Alex A

Shinshinto Naomitsu for both. Sorry, couldn't resist

Buy one thats polished

Maybe it was carried around in a gun case. Seriously,.dont know much about these fittings but this looks like it was put together and left in a box in the attic.

Not easy to get a good idea of the steel from pictures but now wondering. Difficult from images, looking at the jigane, I cant help thinking if this blade was made from a steel that wasn't his usual.

good that

Well, that comes as a big surprise. Once owned a Naokatsu and spent a good while looking into his work, im done with this infernal hobby! Shows how difficult kantei can be without seeing the whole blade. "Shinshinto is dull", i will now ignore.

Does not look Shinshinto to me. At first glance I was thinking Nobukuni line (but thats not an answer, cant make it fit) This may take a while

That makes me think Edo. Il go with Hizen Masahiro, copy of an older works.

Ok, cheers

Nakago pic Kirill ?

3

Same way as us, but with a lot more knowledge and resources

Another point, risky from an health and safety point of view. Might get knocked over, visitors mess with it, etc etc

Some desirable swords in the sales section at the moment Im trying not to look, bad timing for me, but hopefully another time.

One of the things that can get annoying about Ebay is a sellers unrealistic expectations, but this one is in another dimension

Thanks all for your replies so far, appreciated. I have a blade here that dates to around 1750, typical length, but slender, likely was never more than 6mm Kasane, that's what got me a wondering about original weight. Lighter, but still more than adequate for the job. Never thought about it much before, i guess for the most part it was a one size fits all from most schools, but then the fussy customers with their exceptional requests about weight and length. John, id totally forgot about Keicho Shinto sugata, i do wish info would stay upstairs. Cheers all.

Very cool, cheers

dunno, I like to watch a football match on tv

Thanks John. With regards Edo blades, ive not given much notice to the thickness up until recently.

In contrast to heavy blades from the late Muromachi period etc, occasionally we see lighter blades. Im not talking about overly polished blades, just blades from the Edo period that where particularly slender to start with. I see no reason why smiths might not get a request for a custom order lighter blade, just wondering if there is any evidence anywhere to suggest this is the case ?. A thinner blade, lighter. From a street fight/duel type scenario, im assuming a lighter blade would be preferred, as lets face it, only takes one strike. Maybe one for the iaido guys.

Nice blade, especially as a starter, mumei really has a way of getting you more involved. Some interesting features, seems a decent amount of clues.

At first glance, blade reminds me of sue-seki

You will find some examples here www.thelanesarmoury.co.uk/shop.php I do wish this place would calm it down with the commercial polishing, another subject though. Some nice stuff.

A few clues there Chris. The hamon pattern, the long turn back, and think I see an original file pattern on the nakago, the mune shape. Cant make out the hada. How thick is the blade?

If I see a blade and the work is spot on, but the mei off, the first thing I think of is Dai-mei. (signed by family or students) That opens lots of doors to variations in mei, and as Brian mentioned above, there could be another reason, in fact many reasons. Sometimes ive seen papered blades where the mei as struck me as gimei and was actually going to start a thread about it, so it works both ways. The fact that NBTHK cant give a definite answer is not necessarily a bad thing (in my book), kind of sums up the hobby, which is not an exact science.