Classification of steel description

[Ron M]

Good morning, I am looking at an Amahide Showato blade from a nice Type 98 setup without signs of an arsenal stamp.

I have read about the differences in the types of steels used; folded, partial folded, water quench vs oil quench.

I am wondering if this is a version of the 

Han tanren abura yaki-ire-to 

that I have been reading about. This hamon is very active and there is a lot in the hada, though it does appear this blade is oil quenched. 
 Please give some thoughts.

 Btw this sword has some nbthk papers from way back

[John C]

On 10/18/2023 at 5:33 AM, Ron M said:

Btw this sword has some nbthk papers from way back

Ron:

I  have a question: I know oil quenched blades cannot receive a torokusho (generally), however can they receive shinsa papers? 

 

John C.

[SteveM]

1 hour ago, John C said:

can they receive shinsa papers?

 

The NBTHK requires the sword to first be registered before submitting to shinsa.

 

Edit: Also, the registering authorities weren't supposed to be registering Shōwa blades, but there have been instances where Shōwa blades have been both registered AND submitted for shinsa. This seems to be happening with more frequency. My contention is that the post-war definition of "art swords" is becoming more malleable, as the distance grows between this generation and the immediate post-war generation. 

 

[John C]

4 hours ago, SteveM said:

The NBTHK requires the sword to first be registered before submitting to shinsa.

So in re: Ron's sword above, it would most likely have to be traditionally made and water quenched to receive NBTHK papers, though there are recent exceptions.

 

John C.

[SteveM]

Yes the odds are that its traditionally made.  

 

But I'd love to see the nakago - it might make it easier.

The pictures above look like the blade has some hada, so that almost precludes a Showa-tō. And of course the NBTHK papers should tell us what we are looking at - so a shot of that would be a great shortcut to the answer.  

[PNSSHOGUN]

Dark spots in the peaks of the Hamon indicate oil tempering.

[David Flynn]

I think this is a water tempered blade.   Is it possible to show some better photos?  I would also like to see a photo of the sig.

[Ron M]

Here are some more pics I took before out of town. Thank you for the replies 

[Ron M]

Paper showing Gendai, though old paper it does show there is no stamp nor one removed from what I can see in hand. It’s quite something