Dave R

I still acquire fun finds though it gets harder every year, At shows I look under the dealers table, and every so often take a punt online. Most recently two complete East African spears of the type with iron ends and a wooden grip in the centre. Only one other bidder and they didn't realise how valuable these are now. Nicely forged and the heads as sharp as razors... What I had failed to comprehend was the length of the b'ggers when assembled

Buy your microfiber from an optician or a lens supplier, oddly enough they are really hot on the good stuff....

Not so much comparing, as contrasting and explaining why Seki was OK with the stuff. Industrial cementation was done over 7 to 10 days... The knife makers are working on a vastly smaller scale.... but do show the process.

The UK only video shows the industrial production of steel, in the 1930's, and Blister and shear, and double shear steel were still being made, but by the hundredweight not the the pound weight. The rail tracks used by the Seki smiths were made by this very method, and that's why it was a preferred material, and damn good material for a blade it was! I will stick my neck out, and say that it was in no way inferior to tamahagane.

Apparently, some of the US custom knife makers produce small amounts of blister, and double shear steel for their own use..... Which says a lot about its qualities.

Thank you. This is what I was wanting to do.... show how even a cheaper blade was the result of a long chain of serious hard work. Most of the obsolete rail-track used by Seki smiths was made from this "blister steel" which is why it produced a high carbon steel blade with a Hada, and why they had a liking for it.

Quite a few sadly. A lot of US videos are only available in the US, and the same for Japan.

Damn! I shall see if I can hunt up an international one.

This is from a British factory, but I have no doubt at all that you would see the same scenes in Seki. This is what would go into a factory made blade... https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/watch-tool-steel-manufacture-at-the-works-of-edgar-allen-co-ltd-sheffield-1939-online?play-film=

The sword at the start of this thread did not impress me, and had a dodgy vibe to it..... So for a change, I would need convincing that this one is genuine.

As I understand it, Koa Isshin were all or mostly, pre ordered from the factory by the officer purchasing one. So just as a British officer ordering from Wilkinson could, would and did have his sword customised within regulatory limits, so could an IJA officer ordering from Mantetsu Co. or their agents.

I have a dismounted and relic tsuka that looks to have been on an old blade.

There is a series of vid's on You Tube made by a group called "Yuri Gagarin", they excavate Russian Battlefields of WW2. Amongst other stuff they brought one of these up out of a swamp.... along with the remains of the soldier who carried it. Chilling stuff, but absorbing.

"Ethnic" weapons were a bit of an odd collecting area back in the early 70's, and Japanese stuff was considered "Ethnic".... There was in fact a bit of a prejudice against them, and so prices were low. I do remember prices going up tenfold in just one year, and a katana that was priced at £18 would be £180 in just about twelve months. Percussion guns were cheap and despised, flintlocks were collectable, British military swords were stuck in the umbrella stand, foreign swords went into a bucket. I paid £10 for a gold koftgari decorated Indian dagger with Ivory grips. I still have the first Kukri I bought for £1.10 shillings from a small junk-antiques shop called "the exchange and mart"...... Hmm, coming over all nostalgic!

My first nihonto was a wakizashi blade in a stripped saya, no tsuka or tsuba, it cost 7 weeks pocket money, £4. 10 shillings.

Brass blackens with certain conditions, one of them being sulphur in the air, this would affect worn areas of a tsuba but not the parts still gilded. This is why the menuki would resist patination, they are usually gilded as well.

Always the first place to look.

Every so often I see dubious Gunto tsuba, and the quality , especially of the nanako is always the give away.

I made my own based on the Meiji era ones, using Obi material.

I have a tsuba that came from a boys sword, probably cast iron and a carp one side and a dragon on the other. (quick and dirty pics taken two minutes ago).

Stamped habaki ring one alarm bell, and an etched blade ring the other......Poorly fitting parts then sound a siren while a loudhailer calls "now hear this". Sorry if I seem to not take it seriously, but these are the red flags, and sometimes a bit of humour lightens the atmosphere. Hopefully you came here before parting with any oney.

Toppei Koshirae possibly.... http://www.ksky.ne.jp/~sumie99/koshirae.html

I know, this diagram surprised me as well when I found it!

Or one of these... From personal experience, percussion is more reliable but the powder fouling still clogs and sticks in wet weather.

You need one of these.