Rare: Nakago extension

[Ed]

A friend picked up a sword which was a bit unusual, it has had the Nakago extended. A piece of material was shaped then peend onto the nakago with three pins. I had never seen one, and thought you guys might enjoy seeing it.

[cabowen]

Normally, they overlap like this and then weld....

[Baka Gaijin]

Hi Ed

 

Can you explain the term "peend" as it relates to this nakago in a bit more detail please.

 

Cheers

[Marius]

Pinned?

[hybridfiat]

Peened means to round over and expand a rivet using a hammer. Hence the name ball pene hammer.

[george trotter]

It looks like the lengthening has been done for a purpose...(not to deceive). Maybe the owner wanted a better nakago length but didn't want to suriage the blade any more?

 

yes, to "peen" is to hammer a piece of metal into a shape...like the burring over of a rivet end like a mushroom...that is why engineer's hammers have the round ball on one end of the head...the "ball peen hammer"...not found on a carpenter's "claw hammer" which usually has a claw to remove nails.

[Ed]

Malcolm,

Sorry, I had called it a night by the time you wrote however the answers provided are correct. A pin or rivet (pin in this case, rivet has a rounded head on one end) is placed through the hole and then the ends are flared with a hammer and punch. This widens the diameter of the pin on both ends which tightens the fit, reduces play or movement and prevents the pins from coming out.

 

Chris,

I have heard of them being welded. My thought is that perhaps it was done this way in order to prevent loss of the hamon due to the heat. By heating the nakago to forge welding temperatures of around 2200° F. and as it is only a few inches from the hamachi, it seems likely and at least possible that the heat transference could be enough to damage the hamon. This peened method would eliminate that possibility, though welding would be permanent and much stronger.

[Baka Gaijin]

Thanks Ed, George, Steve & Markus

 

Makes sense now

 

Cheers

[Ron STL]

Interesting to see this type of extention method. The only time I've ever seen a nakago "extended" was on a wonderful large Soshu wakizashi and that was at least 30-odd years ago. The sword was signed: Soshu ju Hiromasa and in polish with Soshu-style horimono. It's nakago was extended by affixing a copper sleeve to the typically short Shoshu nakago. There were no pins or rivets showing, so the sleeve must have been pressed on so as not to damage the nakago. You can see from the attached oshigata where the copper sleeve extention started.

 

I very, very much wanted this sword but the owner, an Colonel in the AF working in St. Louis, was not interested in selling. He had brought this sword and a very large mumei naginata back from Japan as a teenager; his father was also military. I did make oshigata of his two blades and also took them to shinsa for him. Now retired to Sacramento, who knows, maybe one day...

 

Ron STL

[Ed]

The copper sleeve sounds intriguing. I am interested to know about the edge of the nakago and the nakagijiri and how that was done. I can see that it was hammered or forged to look as though it was part of the original nakago. If it was a sleeve, was it hollow all the way through like tubing ? If so it had to be hammered then cut or filed to the proper shape. How was this seam dealt with? Was it soldered like a habaki is done or what ?

 

What was the patination like on it ?

 

Man, I would like to see that one!

[Ron STL]

Ed - It has been decades since handling this sword but I do not recall any seams or other "hints" to how it was made and/or affixed to the nakago. All I recall is that it was nicely done and that the thought did enter my mind that "if" this would come to me, should the sleeve be left as found or removed. My decision was, if my sword, that I'd leave it alone. Just part of the "story," the owner said he paid ~ $50 for this sword and the very beafy mumei naginata he had. Actually, that was a lot of money in 1948 Japan which is why he ended up with two nice blades, I'm sure.

 

Ron STL

[Ray Singer]

Robert Cole has also had a sword listed on his site for quite some time which has a extension that slides over the existing, ubu nakago. Link below...

 

http://www.sho-shin.com/yasusada.htm

[John A Stuart]

There is a Nodachi at Oyamazunijinja that has the same type of extension/repair. It is not clear to me if it is a modification or repair. Anyhow it is an old work and shows this to be an old standard method. John

[mdiddy]

A very large katana attributed to Shodai Kunisada from the recent Bonham's sale showed a nakago extension (http://www.bonhams.com/auctions/20503/l ... 6b1%3Dlist). It was a very long sword - 2 shaku, 9 sun - and I wonder if the extension had to do with practical usage. Having a longer nakago would mean impact force distributed over a greater length I think.

[Curran]

The Kunisada was mentioned by me in this thread: viewtopic.php?f=1&t=14101

 

Geraint and Adam L responded, with Adam showing another sword with the strange extension as on Ed's.

 

I'd seen a few like Ed's listed before where an extension was lapped on and pinned, but never seen one where it was extended with a hollow sleeve extender like on the Kunisada. For the record, I really liked that Kunisada as one of my favorites of the auction. Didn't think I would, but once out of the saya- the sword had lot of personality and the polish was good.

However, the extension on the Kunisada wasn't nearly as pleasant as the rest of the blade. The patina was painfully different. It isn't apparent so much in the black and white photos.