Tin Tin

I read in a few places that there are rust removal gels. Has anyone tried this before?

Yes I quite like it. After all the comments, I think I will be keeping it. In the future, I will definitely look towards the newer NBTHK certificates for more certainty. Thank you everyone for your help!

Sorry if you thought that I was rude. I am grateful for all the help that everyone has provided. I was busy trying to examine the question brought up by Jacques to see if his comments would raise serious concern which is why I researched that first. Regarding NBTHK, I am seeing mixed results/responses from people on this forum and other forums. I was not able to see a clear path forward on this matter since there are no direct instructions on how to raise concerns with NBTHK apart from the posts talking about submitting the blade back to them in Japan which might not actually be worth it in this case. I found one person talking about finding an agent to talk to NBTHK just to check the cert number at least but apparently the forums were mentioning that this is not usually successful for the older retired certifications. It seems that they would want you to re-submit for a new cert. I would assume the cost of getting an agent to submit on my behalf + shipping expense both ways + certification expense will probably greatly outweigh the benefit. Regarding asking the seller to provide proof from NBTHK, do you know what style of proof they would provide? Regarding your request to see the entirety of the blade, please see the attached. My camera is not so good so instead I am using the seller's photos. Thanks, Nathan

So I did more research and 4th gen masahiro actually had 3 signatures (source: https://nihontoclub.com/smiths/MAS176) Signatures: 肥前國河内大掾藤原正廣 hizen kuni kawachi daijo fujiwara masahiro 河内守藤原正廣 kawachi kami fujiwara masahiro 肥州河内大掾藤原正廣 hishu kawachi daijo fujiwara masahiro The 2nd signature is a match to the one on my wakizashi. (with exception of location missing) The seller also sent me this page as confirmation. Unfortunately I can't read but it looks like everything checks out when I compare the characters. I guess it looks like as far as the mei is concerned, everything is order?

Yes this shipped out from Japan. The seller indicated that it was done by 4th generation masahiro but there is almost no information and I could not find anything to compare it to. That being said, maybe I just dont know where to look. I did resolve the Hizen vs Hishu thing though as it seems like some of the earlier masahiro generations also did sign with hishu.

For reference, the blade edge is 55.1 cm with 1.7 cm curvature.

I purchased this wakizashi recently. The blade looks to be in very nice condition. The hamon and the veins in the blade look to be authentic as with the hamon. I have 2 main concerns. 1) the signature is hi-shu kawachi-no-kami Fujiwara Masahiro. When I googled this name, most of the signatures with this name were hizen hishu. Is this a cause for concern? Resolved! Upon second glance, there are actually quite a few that are listed as Hishu rather than Hizen 2) this item came with nbthk tokubetsu kicho paperwork. Although the blade does look very nice with virtually no scratches and only one very tiny very light line of black rust which I showed in a picture, I heard that one should always be wary of any swords with this type of paperwork. For refence, I paid $1500 usd. There is still a return policy in place so I wanted to make sure that what I have looks good to everyone else. This has been keeping me up all night. Maybe it's just jitters. Hopefully you guys can help me clarify. Due to the size of the photos, I uploaded some of the pictures onto ibb photo hosting. https://ibb.co/Vp08dkz https://ibb.co/R24BYcp https://ibb.co/JyKsnDn https://ibb.co/RchpZ3L

Are there any examples of a signature lacking a character? Does this mean that the item is fake?

Hello, I am a new member of the forums so please bare with me. Quite a while back, I had purchased this blade. The signature reads Bishu Osafune Sukemitsu. Is there any way to tell the generation based on this signature? Also, I noticed that the reverse of the tang has a date but the date seems to be incomplete. It only reads Ni Gatsu Hi. There is no year. Only a month. Why would this be done? Any information would be helpful! Respectfully, Nathan S