ROKUJURO

I obviously missed the competition: Who can make the ugliest sword blade?

....waiting for the right photos. NAKAGO shown tip-upwards, no HABAKI, light from the side, images cut-out so very little background is showing. This background is fine.

Always tip-upwards of course, and presented as cut-out, if you can! The important parts to see are the MACHI - the little notches where the cutting edge/MUNE begin.

Hi Jens, this may well be an authentic blade. The rather straight blade reminds me of KANBUN era (early EDO JIDAI). To me, it looks as if someone tried to erase the MEI, which was X MITSU before. A picture of the (vertical) NAKAGO without HABAKI (dark background, light from the side) would help further, I hope.

Jason, that looks like REISHO character (Sino-Japanese script) to me.

Michael, welcome on board of the NMB! How far have you come with your translation? And are you looking at the sword or at this photo where the smith's name is not visible because of the reflections? Take a better photo on a dark background and with the light coming from the side. The mounts are no help in identifying the blade.

Looks like a souvenir item to me. I cannot imagine it in a collection or museum.

For other beginning collectors: A damaged TSUBA may be cheap, but it is never a bargain! In most cases, there is a good reason why an item is offered cheaply. E-Bay does not make presents!

Jake, if you watch Ford's video carefully, you will understand how iron TSUBA were made. There is no "mold" involved, and no stamping or casting at all. When the TSUBA blank has been forged, the shape is cut out, and the design is carefully chiseled and filed.

See how traditional iron TSUBA of the SAMURAI era were actually made:

Pierre, the light on the NAKAGO is not enough to show a MEI - it may be my old eyes but I can't see anything. By the way, it is TOKUBETSU ( (特別 )

It was perhaps a YARI in its former life.

Yes, may be iron, but it has a greenish hue on my screen, so I was not sure. Can be tested with a magnet. If you don't have a magnet, you can make a melting test. Iron melts at 1.538°C. If the TSUBA melts considerably below that, it is possibly SHIBUICHI.

Yes, it is a TSUBA. If the colour is showing correctly on my screen, the material may be SHIBUICHI, a copper/silver alloy. The seven fans are arranged in a way to look like petals. Age is probably 19th century.

Very nice!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7z9pkQnz_0 Don't know if this has been shown before.

The German AI text is incredibly flawed.

I think the decoration was meant to be $, but to make the work easier, they left the vertical strokes out.

It is not a good photo to reveal everything. It would be much better to photograph it straight from above, not at an angle, to get every detail in good focus. However, I think all that has been written above is correct. But to make you feel a bit better I can tell you that from 100 random SOTEN signed TSUBA lying on a table in front of you, ALL may be fakes! Authenticated and genuine SOTEN TSUBA are very sought after and fetch high prices on the market. This was even so in the past, which explains why there are so many fakes. They are easy to spot for experts as good iron TSUBA from the SAMURAI era were never cast. Your TSUBA looks quite crude in execution, so that is just the opposite of how good SOTEN TSUBA look like.

Just found this on YouTube:

Hi Iryna, the NAKAGO (tang) photos are upside-down which makes reading more difficult. We also have a TRANSLATION section where the experts are. In my opinion, this is a WWII blade, signed KANEUJI. The date is difficult to read, but there is a SHOWAS stamp up on the NAKAGO which confirms that it is a machine-made, wartime blade. It looks as if someone has wire-brushed the rust off the NAKAGO which is always a very bad idea, but in this case, not much value was destroyed. Also, the metal mounting parts look polished which should NEVER be done!

THe photo is good, but as Steve says, there is only little information in it. One thing that could explain the spot would be an attempt to erase a tiny corrosion spot or some discoloration with a fine stone, but that is speculation only. It is certainly not caused by a chemical solvent.

Yes for the blade! The KOSHIRAE may be high-end but is not to my taste.

So KENCHO is KANENAGA?

Marsel, the first photo is upside-down. The shape looks Japanese but there is too much corrosion to say more. But please do not "clean" or grind it, leave this to an expert!