Jacques

Mei reads Usa ju Nobukuni 宇佐住信國

Chu-jo saku. Was in the Tsuda Sukehiro mon, most of his works are gasaku.

A quality sword must be well made, from the tip of the kissaki to the nakago-jiri. This sword does not fall into this category.

I think that comparing the price of a sword with “others” is a common mistake among westerners. A sword should be judged only on its qualities (and possibly its defects). Two swords from the same smith are not necessarily of the same level of quality, and a price difference can be justified. That's largely why I say that buying a sword without having held it in your hands is irrelevant.

Wrong. It doesn't change the composition of the metal, which is iron + carbon, but it does change the arrangement of the atoms, which take on different shapes.

Steel is iron and carbon, whether old or new: an atom of iron is an atom of iron and an atom of carbon is an atom of carbon. The creation of utsuri must be sought in temperature control. Why is utsuri attached to a hamon in nioi deki?

Utsuri was rare in Shinto, but not non-existent. I won't go into the process of obtaining the utsuri, I'll leave that to the forum “experts”.

100% gimei

If it's a true Nihontö, no problem but all others are forbidden.

The carbon content depends on the amount of material and the temperature. During the Heian, Kamakura, Nanbokucho and early Muromachi periods, blacksmiths produced their steel in modest-sized furnaces, obtening carbon content averaging no more than 0.45%. Later, the industrialization of steel production led to high carbon contents in Shinto and too high in Shinshinto, requiring more extensive folding to lower the carbon content, which in turn led to muji hada.

The engraving style is totally different from that used by the Nobutaka family

To clean the inside of a saya, you can use the nylon brush in a rifle cleaning kit.

And you think you can see that in photos? I don't.

I'd say gimei for the 1,2,3 and 5 generation, I don't have any example of the yondai. As for the tsuka ito, I've seen better. Ps NBTHK membership has never been a guarantee of quality.

Kajihei is a special case, but it's worth noting that while gimei have always been made, many of those found today were made recently, and are called gendai gimei.