The_ozzy_samurai

Sorry mate i forgot to add that,thank you

As we all know Kanemichi was high ranking and as far as i know a teacher and older brother to Kanenori also a high ranking smith,this sword was in Japan its whole life until 2023,i dont think you can import these into Japan?it never saw combat either judging by its condition it was worn but not used, maybe a desk officer or high ranking but either way its in above excellent condition,im the first westerner to put his mitts on it, it was obviously cared and maintained very well over the years, what i was told from the seller the officer eventually died and the family kept the sword for a couple years before moving over sea's and sold it to local sword dealer, for me it turned up on some dodgy looking auction site while just google searching shin gunto's for sale and this guy had a store in Japan from further searching, and some very high end shinto,koto blades This is totally original,basically un marked un scratch in almost as new condition with patina 80+ years later, i can only upload a couple pictures but i will try to add some more in a comment,there is some detail in hamon but hard to capture, $3500US

I have seen these pop up on Ebay from time to time sold as Gendai blades i just watch but see people bid so they are out there,as they know there is a market for such things,i have purchased a few sword from Komonjo over the years he does have some high end stuff every now and then,he has mostly project blades which is fine for me, i had to look twice at some of these type of blades,hamon looks more chemical then traditional hadori polish,it has that dirty i have been acid etched brown look in the so called Hadori polished area on Ji,no blade polished with Hazuya goes brown like that,i also noticed on these a lack of Hada which leads me to believe its not polished at all to bring out hamon,if Jizuya work was done you would spot hada clear as day on a fresh made as Stephen said Yesterday-To blade Julian

Like this Julian

Cheers Trystan its a fairly nice piece and Bruce there is no other stamps apart from the 2 W stamps,it has the kanji style numbers on mune,i dont think i have seen any other Koa sword with stamps either,im sure there is some out there no doubt,cheer's Julian

Hey mate no crack,it had so much gunk built under hibaki i could hardly get it off i wiped it down to get it back on easy and thats the result,its like a water like stain slightly pitted where it ate in a bit,but no cracks thats for sure its solid

Hey guys i have this sword its in pretty good shape,has a few minor marks,nice mounts, has a nice colonel tassel not attached in images,also its funny stamps on tang im sure this subject has been mentioned before but here we go again it has 2 W stamps on tang,both seem to be odd places? one is actually above the file marks on tang, what does this mean as i have not seen this stamp before its beyond me,cheer's Julian

Thanks guys,well i really should have said a reasonable smith,as you said 1 million yen does seem to base line for those type of smiths,but i guess its better then a zero yen rating,anyways thanks for the help it put my mind at ease,as it was already paid for but unknown to me but the blade sold me i knew it looked reasonably well made,cheer's guys julian

Thanks guys i appreaciate the answers it was beyond me, just looking him up he is a fairly good smith rated at 1 million yen so im happy with my purchase,thank you Julian

Kane x3 although this from Kanenori WW2 i feel it looks like it could have been similar julian

Hello guys so i may have made a mistake,i saw this sword for sale at what seemed to be a great price and a few clicks later its mine,but i cannot seem to find out who it is? i can see the top symbol is Mune well certainly looks like,the bottom symbol is beyond me? i have attached a couple images that may help the keen eye spot what i am missing? its from Japan and i assume it is traditionlly made? it looks to be of a decent quality blade for WW2,thanks guys any help is appreaciated, Julian

Thanks Brian and others i have taken all comments on board,this was initally purchased as a project blade as i had never done a old blade,it was said its not Yoshifusa so i figured i was in the clear and it takes a slightly different process to WW2 blades and i was curious to try it out, i cannot afford to spend 10 years of my life without pay learning,im not offering or selling or operating as a polisher as that is totally dis respectful to those who have put in the time,but i figured if i wanted to send a blade to Andrew or anyone to be seen or viewed i atleast want to have a hamon so some detail can be seen,i have to ask tho as i can 100% assure you no lines or anything has been changed,i dont think some guys on here understand the final polish process,without sounding rude i dont understand if no steel is removed how can it damage the blade? as it still the exact same shape just has a hamon and some detail now i dont understand? Final polish can be polished off as we see many times over so many shiny blades with little or no hamon or kissaki detail,it takes the right stones and process to bring that detail back,i have done a WW2 kanenori that was already polished with mag or metal polish to a ugly mirrror finish all over,i have not used any man made chemicals or power tools and crap on any blade,i have dozens of different types of density Hazuya and Jizuya,i do have larger Hato and Jito stones too, i make make my own tojiri and nugui,this may shock some of you but i have done a few WW2 blades for some collectors that have been collecting longer then i have been alive,just for practice and they seem to be happy with final product and they do know there swords,there is already a dozen or more swords floating around this planet that will have my polish on them for the next few hundred years,anyways all comments taken on board,Nihonto blades are not my thing and this blade would take to long to polish to its former glory,thanks guys Julian

Ok guys,firstly thank you Ray i will look into that guy,i had no idea anyone in Australia was qualified, Thanks for the comments,I knew the response would be like this,can i ask who here has polished a blade before?i can tell you now the very little pressure i use and the shear strength of this blade,nothing has come off,to polish with finger stones takes little pressure,to scratch and grind into blade then use force i guess? i see on WW2 blades the black junk getting built up as im doing hadori which is obviously tiny steel particals,on this blade it does nothing it eats up my little finger stones and does very little to blade,nothing comes off, to polish this blade properly would take a month or more easy its beyond strong i couldnt remove steel if i tried, the kissaki lines are as the blade is shaped its impossible to move it either way as it wouldnt go with shape so i cant be to wrong there as i actually went over the original lines that where somewhat faded, and yes the tiny top section of tip is broken,cheer's Let's just say i left for a another few weeks and posted images after some serious time is put in had it looking sweet,if i didnt say i polished it the blade would have got good comments like it did last week before you guys knew i done some work on it,its still the same blade as last week,in the same polish?just under different lights looks different,but now all of a sudden the blade has flaws all over, if anyone of you have done a final polish then you no its just like applying make up to the blade,you can near polish it right off with mag or metal polish on a rag and start again the process again,its the foundation polish work which i wont do that can re shape the blades geometry, how is it so hard to believe that a beer drinking dirtbike riding aussie can polish Japanese swords? it is somewhat of an art but its not rocket science? and guys thats 2 to 3 days max work,it will take many many weeks Julian

Hello Neil, I can see you have the best eye's for swords on this forum,you got me mate! i had done a quick 2-3 day final polish process,Hadori with Hazuya,jizuya then kissaki and nugui,as i said 2-3 days just to get a rough idea of what it may look like overall,i can spend weeks on it to make it better if i want, the blade is already perfect shape wise no steel is removed,its not black magic or voodoo, just little stones and some technique a sore back and wrist/thumb is about all it takes, Honestly i only purchased this as a project and when i recieved it it was better then expected so i wanted to know what it could be?,i figured i had all the stuff to do it ,why pay someone for a window polish,final polish is like make up,it can replaced very easy if i want to spend thousands on it and send it away,which i dont,and i can spend as long as i like on it until i finally happy,here is what maybe the most hated images ever to be posted on this forum,this is pre nugui but quick hadori polish with hazuya an jizuya,and some kissaki work,cheer's Julian

Thanks mate, i just got a couple other images to add now i can finally kind of see something under this light,its bloody hard with an old iphone,cheer's Julian

Trust me,The Japanese will avoid anything to do with or that relates to WW2 they hate the fact they were going to be to be blown off this planet and had to surrender or face total destruction of country and population,surrender for Japan was the hardest thing they ever had to do,they where born n breed from the early 1900's with bushido as religion the old samurai code,as you know surrender wasnt an option for them and thats how they where raised from childhood,so to avoid heavy loss's the US knew they had to drop the bombs or it would be fighting every man,women n child upon a ground invasion, even to this day in Japan WW2 is not a subject even mentioned in schools most of todays population have no idea of the history of WW2 and how close Japan came to being a big hole in the ground,anything from Japan relating to WW2 in Japan is junk,to us its collectable so i say keep pushing your friends for the WW2 stuff,you should get it a good rates compared to buying from western countries, Julian

Hey Paul, Thanks for the info i will have to do look up those names,it may not the great Yoshifusa but still something of value believe,im no expert but it sure got my attention when i opened it up i was very suprized,as said i have seen a few old blades but none i have held myself have had such sharp/crisp perfect lines,in saying that i dont spend 10,000 Bucks on sword either so its good for my budget, nothing i have had has been quite as sharp as this one,im serious this is way beyond razor sharp,its almost un touchable it just grabs your skin when sliding your thumb across it,it does look like its been cared for and for someone to try and palm it off as a Yoshifusa i feel it maybe something good,i will try to get some better pics looking straight down on it, Cutting edge is 63cm or 24.8 inch Total length Tip to base of tang 77cm or 30.31 inch cheer's Julian

Well i couldnt seem to find a good spot near a window for images,these images are under bright Fluro tube lights i used the cheap flag as the red background seemed to help my iphone get some focus on blade and not the floor,being a old blade in old polish was hard to get it,i have come to realise how hard it is to capture good images of blades,you really need the perfect lighting and background to make the blades look respectable and of course not an iphone,its still not quite as good as it is in hand but i may oneday get some good images,but reading some of the comment about hamon, in quite a few places it almost goes right to the cutting edge,its a kind low hamon if that makes sense? like it doesnt venture to far into the blade,but has many random waves an bumps along the way,cheer's Julian

Hey guys i have been away for a few days i appraciate the comments,i will get some full length images and what not later this arvo,im no expert on old baldes in fact im quite the novice,it was overcast and a crappy day when i took images,the sun is out today so hopefully may show some more of the blade,thank you again guys Julian

Thanks,its definately got gold spec's wedged in patina it stands out pretty good against the black,my phone doesnt show it well enough,i done enough panning and detecting to spot that gold stuff straight up!!,im sure the value of gold got to tempting for somone and it got sold off or swapped to another sword for sale,i think thats why mine didnt come with one maybe? if this was a real Yoshifusa that would not have been done But good to get reply thats not total negativity i believe this blade is pretty well made,its not junk but not treasure,as i said i have seen a few old blades in WW2 mounts this to me looks alot better made then some signed old blades i have owned,it may have been a mock up Yoshifusa sword for sale at some point but you would have to have a half decent sword to try an pull that off so im sure its fairly good either way,well im happy with it, trust me i didnt spend a mint to get it,you would be quite suprized to know how little i paid,my investment is 100% safe so any idea on roughly how old? or are my tang images to bad for that? cheer's Julian

Well i wasnt getting excited,more curious as to what this blade may be,i only ever buy old blades if in war mounts,i have seen a few,this blade to me has so much more detail in it then any others i have seen,my crap phone doesnt do it justice,it looks alot better in the flesh i will try to source a better camera the hamon is better then my images show thats for sure,i will get some measurements and some better images,here is couple full length blade pics basiclly a rough idea of full hamon for the moment,cheer's Julian

Hey guys so i had a post a few weeks ago on this sword,well i finally have it in my hands,just a quick run down for those who missed the previous post, i purchased this sword un signed in a scabbard signed Ichimonji Yoshifusa,both blade and scabbard look to be fairly old and writing on scabbard is clearly not from a black marker pen,i can see the blade has those lines under Habkik seen on blades from the old schools,i know his blades have solid gold Habiki's but this has didnt come with one but has gold like flake material wedged in patina in that area only where it looks like habiki originally was,the blades edge looks to have been shortened at some stage the straight line markings on either side of blade are different hieght's The hamon is far better then i expected it has some nice activity even in old polish can be seen the folds look amazing and the blade itself looks to be very well crafted,and crazy razor sharp possibly the sharpest blade i have ever felt,i will try to get a decent camera but these are from my iphone,sorry any opinions on this sword are much appreaciated, could this be a good replica of his work from another school or without getting to excited can it be a great find? the tang is darker then in images not the greatest camera's on iphones hard to capture activity up close with it,thanks guys Julian

Thanks for the replies,so here is a couple images i used my phone to capture from the website,the quality is not the best,but some detail can be seen,cheer's Julian

Hey mate, It should be in my hands in the next few days,the the web site i got it from doesnt allow me save images the right clicker does nothing? i will ask the guy directly for email of pics,and yes the only information i could find about it was high end stuff or museum grade items,im not one to get to excited, i see some un signed yoshifusa blades out there,it does have those straight lines under the habaki i think i counted 7 maybe,although the sword is missing original habaki,the only ones see online have solid gold habaki's which wishful thinking maybe my one had one at some point but the price of gold was too tempting for somone? cheer's i should have pics soon i hope Julian