Help with possible age of tanto?

[Joab]

Hello.... Someone suggested I come here to find out if my tanto is a newer made one or  older. I would appreciate anyone's advice on its age and any critique you may have... thanks 

[Joab]

[Joab]

[Joab]

[Joab]

[Grey Doffin]

Hi Joab,

Not newer made but to begin to tell you how old it is we'll need a better picture of the tang.

Grey

[Joab]

Sure 

[Joab]

Sure 

[Joab]

[Joab]

[Joab]

I hope this helps.

[Grey Doffin]

Try taking the pictures with a black background. As is, we can clearly see the off-white background and the tang is indistinct. Best guess from what I can see so far is Shinshinto at the earliest, possibly 20th century some time.

Grey

[Joab]

[Joab]

[Rivkin]

I vote early showa.

[Joab]

So it probably doesn't have much value being so recently made???????      Thank you for your responses...

[hxv]

37 minutes ago, Joab said:

So it probably doesn't have much value being so recently made???????      Thank you for your responses...

Not necessarily...Your tanto's nakago looks pretty crude. It looks to me like it might have been relatively recently repurposed from the broken tip of a longer sword.

 

Hoanh

[ROKUJURO]

12 hours ago, Joab said:

So it probably doesn't have much value being so recently made?.....

Joab,

the value is in the quality, not in the age! There are cheap (and low quality) swords that are 600 years old, and very good and expensive blades made this year!

[Joab]

How would I go about finding out the quality?

[hxv]

Joab,

 

Reading books and exploring the "Sold Archive." Below is one of the must-have primers.

 

https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Connoisseur_s_Book_of_Japanese_Sword.html?id=zPyswmGDBFkC

[Joab]

4 hours ago, hxv said:

Joab,

 

Reading books and exploring the "Sold Archive." Below is one of the must-have primers.

 

https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Connoisseur_s_Book_of_Japanese_Sword.html?id=zPyswmGDBFkC

Ok... thank you 

[DoTanuki yokai]

Maybe this can help you but to really understand what’s going on a lot of experience and knowledge is necessary 

http://www.ksky.ne.jp/~sumie99/appreciate.html

 

Newer blades should be signed so this is not a good start for the value and it is hard to tell someone about quality when most people look for big names not workmanship. 

I can’t see the condition of the polish in this pictures but it looks ok.

[Matsunoki]

On 10/10/2022 at 9:26 PM, hxv said:

It looks to me like it might have been relatively recently repurposed from the broken tip of a longer sword.

Hello again Joab

i don’t think your Tanto is the the top section from another sword. It looks like the hamon ends correctly at the ha-machi. If it was a repurposed piece the hamon would continue into the nakago. The overall appearance and style of your blade with a rather ugly nakago is very reminiscent of Tanto that were made quickly and cheaply during the Meiji period to sell to the Westerners who were then in Japan. I’ve seen many similar. The Koshirae also looks from that period.

So, it’s not a fake but it’s probably not that good either.

All the advice given above is solid. You have to see good things to recognise bad things. You need to read and study and examine……books, museums …..anything. The material on this Forum should keep you busy for a few years!!

Happy hunting.

All the best. Colin