Robert S

Because chisels like that use a very hard metal for the cutting edge, they can retain a very sharp edge during use... but they can also chip if not used carefully... as I have reason to know. I agree that Kurashige Tools are likely to know more about the maker, etc.

Well, I do quite a lot of cabinet making, and own an extensive collection of Japanese and western chisels, planes, etc, including some which I made. What was your specific question regarding these chisels?

As Hoshi said, it may be a kantei trait, but I don't think that the presence of shintetsu on a sword is ever going to increase the value of a sword, as compared to a sword by the same maker without shintetsu.

I have a bit of a question about this theory, since it seems that for most of the time that Japanese swords were produced, production was clustered around streams bearing quality iron sands. I don't know why this would be the case unless they were utilizing the iron sands to make tamahagane, and using that to make the swords. I'm sure that they did integrate steel from other sources when available, but the idea that tamahagane was only used as a primary material for 70 years seems pretty unlikely.

Nice work! A few comments: 1. The "Vickers hardness in cross section" page at the beginning of the Mechanical section is in there twice, once with an added "antique" label, and once without. 2. The data presented on trace element concentration (Phosphorus and Sulphur) in iron sands indicates that these elements tended to be high enough to increase brittleness, and there seems to be limited effect of forging/folding on the concentration of these elements. Despite this, the antique blades tested seemed to have achieved lower trace element levels... so either they were using better iron sands, or eliminating some of these elements through the bloomery process, or they were able to reduce the concentration of these elements through forging or other processes. 3. The relative consistency of carbon content in the edges of the antique blades is pretty remarkable, given the variation on the iron sands. I'd love to know how they determined carbon percentage, since they clearly had pretty good ability to control it. Maybe it was just trial and error with a given iron sand/bloomery process and resulting grades of tamahagane, resulting in a rule of thumb, but maybe there were some other indicators in heating, color or forging properties. I've done some knife making, but of course with modern steels I was starting with tightly controlled steel grades, so never worries about this. 4. Your summary of the forging and folding process on page 5 sort of implies that forging and folding were exclusively associated with the forge welding process of different steel grades toward the end of the forging process. But of course there was a whole bunch of forging and folding of the individual steel grades prior to the process of forge welding and folding the different steel grades together. Thanks for putting this together! I'm getting awfully tempted to try to put together a miniature bloomery furnace and see what I can get with local iron sands :-)

Nothing is as good as a blade in hand, but that video is definitely useful to us newbies as a complement to books and other resources.

It is s stunning piece of craftsmanship. My guess is that given this is the second time it has been offered, if it hits 250,000 yen the seller might let it go, although they probably believe it it worth more.

For me #4 comes closest, but neither the taper nor the kissaki are quite to my taste. More taper and a longer, more elegant kissaki is what rings with me.

First choice for me would be #2, last would be a saw off between #s 3 and 4.

Looks a lovely piece, and I agree with the thought regarding the value of supporting living swordsmiths and helping to keep the craft alive. Nicely done!

It sounds possible that the reason the saya was cracking in the first place was that it was shrinking due to the low humidity, and becoming too tight around the habaki. Now that you've closed the gap in the saya. the habaki won;t fit all the way in.

60+. Bought my first nihonto last year, but collecting and occasionally making knives and edged tools for 45+ years Robert S

Just to follow up on the casting question, I would not regard an early cast tsuba as being less worthy or valuable. In fact, from a historical point of view I would regard early casting experiments as being historically important. I may be wrong on this being cast, but as I said, this form is certainly suggestive of it. I would expect filing on a cast tsuba of any quality, to remove the casting marks.

At a guess all of these come from one or more craftspeople that were experimenting with casting. Getting those cylindrical shapes is entirely natural in casting, but a lot of work using other techniques. That aligns with the idea that these are later work. Robert S

Curious that it seems to have the signature on both sides. Is that common?

Odd. I looked up a swordsmith a couple of hours ago on the Index and it was OK. Maybe server/internet probems.

Seems to be back up now. Robert

The carving on this is relatively crude. Does anyone have any idea what the history is of these relatively poorly carved tosogu is? A friend has a katana in koshirae with a kabuto gane showing a sumo wrestler which is similar quality workmanship, and I took it to be probably a non-Japanese imitation... but maybe I was wrong.

Lovely article. It definitely refocuses me on the thought that as part of Nihonto appreciation, commissioning a sword as a way to help keep the art alive is important where possible.

Take a look at this link, which is sometimes useful for sorting out ratings, dates, etc. : https://nihontoclub.com/view/smiths

That is an interesting appearance in the hamon area. Attached a photo of an acid polished blade with the hamon apparently still fully present, for comparison.

Lewis: I totally agree with your comment on "preponderance of swords coming from Japan with such heavy obscuring Hadori". I think there is a real issue there. I frequently see pictures of blades where even in the picture you can see that the hadori polish has little to do with the real hamon. To my mind this is where the link with art restoration comes in. I would characterize that sort of polish as being really bad art restoration, with the potential to terminally damage a blade if it has little meat left. To my mind there is little difference between a fake boshi and a polish where the polish obscures the hamon, and makes the blade look like something it isn't (better or worse). Being perhaps a little controversial, but I'm not sure that that form of polish is much better than the amateur attempts that are robustly discouraged (for good reason) on this site. Robert S

Hand painted as far as I can see... Robert S

I picked this up at the recent Bonham's auction - late 19th century Japanese lacquer box, about 3 inches across the longer direction, showing an autumn wind in a forest at almost unimaginable levels of detail. The craftsmanship is completely stunning. Robert S.

There was a lot of amazing work in that sale... and it's interesting how much of it didn't sell. I ended up getting one of the lacquer boxes (lot 69): my first experience with Bonhams, and likely my last. Unfortunately, they haven't moved into the 21st century in terms of providing seamless payment, shipping, etc., and I wonder if that is part of the reason for the poor performance of that sale. We're all used to much better service these days...