Ancestral blade in nice gunto mounts

[ChrisW]

Afternoon/morning gentlemen!
 

Its been a while since I've posted a blade of mine here but I just recently bought this from Eric from his eBay store for a modest sum. I rather like the blade despite the few flaws it has. I will let the pictures do the talking since Eric was so kind as to allow me to keep/use them here for discussion. Eric believes it is Sue-Bizen and dates to around 1530. Utsuri is present. Here are the measurements and specifics, as per Eric:

 

Blade:

 

Nagasa: 25"

Nakago : 5-5/8"

Total blade length : 30-5/8" 

Blade thickness at the habaki notch : 7.13 mm

Width at the habaki :  1-3/16" 

Width at yokote level : 13/16"

Sori / curve : 7/16"  

Point / Kissaki : 1-1/4" 

 

Hamon: A beautiful very attractive well controlled Choji-ba on both sides.

Strong long point/kissaki & there is boshi turn-back on both sides.

 

Hada : Itame mix with beautiful activities within

 

 

 Mounts:

 

Blade rests in its original WW2 gunto mounts circa 1940 in fair condition

Showing some wear & tear from age & WW2 use.

A Family Mon on Kashira & wooden scabbard with no leather cover.

Pieced Tsuba + 4 seppa's

Original old silver foil habaki

Solid handle but showing some fraying & losses on the brown-silk wrap

Good solid scabbard & the lock mechanism works fine.

My only ask is: what do you all think of it? I think I did pretty well. I am happy with it and there is a lot to study.

[IJASWORDS]

Nice pick-up! Nice mounted old blade. Good to find one with a mon as well. Would have originally had a leather combat cover of course. PM me with the Saya length, width and thickness, and I will look through my stuff and see if I can find a suitable leather cover.  

[ChrisW]

That would be amazing Neil! I'll get those measurements asap.

[Stephen]

Neil asking for a FB poster.

While your digging around would you have a copper nco saya? Long shot i know but asking because i guess hes too shy to ask.

[Stephen]

Chris i think you did fine....get a deal off Eric???? Then you did more than fine 😂

[ChrisW]

  On 7/10/2021 at 4:06 PM, Stephen said:

Chris i think you did fine....get a deal off Eric???? Then you did more than fine 😂

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Well, if you consider $1100 a deal for a Sue-Bizen mumei in fair polish with lots of activity to study, then yes, I did alright! Eric is definitely more of a 'sell it at premium values' kind of guy, so I was surprised I managed to snag this one in auction for that. Pretty happy about it regardless.

[Stephen]

As well as you should be congrats!