Bazza

Peter Bleed said: > Nobody picks up a mounted sword and looks at the menuki and says, "Wow." It never happens. Peter mate, it has happened to me a very few times, but it has happened. It happened once that the WW2 pickup mumei wakizashi with a daggy, kizu riddled blade in a leather covered wooden saya, a tsuba obviously an apprentice's first crack at metal working, and those cheap brass gunto style fuchigashira, had green paper menuki of the NIO ca 1780 from a Mito school. Stunning, Everybody wants them. Then there were the shakudo dragon menuki on an ebay pickup katana that a friend had. "Wow."!! Yeah, you will know. Put commensurately good menuki in the tsuka and it and you will glow with pride at the good tsukamaki dressing good tosogu. BaZZa.

Hi Tom, I'm not sure what you're driving at with this comment - some reasoning please?? The mei reads MUSASHI DAIJOU FUJIWARA TADAHIRO, which as far as I'm aware is the Shodai's correct mei for his Tadahiro phase. As well, even without going to the books, there are some characteristic features of the chisel strokes that suggest to me this has a real chance of being SHOSHIN. Even if made and/or signed by the 2nd generation it would still be considered SHOSHIN for the Shodai. BaZZa.

To me these have a curiously "home made" look to them. The fundamental shaping of the pieces is way off - no flat surfaces and a lack of sharp edges. The hilariously amateur alignment of the ridges of the kashira shitodome are striking evidence (no pun intended) of a talented, enthusiastic self-taught jeweller. Next to no art value and a commercial value in the eyes of the beholder. OK - I've got my brick shield up... BaZZa.

Hello Tony, Can you please show us the brass(?) habaki by itself - side on and tsuba end on - and in place on the sword. On the stuck silver piece if you slowly pour boiling water from your quick-boil jug over the hard-to-move habaki then grasp it with a cloth around it and "winkle" it, it should come off. Failing that, still grasping it whack the sword end down on a piece of wood. Might take a few judicious tries. Let's know how it goes. In the vast archives of NMB there is a thread or two on removing stuck habaki. Most of us have had the problem. Regards, BaZZa.

G'day Tony, In Post #3 Tony wrote: > Is this what you meant? Yes... but without the habaki (the 'collar' butting up against the notches, viz., hamachi and munemachi). The silver habaki you show in your photo is only 'half' a habaki. If that is all you got with the sword then half of it is missing. A two-piece habaki is called a ni-ju habaki. Also, the length of a katana is measured from the back edge notch (munemachi - right at the tang junction), in a straight line to the point, so you might want to revise the measurement you give of ~84cm/33 inches. Regards, BaZZa.

G'day Tony, As an old Adelaide boy from decades ago welcome to NMB. Beware, if you do not plan to stay do not read too many posts or you will be inoculated with the Nihonto virus and not bother with militaria, artefacts and other collectables... I started my Nihonto career in Adelaide around 1961 - its getting a bit hazy now... The way the kanji is written on your sword suggest to me Shinto, but this source suggests 14th century???? https://nihontoclub.com/view/smiths/meisearch?type=All&mei_op=contains&mei=morimitsu A more extensive source suggests to me your sword may be late Muromachi: https://books.google.com.au/books?id=46IYtI0nkiEC&pg=PA386&lpg=PA386&dq=%E5%AE%88%E5%85%89&source=bl&ots=BRIb_4XTPw&sig=ACfU3U1wVNQqla9uC0S-jrFlTpVnX4ACSg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwil38KxqMPlAhWoILcAHdv4CW04ChDoATAAegQICRAB#v=onepage&q=%E5%AE%88%E5%85%89&f=false Here is a copy of the page from Markus Sesko's marvellously useful book: Can you photograph the tang from notches to end without habaki plus a closeup of the edge notch area and the point. Best regards, BaZZa aka Barry Thomas. (been in Melbourne for 55 years)

Interesting mei. Off the top of my head, should not Genroku 6 nen, Hachigatsu-jitsu, Morimasu(?) Sukēmon be Genroku 6 nen, Hachigatsu-jitsu, Morimasu(?) SukēImon 衛 = i does it not?? BaZZa.

And how about the NI?? And can we see the whole kabuto, for I guess that's what it is? Interesting to see a KAO on a kabutomei. Its wonderful to watch our resident KANJI-KA at work. I struggled with it before scrolling down for the reveal. Got JU and SAKU. WOW!! BaZZa.

Then there are those maedate of animals and mythical beasts that do not, I imagine, render well into linear design??? I once had an armour that had a gilt, stiff paper maedate of a praying mantis (down Mantis Man, down...) BaZZa.

A very excellent summary for anybody contemplating a Life With Nihonto. I write here to point people to Post #15 written by the late, lamented Arnold Frenzel. I felt a wave of emotion wash over me as I read his words. Vale Arnold. BaZZa.

A great and sad loss to our community. Arnold and I had corresponded from time to time over the last few decades and to quote Ray Singer's words "It was always a pleasure to correspond with him and he was ever generous with his time and knowledge." A truly wonderful and knowledgeable person and collector who gave an added dimension to our interest. My sincere condolences to his family. RIP. Barry Thomas Melbourne, Australia.

Its a piece of coral. I'm sure this has been canvassed in another recent thread???? BaZZa.

Hello and welcome Roger mate, Good to see you "here" at last. Best regards, BaZZa aka Barry Thomas.

Mmmmmmmmmmm... Definitely VERY nice. My face is a shade of green... Is it part of a koshirae?? If so, what's the blade?? BaZZa.

Hmmm, Hozon paper is the Bee's Knees, desu ne??? Therefore independent of seller, desu ne??? BaZZa.

Friends, Uwe started a thread on the tsuba in this auction and going through them I gasped at the guns on offer further in. Start here: https://www.hermann-historica.de/upload/80/A80-AW/154/ I would love to keep up with this auction and see what the guns brought. BaZZa.

Ahhhhhhh, I should have added 'crestfallen'!!! BaZZa.

Crikey, they're a sad, tired, bored looking lot!!!! BaZZa.

Bruce, I think the last character is SAKU (made), with an unusual flourish. The mei looks good to me even without going to the books. Seems to be a GASSAKU (joint work)... Regards, BaZZa.

I love it too, and desperately WANT IT - but I can see there would be a lot of people trampling all over me with my face in the dirt... BaZZa XXXX (but don't stain it Ed!!) EDIT: Oh, and I do like the "warm up" nanako. I think this may be Muromachi????

Worse. This is clearly a dremelled inscription. Anyone with a good working knowledge of Nihonto would immediately recognise this as a bodgy signature. Very bad news for any beginner picking up such a sword, translating the signature in the best of study intentions and going to the books to discover a big name (sorry BIG NAME) sword and hoping for a good find, only to discover it is a dud. Requiescat in Pace... BaZZa.

Did we find Arnold?? BaZZa.

Just doing a bit of trawling tonight and I chanced upon George Trotter's article (in the Articles section) about his collection which I think is well-worth reading for people following this thread, mentioning as he does wooden scabbards... http://www.militaria.co.za/articles/Swords_from_Trotter_Collection.pdf BaZZa.

Hi there Bo and welcome to the Board, WHOAAAA, steady Neddy. Neil said it best and succinctly. I’m a “wordy” type and will expand somewhat. I saw "care of metal" creep into one of your replies: ============================================================= Post #8: ... I work with my hands and carry a careful temperament, and I have dedicated my life to edged weapons and metal tools, and learning how to build and care for them, but I am still early in the Katana chapter of my life. ... ============================================================= Just in case it passes your mind, the best way you can care for a Japanese blade is do not ever, EVER think you can improve on the polish of a Japanese sword, even a war period mass production piece. NEVER. NO EXCUSES. Always consult here first as there are hundreds of years of collective experience on polish alone, never mind anything else about Nihonto. Amateur polish of blades is the biggest bugbear of collecting Nihonto and has been discussed at great length on this Board. Professionals train under a Master in Japan for many years (read up to 10 years). Look through the articles section and put polish into the search field. As near as I can see the gold paint on your rattan scabbard has come from a spray can and not a liquid paint brushed on - the latter would “bulk up” in the criss-cross spaces. My feeling is you would be better served by having a khaki colour made up in a spray can in, say, an auto or specialty paint shop and use that sparingly and judiciously to cover the gold. VOILA! Original colour near as restored for appearance and no damage done anywhere else. CAVEAT: The solvent used in your made-up spray can might start to dissolve the gold paint and seep into your khaki. To forestall this I would suggest using various of the solvents mentioned above on a rag (glove up!) to see if any one of them would remove the gold paint before spraying. As I look at your clipped photo below it appears the gold paint may have fallen off in places revealing the colour underneath, or even the original rattan before it was painted in Japan. Now as to the colour, I googled <how to make khaki colour> and found lots of information that should suffice to guide you. I’ve clipped out the two colours given above from Neil and Ed and pasted them in below for comparison. I note that both Neil and Ed’s photos have some red colour splashed around the fittings -- any clues, anyone?? A thought about the spray paint. You might get the colour mixed in a jar or tin and use a small hobbyist spray gun to do the job, the sort of thing a touch-up specialist might use, or even those folk who do painted artwork on cars. I think it is quite proper to rebind the hilt and a good person for this would be David McDonald at: http://www.montanairon.com/swords.html See his article on hilt binding: http://www.montanairon.com/tsukamaki.html See also Dr Thomas buck: http://www.tsukamaki.net/ I’m sure Neil or John above could guide you on the correct style of wrap with a photo. Best regards, BaZZa aka Barry Thomas Melbourne, Australia.

Its a very ragged looking mei... BaZZa.