masayuki

ubu ba, meaning is has only been sharpened once and not all the way down to the hamachi, that's usually found on gendaito I have seen one or two shinshinto with this and have heard of on shinto which made it very valuable, the odds are the Masayuki is gendai-to.

Justen means NEW not fake, really hard to tell with the pix.

Eric knows which is which was not putting him down at all. i have a PM from a new member thats looking for a true Gendaito and was pointing out what to be aware of

i found this link http://home.earthlink.net/~steinrl/promei.htm it show us which Nagamitsu it was, Kawasaki Nagamitsu.

Scaning ebay this AM i ran across a Nagamitsu http://cgi.ebay.com/WW2-Japanese-Samura ... dZViewItem and a Yasumitsu http://cgi.ebay.com/WW2-Japanese-Samura ... dZViewItem Now i am pretty sure the same hand cut the mei for both of these, the caution is that the high bidder will not be getting a true Nagamitsu see Doc Stiens link for Nagamitsu http://home.earthlink.net/~steinrl/naga.htm also adding a quick compare with my Nagamitsu for your reference

uncle Milty may be right but i doubt yours wolud look like a well used kitchen knife. go to the big sellers and see what thier tantos sell for look around take your time its not going anywhere.

alot of good questions that mostly should be answered by your self...id contact Bob Benson @>http://www.bushidojapaneseswords.com/ read his shinsa page then contact him. the two things going for you is its a tanto so that wont cost the max price of a katana polish and your in at a low cost ...cant say for sure about the mei but a full polished Tatno with papers is for the most part going to run well over 2500, id also op for a new tsuka wrap and saya... might a well go the limit would be my thinking.

no not much damage at all a togi can make it right in no time...looks like a nice project.

check the auction again he added more pix showing a intersting hamon with a pro polish this may be..... verrry nice i like!

heres a link for you... lol http://www.framesdirect.com/framesfc/Do ... -pr-l.html the mei has talc added to it to make it stand out not sure how you can say it looks like it was done yesterday....one cant really tell untill its in hand ...correct?

i also have been watching the bidding on this ebay sword...now that its out there and icant sneak in at the last heres some more info on the kato yoshinosuke Jumyo he was a teacher to Kanefusa the 23rd, a well ranked smith. i suppect a sound sword lies within, interesting silver wash on the fittings, i have only seen that a time two at sword shows. Good luck all you snipers on this, dont look like im in on the cheap this time. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... &rd=1&rd=1

the pix still work for me and it is a lovely sword and at that price he got a good deal id say. hard to find a shinto sword for under two K here are some pix i lifted from the auction.

had to get off line and reboot PMs working now thanks for the help B

please email me at h2obro1@aol.com ive sent PM all morning and its not working.

here are some more pix the rim is Uchikaeshi mimi, folded both ways on tsuba 98 and 44 and only one way on 60...sure Rich's can tell us more.

the first link shows the blade here it is again http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... &rd=1&rd=1 The seller is Eric Molinier he puts alot of swords on ebay, usually good quality gunto and a few now and then koto shinto and shinshinto, knowing Eric this is gimei or it would have went to one of is private buyers, then theres that ware.

If I was wanting a blade for cutting id look to a Gunto from the WW 11 maybe one of the Seki smiths ...see link...not a art sword per se (sp) but it was made for the job getting the job done. http://home.att.net/~hofhine/Record.html

on this ....DO NOT USE UCHIKO ....no matter how good ....ON A NEWLY POLISHED BLADE. Trust me it will ruin it and your hard earned money will go out the window.

Moriyama sama i was wondering if the translation they give is correct as i dont find a Masafuso??? http://www.rockislandauction.com/view_i ... iid=193660

we talked about this last week heres the link http://militaria.co.za/nihontomessagebo ... .php?t=459

bamboo

I had a friend who once had his sword dipped and it came out fine.....EXCEPT one thing do not dip it all the way in, it removes the patina on the tang.....and esp on Tsuba he had with the sword....if your going to go the with the removal be sure to have him dip with the tang out of the liquid. One could see the hamon and faint hada...i think he did alot of uchikoing and it turned out like a old blade out of polish, except of the bright nakago which stuck out like sore thumb. I heard years later that it was repatinaed and came out with a ok rank.