Thoughts please?

[AAA]

As a newbie, I bought this wakizashi at a local sale mainly to get "hands on" experience and learn about it.

There are lots of photos on the following link;

 

http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/aadams196 ... directlink

 

There is no mei that I can see, but there is a fair bit of rust. Faint hamon, unokubi-zukuri style blade? iron washer menuki, 2 mekugi-ana.

 

From my very limited knowledge and some research , could this be a "rebellion" blade, or possibly an earlier one remounted?

 

Any help would be appreciated.

 

Andrew

[estcrh]

Andrew, at least you took a lot of close up pictures of the blade, that should help someone give you some ideas based on the shape of the blade, not much to go on as far as the hamon and hada unless you can get it to show up better using different lighting and angles etc, It looks old to me.

[Brian]

Andrew,

That does appear to be a rebellion type wrap and mounts, but the blade appears earlier.

During that time, there was a great rush for swords, and anything that could be pressed into service, was. In this case, I lean towards it being a nagamaki/naginata-naoshi...in other words a reshaped naginata from an earlier time that was mounted as a wakizashi.

The tsuba is interesting. Broken in battle, broken later or an old ruined relic that was pressed into service? We will never know.

The only way to verify if this was once a naginata is to have it polished, or be able to see the turnback in the kissaki and see if there is a kaeri.

 

Brian

[IanB]

Andrew, There is quite a lot to be deduced from the pictures of your sword. At least two points strike me as having the potential for a bit of correspondence. Firstly the hilt, tsuka, is one of those which traditionally have been called 'Satsuma Rebellion' but which I believe were made for issue to low-ranking soldiers. You will find an old thread on this topic somewhere. At the time it was running I couldn't find the image which lends some credence to my belief. I've found it now so I will add the image in due course. Secondly the tsuba appears to have broken clean across. This suggests it was cast iron. Ordinary iron would have bent if subject to such a blow and hardened steel would have been difficult to snap in that way. Was it a more modern piece made to deceive or were some tsuba cast, even in the Edo period? Again the subject for a bit of controversy. Finally the blade: As you say unsigned and in the kind of state where it is difficult to reach solid conclusions about. The shape of the tang suggests it might be Bizen and that the lower hole has been drilled and left a burr standing up on one side. Other than that I leave it to others to comment.

Ian Bottomley

[AAA]

Thanks Brian and Ian.

I will try and get better blade photos for you today.

From what I can deduce, the tsuba may have been damaged (or damaged further) relatively recently, as most of the broken pieces came with it.

I think it may be cast iron.

I know that the nakago should not be cleaned, but if there is no obvious mei, would it be ok to very carefully remove a little of the surface rust

to see if there is one underneath?

I expect even mentioning that thought has probably got somebody frothing at the mouth in anger -but it's a huge learning curve for me.

 

Is there any other info or photos that I can supply to help?

 

Andrew

[Stephen]

Andy

 

a light back and forth with a lightly oiled cloth is all you want to do, dont think youll find a mei as it was longer at one time imho. holding the blade at a angle to a light bulb should show a hamon see if it turns back in the kissaki.

[nagamaki - Franco]

Greetings,

 

Thoughts; in all, this sword looks unaltered for the most part to these eyes, the nakago certainly does not appear to be shortened and then reshaped. It is not uncommon to see swords made in this shape during the shinto period. In photo #8 there is distinct widening where the koshinogi intersects the mune supporting this shinto period, or later, theory. Also, there is evidence of still somewhat deep yasuri at the beginning of the nakago that almost looks like it could be a cross-hatch pattern. Looking at the steel of the sword one wonders how much skin steel remains on this sword before the core steel begins to protrude.

[Aloof Pegasus]

Here's a kanmuri otoshi shinto wakizashi with a 33 cms nagasa. Papered to Inshu Kanesaki Inaba/Tottori 1H 17th c.

[Lee Bray]

I have a Koto wakizashi with a very similar sugata to this.

It's signed Munemitsu and Tsuruta-San thought it might be Mino den. (it came from Aoi-art originally).

Nakago jiri is the same as the one pictured and I, too, thought it might be Bizen.

Is there any documentation of Mino smiths changing to Bizen style or vice versa?

 

 

[AAA]

I've added a lot more photos to the link, but they aren't good I'm afraid.

I just can't seem to get a photo of the hamon that is as good as I can see it by eye.

 

Andrew

[estcrh]

I've added a lot more photos to the link, but they aren't good I'm afraid.

I just can't seem to get a photo of the hamon that is as good as I can see it by eye.

 

Andrew

That can be tricky sometimes, sometimes using a scanner can get good results, I believe it was recommended to use a dark cloth to cover the blade when scanning. Scanning can get you good hamon and hada pictures on blades that are hard to take photos of. If you search the forum you will find some posts on scanning a blade. Here is one>> viewtopic.php?f=9&t=6842&p=54074&hilit=scanner#p54074

[Jean]

Article attached

22680102c.pdf

[Stephen]

from your pix it looks like the blade was polished with a com polish cleaner, this is the angle i was talking about

[AAA]

A few scans and photos added.

 

Andrew

[Stephen]

I think i see a boshi, anyone else?

[Nihonto Chicken]

Andrew, your blade appears to be of some interest, but unfortunately has apparently been sanded (sandpaper and other hard grit abrasives favored in the West "smear" the metal surface and leave a mirror-like finish, masking much of the activity in Japanese blades). The (very) good news is that whoever sanded the blade didn't round off the shinogi (had this been done, a massive amount of metal would need be removed to bring them back to proper sharpness).

 

In order to bring out your blade's activity, I recommend you get some good uchiko powder or uchiko ball and devote a few hours uchikoing your piece. There are different styles of doing this, and I don't want to start a flame war over how best to go about it. A search here on "uchiko" will likely surface some various opinions. It will seem slow going at first, but after a number of hours, the hamon and other hararaki will come out (the pitting won't, this requires a foundation polish by a professional). Just be sure to uchiko only from the shinogi to the ha, not the shinogi ji, and don't ride over the shinogi itself, again to avoid rounding it. You can do this while, say, watching TV or listening to tunes, just don't get too complacent and slip, you can slice yourself badly if you do. You'll soon get a feel for how many swipes one dusting will last (some people say only to go once, but this isn't appropriate for the "power-uchiko" job I'm recommending here), also, if you do slip and put a fingerprint on the metal (hopefully no blood), you will see how many swipes are necessary to get all the skin oil out of the metal (more than you might think).

 

Good luck with your first Nihonto, and please post some more pics after the activity comes to light!

[AAA]

After some hours with uchiko, the hamon is clearer, so I've uploaded more pics to the following link;

 

http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/aadams196 ... directlink

 

Please excuse the quality, I've taken lots and included them all, as I hope someone will find something of interest amongst them.

 

Stephen, I think they will help with the boshi you spotted.

 

Andrew