What Do You Think About The Wakizashi?

Michael 67 · February 7, 2016

what do you say to the Wakizashi? I got offered to buy it.

Michael 67 · February 7, 2016

More pictures

Fuuten · February 7, 2016

Looks real. Refraining from the blade, the fittings seems quite nice (mainly tsuba, menuki and habaki too).

Blade i think looks real but in bad state. Saya looks banged up as well.

Stephen · February 7, 2016

Restore candidate. nice find

GrozaB · February 7, 2016

Looks good to me. Love the tsuba

Michael 67 · February 7, 2016

can someone say something about the signature?

Michael 67 · February 7, 2016

is 1600 USD expensive for Wakizashi?

Ken-Hawaii · February 7, 2016

Considering its condition, I'd say it was worth $500-$700 at most. Both the blade & the koshirae need restoring.

Ken

SteveM · February 7, 2016

can someone say something about the signature?

祐定

Sukesada. Plenty of fake signatures out there. Best to concentrate on the sword, and not the signature for this one.

Agree that it is in need of a restoration, starting with a polishing which will cost from $1000 to $2000 (say $2000 when you factor in shipping, etc...).

Could be a nice labor of love, but if you are looking for value there are plenty of other swords out there.

Stephen · February 7, 2016

As always in preservation one should not have have in back of their mind to regain cost rather than saving objets d'art.

Greg F · February 8, 2016

I think if you are willing to have it polished by a professional as well as saya restoration and/or shirasaya I think it would be a good one to keep providing your budget alows. As Steve said above it could be a labor of love. Most importantly you would be doing your part for Nihonto preservation. All the best.

Greg

Ray Singer · February 8, 2016

To my eyes, $1,600 is not an unreasonable price. It would be helpful to see photos of the entire sword and koshirae, rather just the closeups you have provided. From what I can see it is a reasonably nice wakizashi in generally intact handachi koshirae. The tsuka looks to be in good condition and the tsukamaki does not need to be redone. The tsuba is done in katakiri-bori. The saya has some losses to the lacquer which will need to be addressed, however if there isn't damage to the saya towards the kojiri (the parts we cannot see in your photos) then it should be restorable. Looks like the blade is purporting to be a Bizen Sukesada, a group of smiths who generally signed with a nagamei (long signature). Some of the gunk we see on the blade in your photos may come off with pure alcohol. It would be good to start there and see if a new polish is even needed.

Best regards,

Ray

GrozaB · February 9, 2016

I can't say anything about blade, but I fell in love with tsuba. It looksl like Yokoya tsubas from Boston Museum collection:

http://www.mfa.org/collections/object/tsuba-with-design-of-shishi-and-cub-12090

http://www.mfa.org/collections/object/tsuba-with-design-of-shishi-and-young-13751

Michael 67 · February 10, 2016

very interesting. Thank you very much.

Darcy · February 10, 2016

Considering its condition, I'd say it was worth $500-$700 at most. Both the blade & the koshirae need restoring.

Ken

I agree with this.

Furthermore it will be worth less than the cost of restoration after restoration.

So it is a candidate to buy if you like it as-is or you want to give to a hobby polisher to fix up.

Nijimei Sukesada is flying in the mass production group.

Darcy · February 10, 2016

As always in preservation one should not have have in back of their mind to regain cost rather than saving objets d'art.

It can be done with oil and uchiko and patience in this case though.

Ed · February 11, 2016

I'm a bit bewildered as to how anyone can be comfortable enough to provide valuation estimates without photos of the entire sword. There are no photos of the Kissaki or of the Omote. What if the kissaki is broken, the second photo almost looks as though it was deliberately taken to exclude the kissaki ? Big nasty opening on the omote ?

I don't know that there is any additional damage or flaws, but I do know that if there is unseen damage and the OP buys it, he going to say "the experts on the NMB told me it was worth it". It seems to me that when asking for values, one should be required to provide a minimum of necessary photos.

I can't say anything about blade, but I fell in love with tsuba. It looksl like Yokoya tsubas from Boston Museum collection:

Seriously ? The only thing this tsuba has in common with the Yokoya Soyo examples in your links is that the motif is of Shishi. Comparatively on a scale of 1-10 the tsuba in this thread is a 0 and the Soyo pieces are a 100.

Michael 67 · February 11, 2016

I'm still waiting for more photos

Stephen · February 11, 2016

buch damn old hens....lol

SAS · February 11, 2016

Big rust pits that would not polish out; i would pass. Lots of swords in much better condition for this price.

Michael 67 · February 13, 2016

_{More Pictures}

_{I will not buy the Wakizashi for 1600}

Stephen · February 13, 2016

last set of photos no. 4 of 6 far left on the top of hamon, is that a opening or another dark rust spot?

Michael 67 · February 13, 2016

Yes,ist a opening..

Stephen · February 13, 2016

Can be filled but not cost effective, it would bother you over time, IMHO

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