Bonty

Thanks Gents will try to get to the show,and Malcolm ,understood,Possibly a replacement tsuka for the practice and save the military mounts,as John said most of the value is in the mounts so we dont want to damage them. I may do what you have done Grev and have the mounts fitted to a wooden blade ( sorry cannot remember the name of this !) and get some mounts for any Iaido. Kevin

Thank you Gentlemen,I appreciate your expertise and time.It would be nice if it were in better condition,but I can enjoy it for what it is,I had thought of replacing the koshirae with more traditional parts but the present military hardware has grown on me ,and it is in really quite good condition. So I think it will remain as it is. I think I will continue to watch the forums and pick up as much information as I can before venturing into a purchase,I still have a lot to learn ,and a book to read ! Thanks to you all Kevin

thanks again Grey,I was not under any illusions about the sword but I appreciate your time and expertise,knowing a little makes things interesting,it is nice to know it could be quite old and the condition doesn,t worry me too much.The fact that it has been used hard will not detract from its value for me.Thanks again Kevin PS Thanks Grev I ,appreciate your input

Thank you Grey,I appreciate the response ,I am in complete agreement,I promised the Gent that gifted it to me that I would never sell it,I promised him I would gift it to someone who would also appreciate it when the time came so it makes me feel better about not having to go through the renovation process. It doesn't quell my curiosity about the blade,I still have contact with the previous owner and I know he would be very interested in the history of the blade.Something he had limited luck with finding out. He is an incredibly nice guy and the money would mean nothing to him. I also realise that it is not forum policy to ask for valuations ,so I won't. But I would ask how do I find out so I can report back to him. I am a student of aikido,one of my old senseis is active on this forum and I met with him last week and he gave me some very good pointers and advised that I purchase the " sword of Japan " by Bott,which I have done. One of the second dans at my dojo has studied Iaido and I would like to use the katana in that setting ,so more valuable to me for this reason than sitting it on a shelf. Many thanks,all the best Kevin

Thank you Brian,will sit in anticipation of an ass chewing,point taken,never again sir, The total length of the blade including tang is 33 inches,the cutting portion measures 24 and 3/4 inches,I agree it has been badly treated,it's a shame. Thanks for replying Kevin

Hello,This is my first post on the message board though I have made one post elswhere and got a helpful response from one forum member. I have been gifted a Sword,it appears to be a WW2 officer katana,The Koshirae are in fairly good condition,,the habaki is polished copper,the tsuba is cutaway design I believe early 1930s ,and the other parts are nice and clean,though I suspect nothing special. The gent who gave me the sword told me it could be a much older blade . The Tang has two holes ,one slightly larger than the other,which suggests an earlier mounting. The end of the nagako is rounded ,kuri jiri.Apologies for any terminology errors,I am using Botts book for reference and have only been familiarising myself with the terminology for a week. The file marks appear older towards the end of the nagako and slant towards the blade. The Mei,there are 2 kanji,the forum member I got a response from agreed with me that it could be Tomotsugu,I went through the swordmakers register and Tomotsugu appears to be the closest. The blade I think has not been treated too well,there is pronounced over grinding just forward of the Munemachi. The curve of the blade ,Is Koshi sori ( I think) The shinogi does not seem very well defined There is no Yokote .Either lost or never present ? The mune is rounded,not ground to a single edge,I hope the images show this. The hamon is faint to say the least and almost dissapears in place due to the state of polish. There appear to be ripples and folds in the edge area and metallic inclusions,I dont have a clue how to interpret these,any help would be gratefully received.I hope again that the images at least convey some of this information. many thanks for taking the time to read this. I am not a collector or dealer and have never owned a sword before,I am just happy to be the new custodian of this one ,whatever it is. So if anyone can shed some light,however faint,I would appreciate it,I suspect the damage is too great to make a full restoration possible but I will leave that to you guys. Thanks again Kevin