urgent help on bizen wakizashi prior to polishing ?

[loiner1965]

sorry for dramatic introduction but another blade recently aquired but needs a polish badly..please read document which is from a shop in 1995 describing said blade but i cannot see hamon now so must have been better then.

can add the following info...

kasane at hamachi is 6mm................4.7mm at yokote

mihaba at hamachi is 27mm...............20.3mm at yokote so its a nice slender blade

its a torii sori shape and is 12mm..........is this common in bizen blades?

everything else is as the document..its not in bad shape at all with just a little turn up at the point where i presumed it must have been dropped years ago.

question is.......is it worth getting polished and is late 15th cent early 16th as the other documents say.....shin gunto mounts i have for it are not made for the blade so will be sold on to recoup polishing funds.....many thanks for your time and help

[Brian]

Steve,

Size! Gotta teach you to resize and crop

That's 2.5 megs in 4 pics. Most of which is table. Will try and resize and upload when they download here.

 

Brian

[loiner1965]

Steve,

Size! Gotta teach you to resize and crop

That's 2.5 megs in 4 pics. Most of which is table. Will try and resize and upload when they download here.

 

Brian

......and i actually reduced my canon to lowest settings and resized the pics as i got the 1200 x 1200 pixle warning

[Brian]

Download Irfanview. Free and good for cropping and resizing

This waki looks pretty done. I notice it has been sharpened by grinding and that tip is a mess.

It might warrant a window by a decent polisher to see what is in there. If the kissaki can be repaired, it might turn out ok, but not worth a professional polish imho. You guys who use the "less professional" polishers who charge only $200 or $400 might have it looking a lot better, but that is a call you have to make. Can't get too much much worse anyways?

 

Brian

[leo]

Hi,

looks like a Momoyama or early Shinto blade. Hamon seems gunome w. choji, everything else is obscured.

Blade itself seems healthy, but the crucial point is the kissaki. Looks bad from here, but pic is unsufficient to tell exactly. Nakago does´nt look very virginal to me. Sori on a wakizashi must not necessarily tell you where it was made.

 

Regards, Martin

[loiner1965]

Hi,

looks like a Momoyama or early Shinto blade. Hamon seems gunome w. choji, everything else is obscured.

Blade itself seems healthy, but the crucial point is the kissaki. Looks bad from here, but pic is unsufficient to tell exactly. Nakago does´nt look very virginal to me. Sori on a wakizashi must not necessarily tell you where it was made.

 

Regards, Martin

its meaty enough but was told its bizen 15th century but its not koshii tori like i thought it might be....just investigating at the moment before i take the plunge with a polisher...not after a national treasure but i do like them to look like they should be rather than what it is now...why do you say its gunome with choji as its suppose to have midare with choji according to the sales receipt from previous owner

[Brian]

Steve,

In that condition, gunome and midare aren't too far apart. Midare is just irregular, whereas gunome would be more regular "bumps" Could turn out to be either, or both. Gunome midare..irregular waves. Can't be sure until it is in better polish.

As far as sori is concerned, there are guidelines, but no hard and fast rules.

 

Brian

[loiner1965]

totally agree brian with all your comments as well as leos...trouble is with blade out of polish and the only useable info is a 13 year old appraisal letter to go i am just stabbing in the dark and hoping more knowlegeble members can thow more light on this piece etc......as with leo comment on shinto period at least we are heading in the right direction

[John A Stuart]

See this example from the school and period. John

 

http://www.ricecracker.com/japanese_swo ... hi/sw2.htm

[loiner1965]

See this example from the school and period. John

 

http://www.ricecracker.com/japanese_swo ... hi/sw2.htm

cheers john for the link which i did see earlier as i tried to compare which bizen school it was ith he description i have.....its a shame the blade cannot tell us more and i think a polisher might hav to open a window or give me an appraisal. even though its a run of the mill blade i do not like them in this state

[pcfarrar]

..is it worth getting polished and is late 15th cent early 16th as the other documents say.....shin gunto mounts i have for it are not made for the blade so will be sold on to recoup polishing funds.....many thanks for your time and help

 

Why do you think the shin-gunto mounts aren't original to the blade?

[loiner1965]

..is it worth getting polished and is late 15th cent early 16th as the other documents say.....shin gunto mounts i have for it are not made for the blade so will be sold on to recoup polishing funds.....many thanks for your time and help

 

Why do you think the shin-gunto mounts aren't original to the blade?

loose fit john ......and the saya is for a katana...just a mismatch as well as its an officers tsuba with a nco saya...when assembled it looks out of place.

i think it had shin gunto mounts when surrendered and bought in 1995 but replaced later as the letter describes a rare ashi and the ashi on the saya is standared nco. i put them on ebay with a silly buy it now price and hopes some one wants them.....

Item number: 300290530502 if you want to see what they look like but i obmitted measurements but will post on ebay when i go home etc

[loiner1965]

you have a pm pete