atma-san Posted February 28, 2014 Report Posted February 28, 2014 (Excuse my poor vocab, i know nothing of nihonto compared to you guys) My father had this katana for years before i was born(im 23) so i know its not a fake nihonto like so many around these days. I know nothing about it except it is most likely a war capture sword. I could be mistaken here but the steel on nakagao(to my untrained eye) seems much older than Ww2. It has a very tight hada, I actually didn't know for sure it was tamahagane till a few weeks ago when it finally became mine and I took it for a good look in the sun. Boy was I suprised! I had thought for years that the blade was too scratched to see the hamon from halfway down the blade to tip of the kissaki. From the habaki to the alfway point it has a subtle midare hamon, then halfway it turns to sughue and is virtually straight the rest of the blade. Does this rare hamon make it special at all? On the tang is only 1 small kanji, I tried to get a picture of. Can anyone tell me about this blade?(Year, style, smith, worth getting polished?). I will take more pics once my maintence kit comes and i can wipe the blade down with choji oil, my father did not care for it properly. If you want to see pics from a certain angle or of a specific part let me know. For some reason you need to click the first picture fyi. Gabe H. Quote
hxv Posted February 28, 2014 Report Posted February 28, 2014 Dear Gabe, Without close up, focused pictures in good lighting, nothing can be said about your sword. Please post pictures. Regards, Hoanh Quote
Marius Posted February 28, 2014 Report Posted February 28, 2014 Does this rare hamon make it special at all? No. It is a just kantei point. BTW, welcome to the Board Gabe Quote
atma-san Posted February 28, 2014 Author Report Posted February 28, 2014 I used the upload thing, can you not see the pictures? Gabe H. Quote
Marius Posted February 28, 2014 Report Posted February 28, 2014 No. You must have forgotten to click on the "Add the file" button. Oh, and there is a "Preview" button, so you can see if you were successful with the pics. Quote
atma-san Posted February 28, 2014 Author Report Posted February 28, 2014 They were too big. I cropped them. Here is a couple more. Gabe H. Quote
hxv Posted February 28, 2014 Report Posted February 28, 2014 Gabe, Close up, focused pictures in good lighting of the bare blade itself, please! Hoanh Quote
atma-san Posted February 28, 2014 Author Report Posted February 28, 2014 Gabe, Close up, focused pictures in good lighting of the bare blade itself, please! Hoanh Look in the first post. I should have the kit to oil it in a few days, ill take some with a real camera then. Any information on the kanji character or how the steel on nakagao looks would be great. Also would it be worth getting polished/restored professionally? If it would cost more than the blades value, is there a cheaper american based polisher someone knows of? I would love to have the rust and scratches taken out, and refinished. Edit: Here is the other side of nakago. Im finding a place to upload a bad picture of the full blade. It was too long for here. Gabe H. Quote
hxv Posted February 28, 2014 Report Posted February 28, 2014 Gabe, I think I see areas with nie, so it's probably traditionally made (if my eyes didn't deceive me). Can you get picture of both sides of the bare tang? As for whether it's worth polishing, it all depends on your goal and your ultimate plan for the sword. If you plan to sell it later, you won't get your money back. If you plan to keep it in the family and hand it down to future generations, then it would be good to polish it. As far as what the sword might be, the pictures are not focused and zoomed in enough to tell. Hoanh Quote
atma-san Posted February 28, 2014 Author Report Posted February 28, 2014 Gabe, I think I see areas with nie, so it's probably traditionally made (if my eyes didn't deceive me). Can you get picture of both sides of the bare tang? As for whether it's worth polishing, it all depends on your goal and your ultimate plan for the sword. If you plan to sell it later, you won't get your money back. If you plan to keep it in the family and hand it down to future generations, then it would be good to polish it. As far as what the sword might be, the pictures are not focused and zoomed in enough to tell. Hoanh I'm a lover of all things Japanese, and plan to keep it. I plan on having a Japanese sword collection, nihonto and modern production(to chop things and beat up). Guess I was lucky enough to not start collecting with a total lemon. If it is any indication of nie the hamon line really sparkles when the light hits it. 2 pictures of full blade coming(also bad, but like I said, I will update in a couple days when it is oiled and i'm not using my phone camera.) Sadly this is best lighting in my house, so best I can o for now. Thanks for any help. http://i58.tinypic.com/2607fgx.jpg http://i62.tinypic.com/16m0lj.jpg http://i61.tinypic.com/2evs2df.jpg Gabe H. Quote
hxv Posted February 28, 2014 Report Posted February 28, 2014 Gabe, Oiling the blade is good for storage, but for taking pictures, it's better to wipe off the oil with isopropyl alcohol to free the blade of oil and/or other residues. It's very hard to get details when the sword has a film of oil on it. Looking forward to seeing more pictures. Have a great weekend. Hoanh Quote
atma-san Posted February 28, 2014 Author Report Posted February 28, 2014 Oh wow, good to know. I'll post some better ones tomorrow then with proper lighting, and a real camera. Gabe H. Quote
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