Tanto - What Do You Think?

[Photios]

Hello gentlemens,
I bought my first tanto (coincidence - garage sale). However, now I do not know how to classify it. I do not know if it's showa - or something older as would be implied by the remnants koshirae. I want to ask you for your views, feelings and insights.

Measure of blade:
Total length of the blade: 41.9 cm
Nagasa: 31.0 cm
Nakago: 10.9 cm
Sori: 4.3 mm
The height at munemachi: 31.5 mm
The thickness at munemachi: 6.4 mm

Eventual hamon is not possible to see - polish is completely consumed.

Big thanks in advance.

Petr K.
 

[lonely panet]

well your asking a lot, considering the condition of the blade.

 

people will only be able to guess, but due to the lost amount of meat visible though of whats left of the horimono, and general shape, im going to have a STAB at late koto-early Shinto. the nakago looks simular to sengo school. IMHO

 

please feel free to correct me guys, got to learn

[Geraint]

Dear Petr.

 

Well certainly not Showa.  The nakago and shape suggest Soshu school ko wakizashi.  Time to go slow, not sure where you are but if there is a local study group worth showing it to someone.  Above all please don't attempt any restoration yourself.

 

Looking forward to what others have to say.

 

All the best.

[ROKUJURO]

Petr,

it is certainly not a military blade! As Geraint said, SOSHU province is a possibility. This may come out as a nice one if properly restored in Japan! 

[Grey Doffin]

Hi Petr,

Just to reinforce what has already been said.  This tanto may well be something special if restored by someone with proper training and it may well be scrap iron if restored by someone else.  There will be little room for error; the blade has been polished down a lot already and there are chips in the edge that require careful and studied attention.  You don't have to get this polished; it isn't necessary for the blade's preservation, but if you do have it polished make very certain that the polisher has been properly trained.

I need to attend the same garage sales you do.  Congratulations!

Grey

[Brian]

Wow...and damn. That shows some promise.

I would seriously consider sending something like that to Kunitaro san for a polishing opinion. At the very least, let them open a window and tell you what they see.

If not...send it my way, and I will take good care of it

[Kronos]

I'd agree with what has already been said, looks sue-soshu and with 6.4mm kasane could still be quite healthy despite the rust. Not a lot to go on except the shape which reminds of the likes of tsunahiro. Where about's are you located?

[Photios]

Gentlemen,
once more again I thank everyone for their valuable insights and advice. I very much appreciate them. I must say that I was pleasantly surprised -  I bought the blade cheaply. In truth I really thought about it that I'll try to polish the blade ... I'm surprised how much potential you see in this blade.

 

To James: I'm from Czech Republic. Unfortunately in Central Europe I don't know any really qualified togishi. I'm going to look around.

 

Petr

[Kronos]

I'm afraid you may need to look further afield in that case as I'm not sure about mainland Europe. There's always Japan but registration and agent fees would be too prohibitive for just a window which I'd recommend. There's always Bob Benson who's very good in the US, then there's a couple of guys in the UK while not having done apprenticeships in Japan I'd trust to polish medium level nihonto and could certainly handle a window with ease. Your best bet may be Andrew Ickeringill who while far away in Australia is a top quality togishi and I believe he'll be doing a round of windows in the next couple of months.

[Jussi Ekholm]

I'll also jump in the sue-Soshu train. As you are in Czech Republic you might want to hit up: http://nihonto.Japan.cz/Having experienced collectors giving you personal advice would be a good thing. Don't try to polish it by yourself. Members of Czech nihonto club can teach you a lot, so it will most likely be a very fun experience to meet with them.

 

As far as polishers in Europe I believe Massimo Rossi (Italy) and Tony Norman (UK) have both gotten nyusen in competitions. I've never been in contact with either of them so I do not know their background more than that.

[Photios]

Thanks for valuable advice - I will try to contact Czech nihonto club and maybe get some recommendation. Good idea. If the blade has such potential, so it is worth it.

 

Petr K.

[Greg F]

Hi Petr,

If you have trouble finding somebody to do the window/polish closer or properly trained I would highly recommended Andrew Ickeringill as ive seen his work on a friend and fellow members blade and its superb!

I have been going to garage sales for a while with hopes of finding something like this in the back of my mind. Congratulations on a wonderful find. All the best.

 

Greg

[Photios]

Hi Petr,

If you have trouble finding somebody to do the window/polish closer or properly trained I would highly recommended Andrew Ickeringill as ive seen his work on a friend and fellow members blade and its superb!

I have been going to garage sales for a while with hopes of finding something like this in the back of my mind. Congratulations on a wonderful find. All the best.

 

Greg

 

Hello, Greg,

thank you very much for the tip.

Once more to the "garage sale" - in fact it was purchased at a local auction portal, where they normally sell items in quality of garage sale (that's why I called it so - otherwise the actual garage sales do not have a tradition in our country). Japanese swords are on this portal absolute rarity. So really it was a matter of chance and luck ...

 

Regards

Petr K.