Mark

the mei side says Kao Isshin Mantetsu. maybe you can try to do the date. there is a lot of info on Mantetsu swords available on line

what are you looking for, NCO machine made, hand made, older blade, type of mounts? what is your target price?

I saw one some years back. It looked to be original not "put together"

kanetada is Dec 1944, the masanori is hard to see the month as the wting is poor, maybe oct 1944

no pictures, do not own the sword yet. owner thinks it is worth a lot and it has a very large and deep area of pitting in the temper (monouchi area) so i am not sure if it could even be polished. Just thought i would confirm what it says, it may not be an accuate attribution.

Thank you! I had looked in Aoe as the second kanji was Tsugu and thought Tsunetsugu may be close but the 2 small kanji looked nothing like Aoe to me so figured i was wrong. I appreciate the help

I am having a hard time with this. i can make out the second large kanji as Tsugu but and not sure the first kanji or the small kanji above and to the right. Any suggestions appreciated. Thanks!

I live Ohio -- are you nearby?

can you post a picture? we can try

i have a ShinShinto Tachi (original koshirae made for the blade) that has a leather tsuba. It is in poor condition like yours. I replaced the tsuba with an iron one but kept the leather tsuba so it can stay with the sword

the sword look fine, not repro. This type of mounts sometimes have decent gendai blades, like Nagamitsu etc. You can't see much of the blade in the pics and i would expect to see a hamon clearer as the condition is not too bad so i would be cautious, but it worth a look, it could be a lot better than a machine made gunto

ok, yes that was me.

I live near Toledo. I get up to Detroit occasionally.

Klaus i am sure you could work out something with one of us in the US and the seller could mail it to a US address, we could recieve it and forward it to you.

Awataguchi Omi (no) Kami Tadatsuna. Famous maker from late 1600's. There was a sword with this name that recently sold on eBay for several thousand. It is hard to be exact from just a small part of the tang, i would think caution would be best and move slowly until you know enough to decide what to do.

that is all i saw other than the stamp

looks like Feb 1945

tranlate what? i do not see anything or any links, am i missing something?

Went through the tsuba i took to Chicago for sale and found these. Not my favorite as i dod not collect them but i think they are Nanban. Comments welcome

why upload more picture? see Brian's message -- clear fake

there is an knowlegable collector who lives in the area. I asked him in Chicago and he is willing to offer his assiatance and look at the sword. Email me at nixe@bright.net and i will pass along his contact information. Hope that helps

I sold a couple of nice ones at the Chicago show. It is much easier to buy/sell when you have it in hand and can examine it and even ask opinions of others who are in the room. I an hesitant to offer swords on line as it is so hard to show exactly what it looks like. German daggers are "standard" and you need to verify if genuine and condition, but all handmade blades are different, there is no standard so it is a challenge. Do you travel to any big military swords (SOS or MAX etc)? If so you can arrange to see some nice swords in hand

maybe 1450-1500

i think if you are not comfortable with the price/value then best to pass and find something else. Hard for us to get in the middle of your transaction especially when we have no idea of the prices/return policy/details etc. If you are not excited to own these based on your experince level best to keep looking, there are plenty of swords available

looks like a ken shaped blade mounted as a tanto