Papering Shinsakuto?

[SwordGuyJoe]

All,

As a question of curiosity, what are you thoughts around papering a shinsakuto blade? I have had discussions with a few sellers where they have described a process of shops asking smiths to leave the nakago unsigned, then sending the blade to a mei carver to gimei a famous current smith.

[tagonagy]

As far as I know, Swords cannot be papered if the smith is still alive. I would think that post war swords made be deceased smiths can be papered. I'm pretty sure that modern smiths are required to sign and date their pieces, nearly all the post war swords that I've seen have both a signature and a date.

[cabowen]

The NBTHK says they will not paper living smiths, though they have inadvertently. The NTHK-NPO prefers to wait until the smith has been deceased for a brief period, though I think they have probably also papered WWII era blades not aware of the fact that the smith was still alive.

 

All newly made blades must be registered by the smith when made. As far as I know, they need to be signed at that time. What is described above is illegal and would surely cause a smith to lose his license at a minimum....Not saying it isn't done.....

 

Most people order a shinsakuto to their specs. Obviously, there is no room for mischief in that case. When buying a big name, be careful where you buy. If it seems too good to be true, it probably is....I have seen many fakes of Miyairi Akihira and a few of Takahashi Sadatsugu. If the smith is still alive, it isn't usually too difficult to send the smith an oshigata and have him check it....