Fusilier

Cheers Mal, amazing info from you and guy's, I'm still sorta amazed at the degree of collective knowledge that you are collectively able to apply to this discipline. Thank you.

Cheers Jean

Thanks so much John, Klaus and not least Jan, you blokes are the real deal. I'll pass the info on and let you know what Gary (the owner) says. He was absolutely convinced the characters were too corroded to make out and that the sword was pretty much worthless given that and the state of the Saya and the Tsuka. One final question, the leather binding on the Saya, is that original or has someone added it over time?

I'll do that in the morning John and get the photo's back to you. Cheers Jan, Do you know anything about Fujiwara Saneyuki and when he was working?

Cheers John, What is it I do with the talcum powder, you might just have to give me a quick tewt. The other side of the tang doesn't appear to have any characters on it. See picture.

More Pics

G'day Guys, Like pretty much every other male in my community, I'm in the NSW Rural Fire Service (RFS). We are formed into volunteer crews and we train on Wednesday evenings. This week as we were sitting in the back of our our truck I was telling my crew about the detective work you blokes had done to help me find out about my Ujinobu made sword. One of the blokes on the crew said he had a sword in his shed that his grandfather had brought back from the War. He asked if I could find out anything about it and this arvo, he dropped in and we took some photo's. I hope you might be able to assist.

Cheers Dan, WILCO.

G'day Guy's, Thanks so much to both of you for your advice and support and to Uwe, Colin and Jean. Invaluable and informative in equal measure, you fella's are the real deal. Cheers David

G'day Colin, John, Pictures attached as requested.

G'day Colin, Thanks for your information, I'm most grateful. Unfortunately, I had to reduce the size of the JPG files for the system to accept them, the original pics are much better quality but the max file size limit prevents me from uploading them. I've attached the two smallest files I have that have not been reduced. I realise that I'm probably asking you an impossible question here, but when would the acid cleanup on the sword, you suspect has been done, have happened? The reason I ask is that the lady from who I purchased it really didn't strike me as someone who would have had that done and her husband died a decade ago after being given the sword by a relative long before that. If I assume (conscious of what the first three letters of that word spell) that adds up to at least 20 and probably more years, is it possible that the "got at" happened in the 1980's or 90's?.

Thanks John, I'll get some pictures of the blade with fittings removed when I get home tomorrow. Thanks for the advice wrt cleaning which is always welcome and acts as a good reminder, I'll give it a wipe over as even though I intend selling it, I'd not want to be responsible for something that old being damaged while its in my hands. I do have some photos of the saya and the blade and I'll upload those here:

I've attached a few more images and hope that helps.

Thanks Uwe, John, That's really interesting, so if I've understood correctly, the Tsuba is a cast copy of an original one made by the Umetada school. How recently made would this Tsuba be, the reason I ask is that the lady I purchased it from told me that the sword had been given to her husband by his Uncle years ago, and that her husband died nearly 10 years ago. I'd be surprised if its as recent as that but then again, stranger things happen at sea !! I'm glad that Jean thinks the blade is genuine but may I ask; do either of you have an opinion on the authenticity of the blade or its age? Cheers David

G'day Chris and thanks so much for that. Where and how do I compare the Mei? And lastly, would have you any idea what the mei on the Tsuba say? Jean has informed me that its a casting but I'm still interested to find out what the mei say. Cheers David

Cheers Jean, Hopefully the blade isn't a copy, thanks for the info.

G'day Guy's, I recently purchased the attached sword after a lady in Surfside (NSW) left a 'Sword for Sale' post it at the local IGA store !! The photo attached to the ad was pretty poor and at first I thought it was probably a modern replica, but worth a look as she was quite literally around the corner from me. As soon as I saw it, it was obvious it was genuine and it had an old photo attached with the words "No.2 c 1500 UJINOBU. We agreed a price and I now have a new sword that I'll be listing to sell. I was hoping that you guys might be able to confirm the information on the photograph matches that on the sword and the mei on the Tsuba. Hopefully, this time, I've got the photo's the right way around. Let me know if there is anything else you need. As for provenance, she knew almost nothing about the sword, it had belonged to her now deceased husband who she thought had been given it by an uncle. Thanks for any information you can provide.

G'day Dan, Thanks for that mate, I really appreciate you taking the time to do that, at least I can give any prospective buyer a starting point if he (or she) wants to investigate the swords provenance in greater depth. have a good one, cheers David

G'day Jean, In future I'll try and ensure I get the photography sorted and the characters the right way up. Thanks to the all the advice on here, it looks like its an early Edo blade and was forged by Kanesada from Seki (Mino) and Dan has given me a loose attribution that it might be KAN2041. If that is correct then I need to work out if that makes it Muromachi Era, Koto period which the online guide appears to indicate. https://www.Japanese...index.com/period.htm. Cheers David

Cheers John, Never too old to learn, thank you.

I'm seriously impressed John, just for my education, what about the shape of the sword tells you that? or do I just need to spend years learning from a master !!

G'day again Piers, This is the other side of the Nakago, I can't see anything on there. If its the Showa era Kanesane, would that be Asano Kanesane and his East Asia Sword Company. I did a quick search and came up with this info; https://nihontoantiq...ct/kanezane-fss-785/. Given the absence of the kokuin at the tip of the nakago, mentioned in the online article, would I be correct in assuming this was made by one of his junior smiths?

G'day John, I'll dig it out of its storage box at some point and take some photo's. Its in much better overall condition so I reckon I'll keep hold of that one.

Thanks Mate, There is nothing on the other side of the Nakago so I assume whoever made the attribution must have determined the date in some other way or that bit of information is incorrect. The fella I brought it from said that Lt Harvey had picked up both swords in Buna, New Guinea so I did think that it might be a Showa era blade as opposed to the earlier date, which was why I wanted to try and get some confirmation. I'm sorry about you're neck, I won't offer to rub it better !!