reeder

Never know, it’s a good time to buy, not necessarily for resale though.

There are tons of WWII blades made by Kanenori & his students/workers. Not all were made or signed by him. Nothing is wrong w/ the Kane having the line like that, it's still Kanenori. I've had both seki & star stamped blades by this smith. Even in mint condition, none of them were too exciting. He has a high rating in Slough's so his swords seem to get more interest than typical factory smiths from WWII, but I can't say that I agree w/ the rating from the countless examples I've come across. They're definitely no where near other 1 mil. yen rated smiths.

Very difficult. I still can't figure it out. LOL. Tried numerous things for years and no matter what I do or how good it looks on my computer (to my eye) they get compressed and lose all definition when I upload them to eBay (for the ones it's time to move on from).

It looks like a gendaito by an RJT smith to me. Dated, more than 2 character mei so it certainly appears to meet the requirements to have received a star stamp. I have a type 3 with these same type of plain copper fuchi and kashira that has a star stamped Hiromasa blade. Iirc I’ve seen one or 2 more examples of these fittings with star stamped blades (I believe another Hiromasa and a Kanehide). They’re not very common compared to the other type 3 mounts.

Thanks, Stephen. It's a real nice, early one. Just one small pitting spot near the tip. It's got the early brass guard that's thicker. Feel free to pm and I can send you as many detailed pics as you want, although as you can tell, I'm no professional photographer.

Here’s another I bought to complete out a project.

eBay won't let me list a knife or sword if I have it set up to where Ireland or UK shipping is enabled anymore.

Why bother with a polish on this one? It looks like it’s in good original wartime polish, I don’t see a need to polish it. Definitely doesn’t make sense financially.

I have already translated all of these blades, days ago.

Getting back to the naginata, you should give the translation a go before relying on someone here. It’s common and a well known signature. I won’t comment on whether or not it’s gimei, but he did say it was not papered.

Yea, took him quite some time to reply to my original message, like a month or more. It’s the sword with the handle missing the wrap that’s fake if you didn’t pick up on it.

Common mei, try it out. Been talking to him as well. You do know that one of his pieces is fake right?

Wow, many thanks!

Just adding mom to the thread, not that any of them are particularly rare.

Here’s one I posted before but did not originally include a shot of the nakago.

Nice.

Having 2 mekugi-ana alone does not guarantee the blade is old nor does it suggest the blade is traditionally made. The blade appears to have been made in the showa period and looks oil tempered from some of the pictures you have posted. Regardless, it is a solid example of a WW2 produced Type 98.

To each his own, but the last part sounds like a frequent complaint on NMB about some of the eBay sellers... But some people don’t care it was restored and happy someone did so. I restore the parts if it’s a blade I’m keeping in my collection. If I decide to sell I’m always up front of a handle rewrap, added seppa, missing parts, etc. I can’t imagine anyone here would be happy buying something then finding out it was just a put together that was not disclosed. There’s some people I quit doing business with because of this. I’ve overheard some talking about “tricking the buyer.”

Check out the one he posted this evening he attempted to polish and added mei for Emura.

Sorry went back to look, it appears I confused swords. My bad, Neil.

Here’s the Type 94 I owned. Mounts were mint, as found, blade was scratched up and mumei & tired so regrettably let it go. All of the gendai I have that are dated pre-38 are missing removeable ashi. Some look like they never even had it on the saya (no marks from being there).

Bc I read posts, know where you got it from, and know you added the ashi to that one in particular. ???? assuming it’s the same one I suppose. Nothing wrong with correcting/completing them. Wish I had some that worked on mine!

Top and bottom look added to me. Bottom one looks too big or maybe just angle of photo. Middle 2 look good IMO. Isn’t one of them a Kotani Yasunori?

Maybe the mismatch in wear is more due to the removable ashi being added on rather than being original to the sword.

Thanks for the kind words, John. I sent a pair to auction and the results weren't that great. I just pulled the others, I like them and they look good in my collection!