my first good sword was a kanesada-11th, I like that sword a lot, so now I got another kanesada but this is a much older sword but is signed the same as the 11th sword, is there some way to tell the age of this sword?
murata-to were used in the 1890s useing oil temper,Murata Tsuneyoshi (1838-1921) started oil quenching, but it was ww2 that saw wide use of oil quenching,
showa stamps were put into serevice because the "experts" could not tell the swords made from foreign steel from traditonal made swords, but they have been useing foreign steel in Japan for a few hundred years- with no showa stamps to let everyone know,........ but if they are old they must be good