Ken-Hawaii

Morita-san, I was not familiar with kaiken, but looked it up. Thank you. I bought the tanto yesterday, so it is mine for any purpose. Which photos would like me to shoot more clearly? I have included a slightly out-of-focus close-up of the baku, but you can see the eye is definitely round, rather than crescent-shaped. Ken

Malcolm, thanks for the idea, but it's a moot point as I can't read Kanji.... I have passed the link on to my Japanese daughter-in-law. Ken

Okay, I was able to work out a fair deal with the seller, & both tanto blades are now mine. Morita-san's eagle eyesight identifying the kamon as the Sanjonishi family allowed me to start researching more info, & I'm now guesstimating that the baku tanto was likely worn as maezashi by an official in the Emperor's Imperial court. From the obvious aged look of the koshirae, that leads me to believe that it could have belonged to Sanjonishi Sanetaka (1467-1568) who was a courtier & scholar in Go-Nara's court, as I can't find any other Imperial court officials in the Sanjonishi family after him (although his daughters married well). I plan to meet next week with my togishi to see if he thinks the blade requires a polish before I send it & the koshirae to shinsa. I'm fairly sure it will paper, & we'll know a lot more afterwards. Do any of you know of a mainland U.S. shinsa coming up in the next few months? I'm looking for an excuse to go! Ken

Many thanks, Morita-san! That Web-site's font set must be something I don't have because everything comes through as splatter, but with that information as a lead-in, I should be able to find out more about the blade. Amazing how many great brains & knowledge are available on NMB!! Ken

Martin, all the yoroidoshi I have seen have a triangular blade cross-section, are much thicker, & are about half again as long, to boot. If I was sticking a blade into yoroi in hopes of hitting a vital organ, I'd sure want something longer than this one! Ken P.S. I was never all that fond of my first name until I found out about Japanese blades. :D

Thanks, Malcolm. My wife & I bought our last iaito from Tozando, but I had no idea they had that level of information on mon. Guess I need to prowl around that Web-site a bit more. Any idea who the mon is associated with? I'm really hoping to at least determine a period when it was made. Mark, the only defect I see is that the very tip of the blade is very slightly blunted, Or rather it isn't pointed or rounded as I would expect, although I can't see or feel anything unusual, almost like it was made that way. Ken

Thanks for the wishes, Grey. Obviously Linda let that cat out of the bag...she is taking off the 15th to "surprise" me - as long as it's with a Nihonto, I won't mind at all! Morita-san, thanks for that information. Do you have any information on which clan or family is associated with this mon? I can't find anything in my references. Also, the fuchi has a completely different pattern, similar to the scrolls surrounding the mon. Ken

Shape-wise, I agree. But how can we determine for sure that it's Shinshinto/Meiji? And what's the value if it is? I wouldn't mind owning the tanto, Brian, or selling it to you if it's not in my budget, but I'm obliged to do the best I can for a fellow Rotarian. And that means getting some more input. Ken

Thanks for the reading of the mei, Chris. And I'll be happy to give you second shot at the tanto, Brian...as soon as I can determine, with help, just what it is & what it's worth. I've found nothing on-line that looks at all like this blade. The owner had to put his mother in a nursing home, & is ready & willing to sell both blades immediately, but I simply don't have enough information on how to value it. Any ideas will be much appreciated! Ken

Well, the "young lady" I corresponded with turned out to be a rich old man, but he entrusted with me both the Nara tanto and...something else. I am honestly not sure what this blade is, but here are some photos: The overall length is 28.4 cm, nagasa 19.6 cm, motohaba 2.8 cm, moto-kasane 0.5 cm, sori 0.15 cm, iori mune, kissaki moroka zukuri (I think), suguha hamon, masame hada, sujikai yasurime, seriously suriage nakago, & the turn-back portion of the boshi is not sharpened. The beast on the saya & tsukagashira appears to be a baku, but I could certainly be wrong! I don't recognize the saya's mon, but the filigree reminds me of my Heianjo tsuba. I would truly appreciate finding out just what the heck it is, any details on school/smith, &, as he wants to sell both blades, an approximate value. Mahalo!/Arigatou! Ken

Morita-san, I've asked her to send a few more detailed photos, but haven't gotten them yet. I originally spotted the tanto at http://honolulu.craigslist.org/oah/atq/2590032537.html but the images aren't really good enough to tell me very much. Maybe your keen eye is better...? Ken

I have a nice young lady who is trying to sell me her tanto, but I can't translate what looks to be a badly-chiseled mei: The yasurime also look a bit strange. Any idea what she has? Thanks! Ken

Works fine now, Micha. Thanks!

Micha, your JPGs aren't working. Try removing the apostrophes. Ken

I sure wish that someone would do something like that for me on my birthday! Ken

I think the procedure depends on why you're using uchiko at all, Barry. If it's just a fingerprint, then I also use a microfiber cloth & perhaps a bit of isopropyl alcohol, followed by a nice thin coat of oil, of course. But if something really gunks up my blade, then I apply uchiko along the entire length of the blade, on both omote & ura sides. My Japanese Sword Society of Hawaii is lucky to have four former shinsa sensei & two togishi as members, & one of our togishi gave a demonstration last year on how to clean the blade, & that's exactly what he showed, with our four sensei nodding all the time. That's good enough for me. I'll moderate that comment by saying that if a blade is already "tired," then minimize the use of uchiko, which is only common sense, but only applying it onto the mune doesn't make much sense to me. Ken

Yeah, Andrew, I should have mentioned that plain old nail polish is 99% acetone, & would work just as well as the pure stuff. Sorry that I made you spend a few extra bucks! Thanks for catching that, Chris. Ken

Somehow, I really doubt your name is "Moose." Would you please sign your real name for your post, per Brian's rules? Thanks, & welcome to the forum. Ken

Well, I guess a deposit of, say, carbon would be hard to get off without the right chemical. Carbon disulfide would probably work in that case, although it's really nasty stuff to work with. Baked-on sulfur could also leave a gunky deposit like that, but then the heat involved in either of those cases would likely leave the blade in such bad shape that it wouldn't be collectible. Was the seller really ticked off about something when he sold that blade? Ken

I'm fairly sure it's a coating, Keith, & I've seen something like it before, but just don't have enough brain cells working this evening. You can see where he's scraped some of it away, & I assume that Andrew isn't using sandpaper or Ajax. I'm betting that a strong ketone (acetone or MIBK) will dissolve most of that crud. Even gasoline might do the trick - & did I mention staying away from heat sources...? Ken

Keith, do you really think there would be a stain, assuming the gunk is sap? I can't see how it would be able to permeate the metal. As somewhat of a metallurgist, I know that staining steel is definitely not an easy task, even in the lab. Rust, sure - stain, I doubt it. Ken

Both acetone & MIBK are quite volatile - did I mention staying away from heat sources? - so a few minutes after using them, you shouldn't be able to smell much of anything...except maybe what's on the blade. Can you smell anything around the gunk, BTW? Ken

Wow! That's pretty ugly, Andrew! Did the seller mention that little detail to you? From the way the black coating looks, I doubt it was picked up from the saya, especially just in transit to you. You might try using acetone on the crud to see if that removes it; do be careful to keep away from heat sources. If that doesn't work, there's a chemical called methyl isobutyl ketone (MIBK) that you can likely find that may do the trick. Neither of these will damage the blade, although you don't want to get them on the nakago to keep the patina intact. Good luck! Ken

Albert, time for you to do a bit of reading.... Showato is very specifically the age of that blade. Ken

Guido, I understand what you're saying about learning at a schoolkid's level. My daughter-in-law is Japanese, & my 9-year-old grandson reads & writes equally well in English & Japanese, & teases my wife & me about our lack of expertise. Even near retirement, I don't have the time to start from scratch on the writing end, & my conversational capabilities are minimal, but adequate for now. Chris, I had Rikaichan 1.06 installed on an earlier version of Firefox, but it stopped working & I just never got around to updating it with Firefox 5. I just installed version 2.03, & that will hopefully get me back on track. Thanks for taking the time to point me in the right direction. Ken