roninjje

hind sight is always 20/20. I also bought a Japanese police saber for $35 dollars. My wife liked it because it was shiny. :lol:

the others were western sabers and cutlasses and I didn't know anything about them. $1000 for about twenty. In retrospect...

wow, and the nakago looks the same for the bottom 3/4s. There is no "good" reason to put in hi after the sword has been awarded tokubetsu papers.

so far I understand the consensus to be this is worthy of trying to get papered?

Hi Jean, the hada is itame and the hamon is suguha with many fine ashi pulling down from it. The hamon is very thin, in part due to the tiredness of the blade. I even had the polisher leave one nick in the ha because I thought it might impact the geometry. I have been curious about the nakago ana as well. Perhaps it was mounted in two pin tachi furniture? and then to the single? I agree it was shortened perhaps an 3-4cm but no more.

In the states you can pick up a wwII blade from anywhere from $200 USD for a mass produced crapper to $5000 or more for a gendai in gunto mounts. It just depends. You can fine an older forged blade for $1000 on up (and sometimes less).

Awe Milt, you made me feel bad.

David Hofhine, and I think he did an outstanding job considering the condition.

here are pics in original condition. All told just under $1800. I had to have a new habaki and shirasaya made as well.

Hi all, this is from my collection. A 28.5 in. tachi signed Kunimune. I picked it up for $40 out of a barrel of sabers (wish I had bought the whole barrel :? ) at an antique store that was being sold as part of an estate. Had it polished as it was full of pitting and nicks. Let me know what you think. I believe it is Hokke Kunimune, though I am not sure. Have to get it shinsa'd one of these days.

It certainly looks like nihonto that has been buffed down to remove rust and the geometry was shot, perhaps gimie, but not fake as Peter alleges. As for the tsuba, who knows, but this would certainly be a problem fo any polisher to rectify. The sanbonsuji doesn't look fakes, it just looks tired. I would have someone in the UK take a look. I think you are going to get a bit less than you think. The f/k are nice too.

600? there is an angel on your shoulder. Looks Shinto.

Max he is using the words juyo token in the search stgring so people on ebay go to it. No where in the description does it say it is a juyo token rated blade. I do agree with you, 20k is a bit steep given his no outside pics, no nuthin.

the orange color in the hi is old lacquer. It's real, and tired from the look of the hi.

If it is gendaito the nakago may not have been cleaned. I've seen cleaner on wwII gendaito.

what hamon? :lol:

I have a tsuka ito on a ww2 era tsuka that is dry rotting, any recommendations? other than getting it rewrapped :D

Tadayoshi can be any one of a line of famous Hizen smiths.

Trouble is, I have seen high class swords and furniture broken up. I have see tsuba go one way, f/k go the other, etc. but granted the fittings for this blade were rather ratty (though from what I can tell the tsuba wasn't too bad.) I will be the first to replace a shoddy tsuba with a period one and get rid of the shoddy. I just think the seller, who has the bottom line in mind, should take more prudence in parsing out the pieces (e.g. the habaki) And Max, many of us do have serious activities we dedicate our time to, but this diversion or hobby means something to us as well. And if that lousy wak makes it another 200 yrs in reasonable condition, it just may paper juyo

Max, are you usually this ascerbic? :? The object is to preserve the blade en suite, that's why we're on this site. Sometimes the whole ebay profit thing is not necessarily good.

Hisayuki Shinshinto, Musashi no kuni (Bunsei:1818) Jo saku HIS185 TTp517, ¥3M 1.kawai hisayuki saku 2.bakufu shin kawai hisayuki saku Hisayuki Gendaito, Musashi no kuni (Meiji:1868) Chu-jo saku HIS186 TT: ¥2M I actually have what I believe to be the later Hisayuki (if again you think they are two different individuals) yet it has an identical nakago to the extant example provided in the link. The hada on my blade is incredible, and the sword is virtually flawless. (though it needs a polish to bring out the best in it)

I would say a koto blade, a little tired, in a mishmash of WWII mounts. Need to see more pics of the blade and nakago though.

I would say a little later for that nakago shape, but again, that is not to say when it was shortened it was shaped to reflect the affectation of the time.

Now there is a question worth pondering. I picked up a Horikawa Kunitake in WWII mounts for $700 at a gun show. Had the polish touched up for under $500 (by a reputable US polisher) and I can tell you the blade is worth far more than what I have in it. Same show, different date I picked up a killer shin shinto katana out of polish for under $1000. conversely at the Tampa show I picked up a very nice Yamato diajo Yoshimichi in goto mounts for $3k. None of these are papered. Papers mean little to me as I look for what I like. If I resell a piece I usually sell it for what I have in it to purchase another. Collect what you like! Some of my swords are mumei, some gimei, some sho-shin mei. But you can find swords in the full range. Heck, I even have my eye on one at aoi-arts for $8k (not happening anytime soon!)

gp, You need to post a full length pic of the blade. from the scans the thing looks to be in rough condition, and would require a foundation polish if there is pitting, or worse, cracks, deep chips, etc. Do you have pics of the whole thing?