Misterbovigoren

I just want to interject that I've learned quite a bit from all of your responses and I appreciate everyone taking the time to address their concerns and make their opinions known. You are all helping me on my quest for knowledge and for that, I am sincerely grateful.

That makes sense, I will definitely take that into consideration. Thank you for sharing your experience with me!

Thank you for sharing your knowledge! Would it be alright with you if I pass this message along to him?

For what it's worth, I don't see any of you as elitist. You are doing a wonderful and noble thing here with this forum. I appreciate you all very much. Thank you for lending me your ears and minds.

That is on my agenda to do, I just already have a blade that is rusted and needs a good polish.

Thank you for the information! I reached out to a couple of togi that I found online, I can't remember exactly who since it has been a few years, but they all either didn't reply, or flat out told me "No, the signature is probably fake" and wouldn't take on the project, hence, me finding Mr. Boomershine. All I knew about him at the time was that some people gave him really good reviews and he was a gentleman to speak to so I had him work on the blade for me. Any recommendations for who to reach out to for a future project I have? Thanks again for everything!

I'm afraid I don't understand the first bit of your comment. As far as the last two sentences, you're saying I can't make a silk purse from a sow's ear? I was never under the impression that this sword was very valuable, or desirable, beyond something for me to look at and study. I just wanted to know more about it. Thank you for your input a and guidance!

I apologize good sir 😅

Hello Stephen! I hope this is helpful, thank you for the advice.

Unfortunately this time slot falls under "Dad's Turn" 😂

Understood, thank you for your input! I will work on that tomorrow when I am more fully awake, right now it's 3:00am here and I'm feeding my newborn 😅

Awesome, thank you so much for your input! For reference, Josiah Boomershine is the person who did the polish for me.

Hello all, I'm back with an update on a wakizashi I acquired a few years ago. I started a thread that can be seen here: to ask about the origins and authenticity of this wakizashi blade. Since then, I have had the blade polished and a shira saya made for it, and i'm basically wondering if any of you more knowledgeable folks on here can offer your opinions on the possible origins of this blade now that more of its features (hamon, hada, boshi, etc) are visible. I was offered a possible explanation for whom the Smith may have been related to, as well as a time era for said Smith, but I'm wondering if the features of the blade align with this info, or if it appears to be from a different time period than previously thought? Thanks a ton for any thoughts you're able to offer 😊 New images of the polished blade can be seen here: https://imgur.com/gallery/N1CslJ3

That is hugely informative, thank you for that! I have so much more to learn. I really appreciate everything you guys have done to help me along the way. This is such an awesome community 👏

Thank you for the input Bruce! So are all Nihonto water quenched rather than oil?

Aside from being Gimei, in your opinion, does it still look like a decent sword? I know the pictures uploaded were limited, but can one tell from these if it is actual tamahagane or traditionally forged? Thank you again for your time. -Bo

Thank you! And yes that was something I can't believe I hadn't noticed until it was pointed out.

Thank you for your time and knowledge. I will remember this, and use this as a learning experience to further my studies. I know it isn't much, but I donated $20 to the website as a small token of my appreciation for what you guys do.

Thank you for the information. That was my suspicion as well, I just haven't had any similar swords in-hand to be able to compare it to.

I am currently torn on how I feel about it. The fact that the signature is in the position it would be if it were one of this smith's greatest works, makes me feel as though there is no way I am that lucky 😅 I will see if there are any shows happening near me. I live in southwest Washington state, maybe I will get lucky and one will pop up in Seattle or Portland. Thanks for the reply! -Bo

First off, my apologies if I have posted this in the wrong section. Before I read the wonderful advice to spend my first $1000 or so on books, I saw a bare blade for auction on ebay from the seller komonjo (I am now aware this is already a very questionable choice), and from what I could tell, it looked like a good quality blade. The listing said it was signed Yasunobu, and through research I found he was a Smith at the yasukuni shrine. The listing had a short time left on it, so I bid up to something like $860 and won. In person, it is quite beautiful. I purchased a book on sword smiths of the yasukuni shrine, and compared it to the images of his blades, and it looked similar enough for me (at that time) to be content that it was genuine. Since then, I have purchased a few rusty wakizashi from the same seller and I have been reading like a madman everything I can about nihonto, in an effort to learn more about them, and about the history and craft of nihonto in general. In this further research I have done, I have become aware of the fact that fakes of prominent smiths are quite common, and even becoming rather convincing. While reading about the swords forged in the Yasukuni Shrine, I have discovered that they are signed in a way synonymous to the way Tachi were signed, with the smith's name on the outside when the sword is worn with the edge facing downward, the way a Tachi would be worn, with the date of manufacture being on the opposite side of the nakago. I also read that a small number that were presented to very high caliber clients, such as imperial family members, had their signatures placed in the manner a katana would have, on the opposite side of the nakago as a Tachi. The sword I purchased appears to have its signature in the manner a katana would be signed. That was my first red flag. The second was that some signatures I found online for yasunobu looked very similar to the one I had, but some looked quite different, and none were on the side a katana would usually show. The third red flag I have noticed is that the nakago is nearly pristine, showing hardly any age whatsoever, whereas most of the pictures I have found of yasunobo's work has at least a patina on the nakago. I will post a link to a few pictures that I have on my phone of the blade I own, but I won't be able to take any specific pictures until I get home from the hospital. I will also post pictures of Mei from the same Smith that I have found online for comparison. If anyone could help me verify if my hunch is correct about this blade being gimei, it would be greatly appreciated. Any other information or insight about the blade would also be warmly welcomed. The pictures and video that are mine are the ones that don't look like an online listing, but please let me know if any further clarification is needed on which is which. Yasunobu Katana https://imgur.com/gallery/ra4kR0x