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Bruce Pennington

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Everything posted by Bruce Pennington

  1. Hard to say. Yours is quite unique, and a bit unknown, but these sort of things generally run in the mid $500's to $800'ish.
  2. Mal has a write-up on him in his article he posted above. Working from memory, there was an Inaba Forge in Seki city, so we don't know for sure if the mei is a smith going by Inaba or if it's a forge mei, or both.
  3. Wow, Sam, that is unique! What a steal. I don't have my books with me, is that Field grade or General officer backstrap?
  4. Enhanced the photos a bit: Here's one from Sesko: I checked my other files on him, and I agree, his mei changed a bit over time. Not as much variation in his kakaihan, but I did find one that dipped below the line, not quite as dramatic as this, but below all the same. Hard to say, but I don't see a definitive reason to suspect this as gimei. However I'm no expert in mei.
  5. Posting more photos for later when the link goes dead. Seller got the date wrong, it's July 1944. I have another of his, same date, same fittings, but different painted numbers. Both have the light tan, steel saya, but double chuso release buttons.
  6. Steve, Are you sure this is on a Japanese blade?
  7. Here's a useful care guide: Japanese Sword Care Guide - Japaneseswordindex.com You can check your saya (scabbard) with a magnet, but I agree, it looks aluminum. Not rare, but not common either. What is common with them, though, is the missing paint. They gave up on the aluminum saya as the paint wouldn't hold.
  8. I noticed how straight it was with very little sori.
  9. Mal Cox covered them in one of his documents:
  10. Auction with a reserve price of $700. The blade alone could sell for $500 then the saya (scabbard) would sell alone for $150-200.
  11. The whole rig appears to be late war. Very common to see painted wood rather than rayskin or even fabric in these.
  12. John, just curious why you thought the bend happened in shipping. Did the seller say there was no bend originally? If it was in the saya, I don't see how that bend could have happened. I have read quite a few reports, and complaints, that the western swords (and some later Japanese) bent during use in the field.
  13. I only have 4 of his on file, and one is a bad gimei. There is enough variation in each to make it difficult to compare this one with the rest. The only distinctive point I see on this one is the kakihan (enscribed kao). It has a 'bottom' on the 'B' AND an underscore, whereas all the others on file use the underscore to 'finish' the "B". I don't see anything obvious on the mei. Example:
  14. Couple of guys named on this thread that rewrap tsuka:
  15. Thanks guys! I'd say he's happy with David's idea. He doesn't know anything about swords and is just happy to know it's old. It was in leather saya, but the tsuka was reduced to same' only, no metal fittings, no ito. So, I'm walking him through ideas on how to retro-fit the tsuka to something he would like.
  16. Google translate works for me: Google Translate
  17. Thanks David! I'll pass that along.
  18. Lots of great stuff there! Here's the kai, mentioned:
  19. Hey guys! Friend of my has this one from his grandpa. Mumei, looks old. Can you give us some idea what he's got? Nagasa is 27" (Ignore the stone it's laying on, I told him about that issue)::
  20. If you are planning to re-sell, then, yes you might not want this one. You could face the same sort of complaint from the next buyer.
  21. I have 2 others, by him, with the kokuin, but haven't seen it on blades made by anyone else (yet!). So, does the stamp actually say "Mitsuru?"
  22. Thanks, Conway! Could I get photos of the mei and date for the file?
  23. Mine was in pretty bad shape originally. Polished up quite well:
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