Question on crack

[Jian Dao]

I own a Tegai papered nihonto. Recently sent it out for remounting. This sword has been kept on a rack in shirasaya. It was shipped wrapped in plastic, in saya, wrapped in bubble wrap, in styrofoam casing, and a box. 

 

The box arrived undamaged. The person making my says and tsuka reported finding a 2/12 in hair line delamination crack in the spine. He says it appears older with patina.

 

I maintained this blade regularly with cleaning. I have studied every inch of the blade and noted the flaws. Never have I seen this crack along the spine. If that even possible? This is a papers blade from 2022. Would have passed shinsa with this crack? Is this a fatal flaw and destroyed the value of my Nihonto? If it's new what could have caused this?

[Guest Simon R]

1 hour ago, Jian Dao said:

I own a Tegai papered nihonto. Recently sent it out for remounting. This sword has been kept on a rack in shirasaya. It was shipped wrapped in plastic, in saya, wrapped in bubble wrap, in styrofoam casing, and a box. 

 

The box arrived undamaged. The person making my says and tsuka reported finding a 2/12 in hair line delamination crack in the spine. He says it appears older with patina.

 

I maintained this blade regularly with cleaning. I have studied every inch of the blade and noted the flaws. Never have I seen this crack along the spine. If that even possible? This is a papers blade from 2022. Would have passed shinsa with this crack? Is this a fatal flaw and destroyed the value of my Nihonto? If it's new what could have caused this?

I'm sure that you've studied every millimetre of your sword in the past, just like all of us do who love these artworks.

You would have to be blind to miss that crack - therefore, I can only suspect that it has been dropped on its spine or something heavy has hit it there.

When fatal testing of Nihonto took place, the spine was a very common place to break when hit by another sword. I'm obviously not implying that that was the case here - but it looks like some kind of hard impact might've caused this damage by opening up a lamination.

 

I am so very sorry for you.  

[PNSSHOGUN]

Well for another perspective, I owned a nice sword that appeared flawless. Over a year owning it and one day while cleaning I noticed a large ware just like that in the Mune! Thought I had seen everything about the sword, however with various angles and the natural position of holding it to view, the Mune area was always covered or the focus was on the Hamon/Hada.

[Franco]

Do you have images of this sword showing no crack? 

[Jian Dao]

I do have images but unfortunately none of them show this area of the spine. 

 

Question still remains had this happened before would it have gotten it's papers in 2022? Is all value lost in the blade? Keep in mind this crack is zoomed in. It's a hairline and about 2 1/2 inches. 

[Guest Simon R]

36 minutes ago, PNSSHOGUN said:

Well for another perspective, I owned a nice sword that appeared flawless. Over a year owning it and one day while cleaning I noticed a large ware just like that in the Mune! Thought I had seen everything about the sword, however with various angles and the natural position of holding it to view, the Mune area was always covered or the focus was on the Hamon/Hada.

John's probably right, actually.

I've always been the alarmist, drama queen type! 

[Brian]

Not a fatal flaw, and therefore value reduces a bit, but it's not a major issue. Pic makes it look huge, but if it's only 2.5" long, it's an open ware and doesn't affect the rest of the sword too much. Not desirable, but not the end of the world.

[Rivkin]

It would paper, but if its post Nambokucho, its a Problem.

[Alex A]

It can be surprising what can be missed, to me it does appear like it has been there a good while, as stated.

 

It isn't the end of the world as pointed out. Some folks can live with such issues whilst others cant.

 

To me, well, at least its on the mune.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Bugyotsuji]

That's a tough one. 

 

Last year I bought a 1534 Sukesada blade without noticing such a crack along the mune (actually even worse than that). I showed it to some artisans and they just nodded and commented, "Yes, this often happens." 

 

In fact I think it might have been cracked even before, then been drilled out and refilled, and then the refill had maybe dropped out. Anyway I asked if it could be fixed with umegane and it was! It's beautifully done. I wrote up some of the process with photos here on the NMB.

 

OK, it cost me a bit, but I feel as though I have rescued a piece of history. 

[Spartancrest]

Not my field but found this http://www.ksky.ne.jp/~sumie99/flaws.html 

[ROKUJURO]

The crack was certainly not caused by an accident in the shipping, but temperature differences can cause existing tensions in the steel to form such cracks.
Also, existing super fine (practically "invisible") cracks can open more under such conditions.