Blade on e-bay

drbvac · May 6, 2010

Don't know this seller and the blade is tired, in fact it was probably shortened and the horimono near the nakago is well worn. Wonder if it would polish up? Right price it may be

http://cgi.ebay.com/NICE-OLD-SAMURAI-KO ... 2c54678c19

Stephen · May 6, 2010

know of the seller all i have heard is good, doubt it will stay that low.

pcfarrar · May 6, 2010

A few things put me off. It might just be the photos but the hamon appears to terminate just after the hamachi so it may not be cut down like the nakago suggests. I'm also not too keen on the nakago patination it looks a little dry and pock marked which may be a sign of saiha. Finally the nakago is quite poor and its always worth remembering that a good sword never has a bad nakago.

David Flynn · May 6, 2010

I think it's interesting where the Horimono ends with the polishers marks. Right where the nakago begins.

Marius · May 6, 2010

A few things put me off. It might just be the photos but the hamon appears to terminate just after the hamachi so it may not be cut down like the nakago suggests. I'm also not too keen on the nakago patination it looks a little dry and pock marked which may be a sign of saiha. Finally the nakago is quite poor and its always worth remembering that a good sword never has a bad nakago.

Spot on, Peter!

I really love your remarks on the nakago :-) And you have a very good eye - the hamon is suspicious, indeed. I would never ever consider a sword in a state like that... it needs a $1.5k polish, that is a fact.

Been there. An unpolished sword is just not worth buying, unless you are prepared to risk the whole amount you pay... Has been said a thousand times here, on this forum.

Mark · May 6, 2010

some years back i has a terrible experiance with this dealer, almost made me give up collecting swords. So i do not look at his auctions. Only a personal experiance but i still remember it years later.

Tsugio Kawakami · May 7, 2010

Not that I really know, and it's hard to tell since it's been sandpapered, but a couple of the pictures seem to show what looks like a very faint, diagonal change in the color of the steel near the machi. Maybe mizukage? I think this sword is saiha.

sanjuro · May 7, 2010

All this sellers swords are sandpapered (at least all the ones I have seen). All have some suspicious little things about them. Things that make you wonder if its all as it should be.

The horimono on this one is a little strangely oriented for an unaltered blade. The fading of the horimono is also uneven too close to the habaki moto. Am I being too picky here?

Like its been said often enough, dont buy an unpolished sword, especially on ebay. There is no way you know what it is until its too late.

Curgan · May 7, 2010

I don't know what more experienced members think, but shouldn't the yokote on such an old sword (that has surely been polished in the past) been more distinct?

sanjuro · May 7, 2010

What yokote? It should when present also follow the line (at least nominally) of the ko shinogi. This one has had chips polished out of the kissaki and not quite all of the chips polished out of the ha along the boshi. Theres quite a few small irregularities in the ha of this sword. A polish would need to remove a lot of material to make this blade a clean edge, it would also make this into a dead blade methinks...... IMHO of course.