Ed Harbulak

You can buy wood shavings in a pet store and the leaves I think Brian mention are common horse tail leaves. I'm not sure of their scientific name, but they tend to grow in slightly damp soil, at least that's where I found some. I'd let them dry a little before using them.

Electrolysis can be used in two ways. It can be used to remove rust, but then the metal that turned to rust is gone forever and as Brian mentioned the blade will be left with fine pits. Alternatively, if very low currents are used, the rust (iron oxide) can be reduced back to elemental iron, BUT, it will not look like the original blade in that the blade will not have any detail. In addition, it's a VERY slow process and not worth the effort. Unfortunately there are no shortcuts.

Unfortunately, the signature is gimei. The kanji for zen of hizen is wrong for the school. The shape of the blade looks like kanbun era which would definitely eliminate the first generation. Otherwise, it looks like a nice blade

Hi Henry, I once had a Yoroi-doshi tanto that had a nagasa of 6.47 inches or 16.4 cm. The moto kasane was 0.340 inches or 8.6 cm. It was signed Omi (no) Kami TsuguHira Tsukuru. The mei did not appear to be that of the first two members of this family, but the workmanship of the nakago certainly matched that of this family of smiths. I was never able to find a match for the mei and assumed the blade was signed by a later generation. So, yes, shorter yoroi-doshi tanto do exist.

The second character of the signature, zen of Hi-zen, is written the correct Japanese way, but the entire Tadayoshi family of sword smiths wrote that zen character slightly differently. Compare the second character of the signature on your blade with an authentic example of a Tadayoshi signature. In addition, the entire signature looks very crudely written and very angular, again compare with a genuine signature and you will see the difference. Other than the signature, it's a very nice looking authentic Japanese sword and a fine first blade for your collection.

The tsuba is signed Kuni Hiro. I'm not a tusba collector, but the signature in this case doesn't impress me but others may give you a better answer.

Although black buffalo horn is quite common for kurikata, I've also seen cow horn used for kurikata, nakago jiri and saya jiri. To me your kuikata looks like cow or oxen horn. I don't think I've ever seen Bakelite used on sword parts and certainly not on older mounts before Bakelite was invented.

The first character looks like Nao to me, so maybe NaoMichi

The NTHK worksheet ATTRIBUTES the blade to Takada Moritsugu, they don't say it's signed Takada Moritsugu. They do mention there is another inscription, but that isn't translated. With so many questions, I'd certainly think twice before spending money to get it polished, just my opinion. The two characters on the nakago might be Moritsugu in script writing and if indeed they are,that would explain why the worksheet indicates the mei is Moritsugu. Then perhaps the attribution gives more details as to which Moritsugu. Still lots of questions. The nakago does look ubu and machi ocuri , but then the question becomes did Moritsugu sign in script with two characters? Still, the blade is papered by the NTHK.

Lithium grease is great for it's intended purpose, but why would you even think of putting grease on a sword blade unless you want to make a real sticky mess of the inside of the saya. Choji works fine or if you are really, really worried use a very light machine oil of the type used for sewing machines. But even then, it only requires the thinnest film of oil to protect the blade.

In the above photo of the mune, is that a mitsu mune we are looking at?

Welcome John to NMB. It would help considerably if you could provide a photograph of the entire blade without the habaki and with the point at the top of the picture. The habaki looks like a two piece habaki, but you only have half of it. Measurements of the blade would also be very helpful. Otherwise, the blade is in good polish and appears to be O-suriage. I'm sure others will provide more insight.

I'm not so sure it's a fake, the mei is signed Awa no Kami, Fujiwara Yasu? Tsuna?. But the nakago has certainly been mutilated and I don't see any yasuri. Needs further investigation in my opinion.

It's hard to tell from the poor pictures, but it looks like the tip or the blade might be missing. Might just be the lighting, but without more and definitely better pictures, it's a big gamble.

If the machi was moved up a little bit, then it would be easier to use the old tsuka and drill a new hole in the nakago. Or if a new thinner tsuba was used a new hole in the nakago would be needed. There are lots of possibilities, including making a blade look older than it really is.