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Thank you, I had gotten that machi okuri means shortening of the blade part in favor of the handle length (if it was not shortened as well). But what did he mean by that the brass thing (habaki) is original to the handle part (nakago), but not the blade? The handle is part of the blade, how therefore could it be original to one but not the other? And for what are the three hi (I assume these are the three lines on the blade?) beyond the machi a clue for?

I‘m sorry but I understood nearly nothing of your post. I‘m not a native speaker and yet know nearly nothing on Japanese blades. Would you mind explaining a bit more what you meant with your post? Thanks!

Court auctions are always a huge gamble. They are best described with a famous quote: "Life is like a box of chocolate. You never know what you’re gonna get." Same applies here. They are done not regularly and during normal working time so main persons attending are retired. Sometimes they are a bit better described with short descriptions to know at least a bit in advance what you can expect, most times as it was the case here you read "weapons, etc." and just attend if you have the time and it is not too far away. And you can't disassemble nor get an expert opinion on those, just gamble if you get it or not. Would the friend of mine who I had asked at the beginning offered me € 500, I would had sold it to him and would had been proud of a good deal and to make him and myself happy. Having learnt a lot over the last few days I'm happy this had not happened. And a small side note, local laws obligate justice to sell items which can be sold to cover any expenses. I think quite good, because otherwise this one might had ended up as scrap metal. Anyway, to get back: I've now heard several times the recommendation to have a window polished. Is this something which also needs to be done in Japan, or can this be done like here in Europe as well? Or would this be a bad idea? Is this so much cheaper than polishing the whole blade that this makes sense? I mean it is not nice as it looks now, but if just some part of it was polished and left this way, wouldn't it look hell of ugly then? And how would this work, even if polished in Japan - does the polisher then does a picture of what the polished window looks like and how would I then know if I want to have the rest polished as well? Or would he then show this window to whoever and then tell me if he should polish the rest? Another point, I've now heard the first time there are two organizations. What is the difference between NBTHK and NTHK? Why use NBTHK and not NTHK or opposite?

Chris, with respect: this blade is not stolen. It was lawfully purchased from a governmental organization with remaining unknown how it came into governmental possession (I'm currently trying to find out more on this, by the way). Most (over 99%) of the weapon items sold there are from individual "weapon bans", and it being among two other blades from the same case number it is extremely unlikely that someone either used it in a criminal action (robbing the bank, etc.) or stole it from someone. Therefore it was most possibly taken away from someone in Austria and the person accepted this (you have to do something wrong, to get a weapon ban. Police then gets to your house to search it for weapons and seize them. During trial most if not all people sign a resignation to these items in order to show understanding for their wrong behaviour). Please forgive the maybe beginner question, but assuming I would have it polished and then would be papered as fake. Is it then mandatory that the markings are removed (and like already done there), or would I be able to keep it with those as a still nice looking wall hanger? The costs for the polish would not be the problem, since I do can afford to put some money into it since many of my guns are more expensive than the estimates for the polish I was being given, yet I am a bit reluctant to sending such an item to a person which I've never met before and not see it for like years.

If this helps, had a different idea yesterday evening which I tried out today. I've put the blade in my 1200dpi picture scanner. Unfortunately items not down on the surface are blurred, but most of the markings were at the glass surface and therefore please find attached two detail shots of the markings. Edit: Forum limits size to 1800 px height. Original would have 8000 px height. Original pictures are at: https://oi251.photobucket.com/albums/gg296/DaveFromSheffield/Katana/Markings1.jpg~original https://oi251.photobucket.com/albums/gg296/DaveFromSheffield/Katana/Markings2.jpg~original

Sorry to make another picture post, but I've did those as of today since I had noticed I do not have one showing the blade in the condition as it is now in full length. Therefore please find them attached showing the full length, rear and front, every time from both sides.

It turned out that I have five more pictures which I did as a final set, so I'll need to do a second post to attach them - sorry! And maybe as a small side note: the blade did get better from the starting pictures to these now attached pictures. This is a result of me rubbing the blade with an oil soaked clothing. I did not do any polish nor did I use anything other than this. I have been told this is not good for the value, so I'm following these rules and only tried to conserve it in the condition as it is now, to avoid any future rust.

I learnt that Masayuki (or Kiyomaro) was a very famous smith, but also that he was faked a lot. I've also learnt over there, that the shape of the blade was a copy of a very old design, I think it was Naginata what I've been told how this shape is called (while these originally would be mounted to a wooden stick and have a longer handle). Asking on the WAF was quite annoying as well, especially since I was trying to get information on the blade, but all of a sudden some persons joined the conversation who started telling me my blade is a fake and nothing original, but on the other hand sent me Private Messages asking if I would sell it to them. Among them were also dealers, and if dealers have the necessity of telling you something is not good, but they still want to have it from you, my alarm bells ring. I didn't reply to any of these "offers" and choose to answer them in public that what they are doing makes them look suspicious. This however turned out to rather upset a few of them and try to defend themselves which brought the whole discussion not where it should go and I ended up rather unhappy with the results. By someone much more helpful I've then been suggested to instead post everything here, on this board. The whole story, all pictures, and see what persons here are telling me on it. I do know the chances are very little that this is an original blade, still there is some hope left. But of course in the condition it is in, it is tough to give an opinion on it. I've been told on the NBTHK and that they should be able to help me - fortunately a local friend is a member there and has sent me some book excerpts and other information. But being new to the topic makes it nearly impossible to understand all of these terms and the difference between fake applied markings and real applied markings. However, I'm happy with the blade. I had mentioned in my starting post that I've only had 100 Euro in the lot of three blades, and one paid for the other two. Which means that I did get my blade here for nothing. And considering the most plausible possibility - that it is a fake - there are worse things than to have a fake for nothing, despite of its condition. So that is why I decided for myself that I will be keeping it as a nice wall hanger in my gun room unless for whatever smallest chance it turns out to be original. Therefore I'd also kindly ask anyone in here to do not make any offers on this blade since I do not want to sell this one. My reason why to post here is only to learn something on it, and maybe get a good tip on how to properly restore it. I would rather not want to send it somewhere abroad, so maybe there is a chance or source for restoration in Continental Europe. Finally, the last set of very high resolution pictures I have made of it are attached. I had to rescale them to a lower resolution to be able to attach them here. I hope you have enjoyed the read and were not bored, so please don't be too harsh with someone who (so far) knows little to nothing on Nihonto!

At WAF there was someone speaking Japanese. He translated the blade markings as follows to me: Hearing the first time on cutting tests is quite surprising, and I need to admit a bit weird to someone who learns for the first time on Japanese blades - why would someone cut another person into two parts just to proof a blade being capable of doing this and then additionally marking this on the blade? However, this caught enough of my interest that I then decided I will take better pictures with my DSLR and the setup I'm using for complete rifles:

Sorry if my first post will be a bit longer than most others, but I would want to also tell the story of how I had stumbled across the item which I want to show here. And also as a prequel, since I'm a firearms collector who has never dealt anything with knifes or whatever types of blades, I'm a complete novice to this topic and therefore please forgive me if I'm telling something wrongly or need to ask several times to make sure I understood it correctly. Plus of course, English is not my native language. At the end of March I've been attending a local court auction. They are selling all kinds of items there which were seized from thefts where the owner could not be found, items used in crime, or items which were seized when the owner got a "gun ban" (which happens if you threaten someone or injure someone and can either be done by police or by authority). The particular auction was said to feature firearms and was rather closeby, so I nevertheless thought I should attend it in case there is something of interest there. When I came there, it quickly turned out of the few "arms" most were blank firing pistols, only very few rifles of which most were cheap and modern .22 rifles with little value. The other items, such as mobile phones, clothing and bicylces were of no interest to me, so I only went in for the very few gun items. I got outbid on nearly everything which went for crazy prices as well, I therefore also paid attention to two other lots of blades. One lot consisted of a modern made Katana (easily identified as being a recent and cheap piece by the engraved (or stamped?) devlis head inside the blade, and the second lot consisting of a sabre, a small knife and an ugly looking Katana (at least I thought it looks like one). I thought that there are collectors for sabres out there, so I went for this lot and got it for € 100 (where the starting bid was at € 50). So in the end I threw these blades together with the three metal parts consisting mainly of rust which formerly were WWII rifles in the trunk of my car and drove back home. A friend of mine identified the sabre as being a Prussian Infantrieoffiziersdegen 89 with a value of around € 100, so I was quite satisfied already that I didn't loose any money on it. I then took some mobile phone pictures of the Katana and sent these to a friend of mine. These were the following pictures: The friend of mine who I for whatever reason remembered for having an interest in Katanas said he thinks that my blade has a value somewhere between € 100-400 (but he wouldn't buy it at that price!), that it does look old but the condition is extremely poor. He told me that I can take off the handle by removing a wooden plug since if there are any markings one might be able to tell who made it and when it was made. Well, I followed his instructions and did find a few markings. I took out some chalk to fill in the markings and made the now following pictures: I've sent those to the friend of mine and asked him if he could now tell me something on the blade. He said these should tell on the smith, blade and origin, but he does not speak Japanese and doesn't have a contact to a translator any more. I suggested asking on a forum, and he said I could try the Wehrmacht-Awards forum.