Worth sending to togishi?

[ChristianR2D2]

A friend of mine purchased this blade from an auction site. The blade is in bade shape. There are some open welds that I tried to photograph.

 

Here are the specs:

Sori: 1.5 cm

Ha watari 70 cm

Motohaba: 28 mm

Sakihaba: 21 mm

Kasane (at machi): 6mm

Low shinogi

Chu kissaki (4.2 cm)

Suguha

 

It looks old? Cut down from a tachi? I haven't seen many nakago from old blades, what era would the patina be consistent with?

I'm so new to this that I don't know if I should disregarded this blade because of the open welds, or is it ever acceptable and worth while to have a blade like this sent out for polishing? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[Grey Doffin]

Hi Christian,

Is the blade retempered? Is it tired (too many polishes)? Does it have a fatal flaw you're not aware of? Until you can answer questions like these for yourself and not rely on opinions offered online from a few photos, you shouldn't be considering having unsigned, undocumented, unknown blades sent to polish. There will always be unknown blades to buy; there will always be blades you can have polished; there is no reason to be in a hurry. Study Grasshopper.

As for this blade, the open grain/defects are troubling but no one can answer the question for sure without seeing the sword in hand.

Meaning well, Grey

[Stephen]

My five cents

Yes inflation 

It already seen its heyday,  time for the ol work horse to be put out to pasture. 

The stories it could tell, keep er oiled and bring out to study what you can see in the hamon n hada. 

 

[Rivkin]

O-kissaki with small sori, I think we can exclude shinshinto here (jigane etc. looks koto) so the options are Tensho and Nanbokucho. If its Nanbokucho then yes, polish is a good risk.

Its mitsumune which reduces attibution options. It does not seem that shinogi is on a high side, which sort of suggests the same direction.

 

If you can find couple of areas where activity is visible and capture them there is a chance it can be attributed as is. The best case its Nanbokucho Soshu which is almost always good return on polish, but by conservative default for now I would treat it as Tensho.

[Jacques]

You have to ask yourself whether the cost of polishing exceeds (or not) the value of the sword , which seems to be Muromachi and suriage. This type of sword is the least sought-after on the market.

[Stephen]

8 hours ago, Rivkin said:

Nanbokucho Soshu which is almost always good return on

Kirill 

so you think this ol boy has that much steel left for another polish?

munemachi is almost gone , looks to me coresteel is showing,  maybe better pictures especially the ware and hada.

 

My eyes are almost kaput so I could be wrong. 

 

[Rivkin]

27 minutes ago, Stephen said:

Kirill 

so you think this ol boy has that much steel left for another polish?

munemachi is almost gone , looks to me coresteel is showing,  maybe better pictures especially the ware and hada.

 

My eyes are almost kaput so I could be wrong. 

If its Tensho the damage is high already, multiple wares, subtantial thinning from nakago to the blade, on suriage at that etc. etc. 

If its Nanbokucho Soshu circa 1360, if you get tired Hasebe with ware its still ok price wise after polish.

I suspect its Tensho, but based on such photographs its still a very slim evidence.

[ChristianR2D2]

10 hours ago, Grey Doffin said:

Hi Christian,

Is the blade retempered? Is it tired (too many polishes)? Does it have a fatal flaw you're not aware of? Until you can answer questions like these for yourself and not rely on opinions offered online from a few photos, you shouldn't be considering having unsigned, undocumented, unknown blades sent to polish. There will always be unknown blades to buy; there will always be blades you can have polished; there is no reason to be in a hurry. Study Grasshopper.

As for this blade, the open grain/defects are troubling but no one can answer the question for sure without seeing the sword in hand.

Meaning well, Grey

I don't know if the blade is re tempered. The steel does look very "muddy" I have so many pictures trying to show ANY activity in the steel but there are essentially no clear spots on the blade, at least to my untrained eye. 

I do agree that there are too many  unknowns and therefore this can just be kept around until someone wins the lottery.

[ChristianR2D2]

9 hours ago, Rivkin said:

O-kissaki with small sori, I think we can exclude shinshinto here (jigane etc. looks koto) so the options are Tensho and Nanbokucho. If its Nanbokucho then yes, polish is a good risk.

Its mitsumune which reduces attibution options. It does not seem that shinogi is on a high side, which sort of suggests the same direction.

 

If you can find couple of areas where activity is visible and capture them there is a chance it can be attributed as is. The best case its Nanbokucho Soshu which is almost always good return on polish, but by conservative default for now I would treat it as Tensho.

I'll try to post more of the pictures I took but to my untrained eye the steel looks cloudy just about everywhere.

[ChristianR2D2]

Thanks for all the feedback.

One last question, would it be a good idea or a bad idea to use uchiko powder to try and clear up some of the steel?

[vajo]

Hard to say from your pictures. I filtered it a little in photoshop and see this. You should show it a polisher. Looks promising to me. 

[vajo]

13 minutes ago, ChristianR2D2 said:

Thanks for all the feedback.

One last question, would it be a good idea or a bad idea to use uchiko powder to try and clear up some of the steel?

 

 

Uchiko is used for removing the oil. Not for polishing the blade to shine better  

Oil it and leave it as it is.