Lareon

Tsuka off, was a bit rusty underneath. Nakago is mumei as best as I can tell. Can't see any signs of a mei. Nagasa from nakago 58.5cm (23 inches) Nakago 14.5cm (5.7 inches) Kissaki 2.5cm (1 inch) Nagasa + nakago 73cm

Taking it out of its saya, it's has a beautifully clear hamon. Some scratching and pitting along the blade. Hamon shifts from a Notare to a Midare. The tsuka is well and truly stuck so haven't been able to remove. Will spend a little bit of time removing it.

I notice the fuchi and the kuchigane are different types? Whether this is indication of a non original saya or just a mix of spare parts. Can't be sure

Ok guys. Here we go. On first inspection the gunto has some kind of white creamy substance on it. Looks like it has had time to seep into the edges of the metal work and has got onto the company grade tassel There's also a hole for a Mon that is missing. Scavenged probably? There's some dents to the saya and the tassel is not in amazing condition. I think I removed it. It would perish

Hi all, Been a while since I was active here, I've been working abroad and not been able to be so involved. Back In the UK now and getting back into the hobby and thought I'd post up another unboxing post. Later today I'll post up the opening of a gunto I got recently. Just for reference This was the last one I did.

Cheers for this mecox, i have most of the documentation from nmb, didnt have this one though, naval swords are something i've only recently decided to round my collection on, i've always stuck with army swords. so this will be useful. I also have bruces documents on fitings from a while back Cheers Guys!

Hi Bruce, It's not in Souvenir fittings no. It's in a traditional navy koshirae. No stamp on the nakago either. Once I have it in hand I'll post pictures. I don't have a souvenir mount unfortunately. Will get one one day as it's a missing piece of my collection. This gives me a stainless steel though which I didn't have either before. On the subject of the other sword I was curious as to why the nakago had two names on it instead of a name and date. Potentially the lord or patron it was made for but I see no genuflection before the name.

Thank you for such a swift reply Ray

Hi all, Was wondering if anyone could give me a hand with the mei on two blades I recently picked up. I'm currently travelling and don't have any of my books with me. Thanks in advance!

I have a type 98 with a perfect tsuka still in the original white cloth wrapping it came with. So it's definitely something that can happen.

No need to apologise, I love seeing the updates in our collective knowledge.

Taking a look at it now, 1. The bulk of the ferrule isn't magnetic, there's some slight magnetism near the latch but i think it's from where it joins. As for material, I'm unsure, I guess aluminium with plated copper 2. I'm pretty sure it's plated . Mine only seems to have the two layers (the difference in colour on the bottom image is the reflection.

@Kiipu So I've popped off the tsuka and after close inspection it does have the m/w mark. Very small beneath the 250. Also every seppa fuchi even retaining clip had the 250 too

I'll have the blade in hand on Saturday so will check for you then. From memory I do not remember it having any other stamps though, I went through my photos of the sword and didn't see any so ill take another look saturday

you need to post more photos of the entire blade, but from what i can see it looks in bad condition

Well, I got round to taking some photos of the sword yesterday and while the Hamon is very hard to see generally, I managed to get some good angles with some studio lights where I could see it properly. Now that I had time to sit and look over it properly I noticed some things I hadn't before. The Hamon is actually konote gashiwa quite distinctly. The condition the sword is in, isn't the best. there's a fair few scratches on the blade and a little bit of spidering. Threw in a few pictures of the gunto mounts it's in; as they are high quality. The habaki moves a little bit (1cm) but is slightly damaged on the inside and doesn't slide off the nakago anymore or i would of taken photos with it off.

Forgot to say the hada is ko-mokume but is quite hard to see. @SteveM yes I could see that fitting. I'll take some photos as best as I can on Sunday. To add to these.

Hi All, I picked up an interesting Gunto a while back and am just getting round to spending some time examining and studying it. The mounts are quite interesting in themselves but the Nakago is O-Suriage tachi mei and only part of the signature remains. The date is Shōchō 1428 so early Muromachi. so the date i've got Shōchō Gannen I can't make out the last kanji on the date maybe Roku ?? Actually it's Hachi The signature i've got Bishû Osafune and now i can't quite make out the last kanji again The sword has a ko-notare hamon the sori is 3cm Nagasa is 60cm Total length including the nakago is 76cm (16cm nakago) There is no yokote I need to take some photos of the blade itself, it's out of polish and the hamon is very faint, the hada is hard to see but i will try and pick it up. any suggestions on a potential smith? I will add pictures of the blade this weekend when i have it hand again

I meant id usually see it as a negative but in this case I didn't thus I bought it

Apologies for the late reply Bruce! yes it's a small adornment that looks to be shaped like a kabuto. That was how it was sold . I've been away for about a month and when I'm back I'll take some photos of it with my camera. I've never seen anything like it before which usually gives me a pause (in a negative way) the whole sword actually was interesting. the blade is in poor polish and from 1428 but the signature is quite hard to read as it's partially lost (O-Suriage) the date is readable though. the Saya had been wrapped in leather cord too which is quite brittle so i haven't handled it too much. I've included a photo. I wont be home to look at it for a couple of weeks so i'll just use this one for now

I've got this Mon here. If kanji I think it's Takeuchi ? Seems to be a common surname

that really is mint condition

Lovely koshirae there. Really nice