Robert S

I'm not a "collector" in the usual sense. Over a life of experiencing the world, certain things across a wide range of categories have attracted me to own, or even better, make. Some of them I have now, and some of them I may never have (30's Rolls Royce is currently a target, and also a "may never have" :-) ). Mostly what drives me is aesthetics and a sense of wonder at craft and design of specific objects. I don't particularly care what they're worth, or to study a particular class of things toward the amazing level of knowledge that many on this forum exemplify, as much as I admire it. As far as nihonto go, I currently only have a couple, picked up for moderate amounts because they called to me. I may yet buy more, or I may not... but I certainly enjoy seeing and hearing about them on this forum.

Love the "undying optimism" description of dealer's pitches :-) .

The blade itself is not necessarily military issue. Individual officers did use family swords, often in military koshirae, which this is not. But as well lots of blades were surrendered which had not been used by an officer, but were simply family blades.

I'm seeing way too many of those polishes around - drives me crazy - gorgeous hamon over-written with "what the heck, something like this might look good" hadori. Why. I ask, why?

I believe that it simply indicates that the owner had complied with the surrender requirements. It does sound like the possible beginning of an exciting adventure to return the sword to the family of the original owner, though :-)

This one feels like it has more than average Chinese influences in the design.

100% it's a reproduction, and clearly not traditionally made. I'm just wondering if it might have been made in Japan if I'm right about the age. Those of us of a certain (advanced) age can remember when "Made in Japan" was a synonym for cheaply made items conventionally described as "junk" (1950's and early 60's), and not for items of high quality (1970's onward).

A friend was given this "katana" in gratitude for helping out someone. It appears to me to be a post-war reproduction. The blade appears to be made with a solid steel core, with laminated facings on both sides, similar to the way that some Japanese kitchen knives are made today, although with signs of weld failure between the core and the laminated sections. It then appears to have been etched. It does have a "mei", and the tang has been filed. The fittings on the saya are cast, probably in white metal, and then possibly plated. The saya itself has been re-laquered (painted?) at some point, but is old enough to have been attacked by wood borers My conclusion is that this is a "reproduction" from the 1950's or 60's, made somewhere in Asia. Given the much greater expertise of many on this forum, I wonder if there are any further thoughts on this. I know that they are generally described as "chinese fakes", but wonder as well if things like this were ever made in Japan as well for the tourist trade?

JEB: At this point, I have no certainty that the very worn out wakizashi that I bought is that old, although it has certainly seen a lot of polishing, which says something to its age. Given that it looks likely that it was made as a wakizashi, I doubt it's kamakura. I bought it on e-bay, and the polish was not decent as bought :-) In fact, it will probably never be able to be brought back up to decent polish overall, as it is already down to the core metal in one spot, and there is some corrosion damage, which I would be reluctant to have polished out, as it would probably reveal more core metal. But it is possible to see some interesting details - what looks likely to be battle damage, extensive Jinie, and the barest remains of a sugaha hamon. This is truly an exercise in trying to understand the smith's methods and intentions, and the impacts of forging and hardening on the metal at some depth within the blade, given that so much has been polished away - more like nihonto archaeology than nihonto preservation :-). I'll post some photos when I get time to do the photography.

I agree in principle, but the price truly has to reflect that it is only good as a study piece, and you likely won't get even your small amount of money back. I bought one recently for $100, because I wanted to learn about what a truly worn out blade looks like ... which was probably about the right price :-)

If it has been in a fire, it has possibly lost its temper, which makes it not worth polishing unless the smith is of quite high reputation, and retempering is possible.

As an example of Utsuri and the complexities of creating them, here's an example of utsuri from a wakizashi - but this small area of utsuri is the only place it is found on this nihonto, so it appears that the specific conditions required to create utsuri only occurred on one small area on the blade - possibly accidentally?

I agree with oiling to stabilize the rust areas. My technique has been to apply a heavy oiling, to get the oil down into the dips and any micro crevices, and then careful repeated dabbing (not rubbing!) with a tissue to remove most of the oil on the surface.

That's extremely interesting. Do you have a thought on why in some cases you get that "hamon shadow" effect, with a gap between the hamon and the utsuri, and the form of the utsuri following the hamon approximately?

Agreed. The Wakizashi that I have that has utsuri on it, it's definitely nioi utsuri.

Doesn't look suriage to me - that looks like the original tang.

Buying any nihonto with active red rust on it carries some risk, as the total depth of corrosion is sometimes hard to tell.

That's a pretty flash saya! I'd say that was the one you wore to the opera :-)

I dug into the actual legal context. Relevant defences are: The weapon is antique (over 100 years old) The item being of historical importance. Making the weapons available to a museum or gallery in certain circumstances. Educational purposes. Made before 1954. Made at any other time according to the traditional methods of sword making by hand. Seems like they can't figure out whether the age limit is 70 years or 100, but overall this should provide a number of lines of reasonable defence for a collector.

What I'm seeing of the pattern it looks like a tsuba from India :-)

Nihonto with minimal sori could fall afoul of this law. Might work better if they added an age criteria - i.e. less than 50 years old and straight. I don't think the people they are targeting are buying older blades. Still might catch the occasional piece from a few contemporary swordsmiths, but more manageable.

£2.8 million of lovely nihonto and armour. I clearly need to up my budget :-)

That's extremely interesting. So the thought is that the Wabi aesthetics in tsuba were only a significant trend for about 50 years? That certainly narrows the attribution of those guards, for the most part.

Based on my research, Takeo Seki (BC) is no longer active... unless anyone has information indicating otherwise.

I'm not actually seeing that big a difference overall in the hamon. Those appear to me to be within the range of normal variation. The jigane differences are interesting. It almost like it may be a bit exaggerated by differences in polish, although I'd really be surprised by that on a toku juyo nihonto.