child's swords

[Thaitom]

hi there, ive recently started colleting Japanese swords, i have recently bought a blade that is supposedly a tanto. but ive never seen a tanto blade as thin and narrow as this one is, also its signed, could it be a childs sword? how do you tell child swords?

[b.hennick]

Photos???

[Thaitom]

i will take and post pictures of it tonight. there are no rust, blade is straight but in poor polish, like someone tried to polish it once. there are some small forging lines.

[Thaitom]

here are the pictures

[Thaitom]

here are the pictures

[Thaitom]

heres more

[Thaitom]

heres the last of pictures

[Thaitom]

the other blade is a wakasashi, also signed with a name. RAIKOU , which means "Lighting" for comparison for size and thickness

[Thaitom]

i dont know much about either blades or the smiths or age. any help is greatly appreciated. thanks Tom

[Bugyotsuji]

Seems quite reasonable that it could be a Chigo-zashi. Can you get an upright shot of the signature? Something 正 -masa, but my neck is not as flexible as it used to be. I used to have a really nice one in full koshirae, but stupidly I let it go. I do still have a child's sword Koshirae on its own, however.

[Thaitom]

does thos help

[Bugyotsuji]

守正 Morimasa, look at Senjuin for an example.

http://www.sword-auction.jp/ja/content/as18623-%E5%88%80%EF%BC%9A%E5%8D%83%E6%89%8B%E9%99%A2%E5%92%8C%E6%B3%89%E5%AE%88%E6%BA%90%E5%AE%88%E6%AD%A3%E4%BD%9C%E5%8D%83%E6%89%8B%E9%99%A2%E7%9B%9B%E5%9B%BD%E5%89%8D%E9%8A%98%EF%BC%89-katana-senjuin-izumi-kami-minamoto-morimasa-saku-previous-name

[Thaitom]

ok, thanks