The_ozzy_samurai

Hey guys not sure if this is the correct section to ask about this but i recently purchased a sword that i feel judging by the tang patina is very old maybe koto or even older?the blade itself is pretty good slight wavey hamon,anyways my main point of this story is its in an old shirasaya mount scabbard that has writing down the side of it translated to something along these lines im told is attribution Ichimonji Yoshifusa nagasa 2 shyaku 1 sun,not exactly sure what it means the blade is un signed and has a cutting length off slightly over 24.5inch,cheer's guys Julian

Nice swords Neil,you must have quite a collection from previous post's i can see you a nice example of almost every WW2 sword,Well done mate Julian

im interested in a couple would love some pics of Number 2,4,6,8 and if still around 15,16

Uchiko i believe is ground down Uchigimori stone what grade or density who knows most likely Hato or Jito grade stone?, i can tell you right now it will scuff or scratch the blade very nicely if that is the look your after? and from what i see you have a nice old blade there i wouldnt touch it or any blade of mine or anyones im working on with Uchiko after a polish, Trust me Hadori polish takes so long to achieve as i have done it on several blades most blades take me 3-4 weeks of hadori work on a normal 25-26" blade,to think of somone using Uchiko on a blade i had polished makes me want to kick them in the nuts! after spending so long to make it nice as possible, This will sound totally wrong to some and i will get some back lash from this but who cares im offering advice based on my experience with maintaining blades maybe in 40 years i may have a change of heart but for now it works fine for me,during the process of polishing a blade the blade is wet each night after finishing my work on any blade i would spray WD-40 all over blade and wipe down and use simple good quality fresh engine oil on a nice clean soft piece of T-shirt material rag,i used motor oil on all my swords for many years no issues at all thats on some very high end swords too, if there is anything left on blade after a wipe with WD-40 like black stains or slight rust spots then its safe to say its staying there,you cant grind it off with uchiko,dont believe everything the sword god's say there are simple options out there, thats my 2 cents worth mate,Cheer's Julian

Problem solved!! Just leave them to me

Hello Guys,been away from my PC for the last day,but thank you kindly for the replies and helpful information,its great to know exactly what it is now,thank you Julian

Hey guys, i recently purchased a WW2 sword that has a tag of some kind on the scabbard,a sticker like material its beyond me but i hear it could be a order tag from production or a surrender label of some kind? its faded or worn a bit but some symbols can be seen, any help or information on what this could be would appreaciated,thank you Julian

Oh dear the Sword God's have spoken again!!! yeah lets send a WW2 blade worth $1000 bucks off for a professional $3000 polish??? come on really? polishing with a buffer or grinder/sander isnt really polishing,polishing with stones and using correct hardness stones without changing shape of blade and spending well over 100+ hours still isnt polishing according to the gods,only a $3000 price tag makes it a polish job, The blade in question is just another of the 100's i see floating around,if i ever polished a blade like that style or an old koto/shinto blade then i would expect a kick in the nuts,but fixing up other guys destruction on WW2 blades should not,you guys where quick to jump on the bashing wagon in my post without asking any genuine questions or asking them then locking the thread,how childish! for your information i have done a few blades now for friends and long after im dead people will look at those blades in 100 years and still be happy with its appearance, Julian

Hello Greg, Well i didnt really say "it turn out so well",i said better then i expected as it was my first blade,i used a larger stone for the removal of tool/file scratch's and to bring out the hamon to a degree,but the bulk of my work was slow finger stone hadori work,i know hadori is maybe the harder or more technical of the 2 polishing techniques but i felt it would be better for me as less likely to change or damage shape of blade,the amount of steel removed by finger stones is very very minimal, I cannot say what a cheap chinese blade is like tho? but trust me with a water quenched hardened quality Japanese handmade blade it does very little but give your wrist and thumb pain and very slowly polish's blade,to remove steel to a damaging point with finger stones on a good blade would take a year or more solid polishing,thats why it took me a while you can polish the same 1-2 inch section for hours with little improvement, a lower grade or oil quenched blade would most likely not be as strong and faster or easier to work with,i will get some better more clear images in the morning.but i appreaciate the feedback,cheer's mate Julian

hey guys thanks Bob and thank you others for replies good or bad i like them all haha,,i respect all sides of the argument here,as for incorrect line on kissaki please view before and after images again and please look closely, even i knew to measure it before starting to make sure its same spot,this blade was made in 1930's Hot stamped or sealed from a private forge a 27" inch edge and had a larger kissaki/boshi its a unique looking blade if you look at the shape of blade it has to be there as thats how he made this blade,is what it had when i started so its what it got when finished in the same position 100%, and as for worth less now,well if i didnt say i polished it and just said hey i have this mint signed blade here check it out i would assume no one would have guessed i polished it, it would have recieved no comments at all relating to the polish of the blade, well myself i seriously dont think someone attacking the blade with power tools or a hand file/sand paper made this worth more then my polish job using the correct stones in the correct step's,if anything i feel i gave this blade a 2nd chance at life,it came out better then i was expecting for my first attempt,until you Hadori polish with finger stones a whole blade with Hazuya and then Jizuya to only Hazuya hamon again later without scratching blade its fair to say most people on here have no idea what it takes or is involved in this process, surely you cant really say it looked better before? really? cheer's guys Julian

Hello Bruce, Thank you mate,i just checked and replied i must have missed that email? i forgot to mention too its beyond razor sharp now too, you even look at it and your bleeding haha well maybe not but you get the hint,its sharp!

Hey guys, So i have this WW2 sword it came to me in not so good condition,badly attacked by someone previously but its a water quenched and Hot stamped blade with zero damage to cutting edge,so i thought it could be a nice blade if restored to a certain level or even atleast slighly more respectable looking, firstly let me state clearly i know its a big No No!! touching blades im not a polisher or do i claim to be but i decided i would buy the correct stones required for the job and have done alot i mean alot of research and reading up on how to polish,as i said i have purchased a few stones and the materials,even made my own nugui mix of iron oxide and magnetite for the Ji section after Jizuya polish process I didnt take many before images silly me but both sides of blade are done,well its completed as good as im going to get it really,it took a few weeks as i do work 45 hours a week,before the haters beat my ass down please remember i never said im a polisher and sure as hell am not going to open up shop haha!!!! or have the time for really,its hard and slow work i only spent a couple months research not 10-15 years practice as apprentice,please any opinions would much appreaciated good or bad im easy i cant please everyone but im certainly more happy with it now then it been scratched up by some goose with a file or something, you can still see slight oxidization on hamon only in small area's,thats reflections on blade its pretty much scratch free now,its not 100% perfect like a full $3000 polish would be,but hey i done it myself in my garage,cheer's Julian

Best reply i have seen on this site for a long time Clsssic!! Julian

Thank you so much guys for that info,its great to pick at the brains of others,its beyond me this sword, Well i recieved slightly more info this morning apparently this was made for a Masahiro Ohara officer,i can assume fairly high up in the ranks as apparently he was charged with war crimes massacre of nanking 1937,he was captured in indonesia 1944 charged by the Australian Government,sentenced to life but realeased in 1954? im yet to do any kind of research on that only just stepped in the door from work, anyways i would really love to know exactly what it does say as its in supreme mint condition all original and looks basiclly un used,and im fairly sure its a rare sword only being made for a specific officer,thank you kindly for the help so far,cheer's guys Julian

Hey guys so i have this sword that may test even the best of you,im fairly sure its Yukihiro but it has a messege of some kind on other side maybe? any help or advice would be great,thank you Julian

cheer's mate i figured that was what you meant Julian

Hello Guys so im told this is nobumitsu and yet some people have said nobumasa, from what i read it looks alot more like Nobumitsu judging from image attached of books and actual mei in question,the blade itself has a nice detailed hamon and looks to be of great work,for such an old its un usually thick 8mm at habiki and 7mm at kissaki, maybe it hasn't been polished that often?cheers Julian

Im hearing you guy's,i may decide i like it when im holding it, old blades are not really my thing as i rarely find them in WW2 mounts,but i like the fact of holding something that was handmade 100's of year's ago,cheer's Julian

Hey guys thanks for the feedback,i will have a look,as i said old blades are not really my thing it was a bit of impulse buy but who know when in the hand i may get attached to it,or i may just move it onto the next collector,i kinda have a rotating collection,i rarely have a sword for more then a few months,as you guy's know something else always pops that you have to get your mitt's on,and there is always one sword willing to sacrifice,but thank you Julian

Hello Joe, Thank you very much for the excellent information,very much appreciated!! as 99% of my sword purchases are WW2 era smith's im fairly familiar and in safe grounds with those blades,i only buy type 98 or leather cover gunto combat swords,must be signed by someone good of course,old blades is all new to me i have only havd half a dozen at most, From what i read in your comment it does look like Nobumitsu 信三 alot more then nobumasa kanji symbols, i was told nobumasa and was yet to confirm it? I figured its straight,no cracks or splits,no visible damage to edge still retains a detailed hamon both sides all the way which i think looks nice enough,it must have been cared for over the years which to me i feel is a good sign that it was worth taking care of,i was pretty chuffed with my early morning purchase after winning auction last few seconds,even set my alarm for 3:30am as it was an over sea's purchase i sniped that Auction, Thank you Julian

hello Guys so i have this sword coming and im not exactly sure what era it is,im sure its much older then WW2 although its in WW2 mounts,my guess is and being no expert or claiming to be maybe shinto era? it looks to have been modified for mounting in WW2 as seen in images and now has a 62.6cm edge,any help or opinion's would be great on anything,Nobumasa,thank you Julian

Thanks guys for the feedback i was pretty sure it was his work the hamon has alot going on in it,thank you

What a nice looking gendaito

Hello Guys, So i finally got some images of this WW2 Nagamitsu 26" edge blade in some sunlight,the hamon was very hard to capture under the kitchen fluro tubes,i have heard that maybe a couple smith's signed to look like nagamitsu but not really him,does this hamon look to be his work? also there is still some oil on blade,sorry my bad but you can still see most of the hamon through it it has a few minor scratchs and 3 very tiny nicks,but otherwise in pretty good shape,its also deadly razor sharp,any feedback would be useful good or bad,1 image looks like a very big scratch in half way up blade,thats just a reflection,so gentlemen my question is "does the hamon look to be the real Nagamitsu's work?" cheer's Also these images off and old iphone sorry again my friends Julian

Yep i got one floating around,i know i had a few at one stage when i stripped down a scabbard,but i have 1 in my hands now i will try to find more,how many do you need? julian