cfm15

Thanks Brian

Thanks Jean Is it worth anything?

Was it at least made in Japan ? If so about what time?

Looks like core steel showing through to me? Chris

I've forged a lot of blades and it doesn't look like it ,especially the ones on the tip where the hamon almost disappears.

How do you explain the grain openings?

enlarged pic of the nakago

Gunto I was thinking that also, did they make some of those in the traditional way , soft core outer hard layer? The grain openings are like i've seen on blades that I know were nihonto.

My dad found this in a thrift store in AZ a few years ago and I was wondering if anyone could tell me more about it. I took the best pics I could,the hamon goes all the way to the tip but is very thin for the last 10 mm or so and there looks like a grain opening close to the hamon towards the last third of the blade that I tried to show in the close ups. Also there seems to be one very near the tip on both sides. Is this a real nihonto?

If I ran across something like this I would reforge it into a nice little tanto and call it good as a use for a unique piece of historical steel .I think the original maker would be alright with that. Chris

i would pay $19 for the steel also,I would fold it a few times and forge a smaller blade .I always wanted to try some tamahagane. Chris

Even after wiping the blade there will still be a protective coating,you don't want to have any excess oil hanging out in the saya. Chris

Thank you for the sword porn. It gives me motivation to go out to the shop and do the yaki-ire on the tanto I finished forging last week.

number 5 for sure Chris

"Listening -- is not waiting to talk" Exactly Thank you Christopher Makin

Once again you all miss the intent since you are so rapped up in your superiority of knowledge and have to hide behind a locked thread.I have studied just about everthing related to nihonto and not completely without mentors, including many forums related to the subject. As well I forge tanto in the traditional manner and strive to perfection in this art. Ebay does not enter the picture for me ,I would not buy Nihonto from that venue. I have in the past purchased one nihonto wak from a reliable source ,Nothing notable but a real koto blade. I never said that tanto was a great blade or valuable,but still to be venerated as something quite old and vauable in itself.

I have been studying nihonto with a focus on Tanto for 14Yrs. You miss my point. This is the most persnickity forum I have ever been on.

Well you are certainly entitled to your opinion it's all subjective anyway.

Whatever you end up doing I really like that blade it has some age to it and some smith thought it was good enough to give it a second life with that horimono Chris

I am lucky they have almost all of those movies at my public library.

Way too funny,I'm sure he placed very high on standardised testing.

Slag is a glass like material that is a by product of the smelting of metallic ores.

Surely it was some form of adhesive since it could not be product of the forging process unless of course they mixed some scale into the glue like substance. Nothing mysterious or magical here.

] I have been forging blades of all types as well as pot racks and such for 20 odd years and I assure you nothing is formed when you quench forged steel.The scale comes from heating the blade to the proper temp for forging then oxidising.If it comes in contact with water at this point it tends to blow off and you will see Japanese smiths dip their hammer in water often while forging a blade,scale is bad because if not removed it gets pounded into the blade and causes pits that are hard to remove.

JB weld ,a popular two part epoxy glue has a sort of metalic look to it.I'm thinking the gunk was something like that. No idea what 70's style fittings could possibly mean unless they were made of plastic.