James Posted April 11, 2008 Report Share Posted April 11, 2008 Hi Guys Can someone identify this hot stamp for me please and let me know what it means. It is found on a the nakago of the seki smith 'Kaneshige', does anyone have some information on this smith? Thanks in advance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rich S Posted April 11, 2008 Report Share Posted April 11, 2008 Check towards the bottom of my Kanefusa page. Maybe the same stamp?? http://www.geocities.com/alchemyst/kanefusa.htm Rich S Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Posted April 11, 2008 Author Report Share Posted April 11, 2008 Yes, that's it! "Believed to read: "Registration of practical design #211689. Wrapped steel forging blade"" Would this mean the blade is good quality? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rkg Posted April 11, 2008 Report Share Posted April 11, 2008 James, Just out of curiosity, did this piece also have a "shin gane Iru" stamp shown as item #vi on page 227 of Fuller & Gregory's blue book? (apparently it was originally mis-translated in their red book). I have a piece made by Masafusa that has this stamp in addition to the stamp you have a pictured - some images are in a web directory at: http://www.rkgphotos.com/masafusa/ (pardon the bad composite) - the stamp like you have is not pictured - its on the back of the nakago Also check out Slough's book on pages 65 and 98. both pieces show this stamp. Anyway, after looking at the piece for a while, I now believe its some sort of non-traditionally made piece, with the stamp indicating that they used kobuse construction. The hamon doesn't really look oil quenched, but atter looking at it for a while I realized that there appears to be no nie (see images) - so is it modern steel that was water quenched, or oil quenched or what?... Best, rkg (Richard George) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Posted April 11, 2008 Author Report Share Posted April 11, 2008 On the nakago there is a Showa stamp, then the smith's mei, and finally the hot stamp. I can't see any other markings. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rkg Posted April 12, 2008 Report Share Posted April 12, 2008 James, Thanks for the info on your piece. Mine didn't have a showa stamp which made it confusing... I don't know what to say about the quality - as can be seen, it doesn't look like a lot of oil quenched pieces, so... Best, rkg (Richard George) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Posted April 13, 2008 Author Report Share Posted April 13, 2008 Forgive my ignorance but if a blade has a Showa stamp, does that automatically classify it as a low quality, oil quenched piece? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Posted April 13, 2008 Report Share Posted April 13, 2008 Hi James, Not necessarily. Although it is usually the case, every time someone has tried to make the link between the showa stamp and oil quenched gunto...there have been confirmed exceptions to this rule. So while in most cases it does indicate that, there are swords that have had the stamp removed and were treated as gendaito. Also, there are other construction methods used during the war that are a step above the normal mill steel rolled construction. In this case, I do expect it was forged, although maybe not of traditional tamahagane, but I am not sure of the tempering method. You would need to look for signs of nie and hatraki, as well as hada if present. Nowdays I take the showa stamp as a hint to check for oil quenching, but I guess it isn't 100% proof. Most will be though, and exceptions are relatively speaking the exception not the rule. Brian Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Posted April 13, 2008 Author Report Share Posted April 13, 2008 Thanks for the info Brian. I've found a great article on this matter and I recommend that anyone interested in this topic should read it: http://www.laighleas.com/shostamp.htm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kiipu Posted June 20 Report Share Posted June 20 On 4/13/2008 at 12:24 AM, James said: I've found a great article on this matter Link long gone so see attachment via Wayback Machine. japanese-swords.pdf 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cisco-san Posted June 20 Report Share Posted June 20 On 4/13/2008 at 9:24 AM, James said: Thanks for the info Brian. I've found a great article on this matter and I recommend that anyone interested in this topic should read it: http://www.laighleas.com/shostamp.htm link is not working, at least not for me?! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cisco-san Posted June 20 Report Share Posted June 20 On 4/11/2008 at 10:29 AM, James said: Hi Guys Can someone identify this hot stamp for me please and let me know what it means. It is found on a the nakago of the seki smith 'Kaneshige', does anyone have some information on this smith? Thanks in advance. Hello, from Markus book: KANESHIGE (兼重), Shōwa (昭和, 1926-1989), Gifu – “Kaneshige” (兼重), real name Murayama Shigeaki (村山重明), born July 29th 1909 as son of Kaneyuki (兼幸), he worked as a rikugun-jumei-tōshō and died July 9th 1982, jōkō no retsu (Akihide) see also John S. Sloughs book Modern Japanese Swordsmith 1868-1945, page 64 and 65 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruce Pennington Posted June 20 Report Share Posted June 20 4 hours ago, cisco-san said: link is not working, at least not for me?! The link just goes to the .pdf Thomas added just above your post. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kiipu Posted June 20 Report Share Posted June 20 6 hours ago, cisco-san said: Link is not working, at least not for me? Klaus, the website is long gone and I was curious as to what it had to say about sword stamps. So I went to the Wayback Machine and entered the URL. When I found only one snapshot dating back to March 2007, I decided it would be a good idea to grab it while it was still around and insert it in the thread for posterity. Back to the matter at hand, Bruce Pennington has briefly summarized the use of these stamps via the link below. Arsenal Stamps. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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