Re-tempered blades and shinsa

[Minister Amos]

Is it possible for a re-tempered sword to pass shinsa?

[Nobody]

When all of the following conditions are fullfilled, re-tempered blades may pass Shinsa with notes of re-tempering fact. (ref. Shinsa standard, NBTHK, Feb. 23, 2006)

 

1. being made not after Nanbokucho (南北朝),

2. with Mei of a famous smith,

3. valuable hisrorical material,

4. condition of Jiba (地刃) and Nakago (茎) is not so bad.

 

Maybe some one can express in proper English.

[Curran]

Nobody-san,

 

Your English is excellent and perfectly understood. We are lucky to have you with us as part of this forum.

 

Thank you for the recent -shinsa standard- from the NBTHK.

I would point out that I have seen saiba (or saiha ? -which is correct these days?) Muromachi with NBTHK Hozon papers. Usually they are tanto. The last one I saw was Bizen and for sale by Aoi Arts.

 

Many organizations are overly quick to declare blades "retempered". There are debates over such topics as the use of heated copper blocks to make the hardened and edge more pliable when moving the machi up the blade. It creates the appearance of what looks like mizukage on one side. Yet utsuri can remain and the blade will otherwise seem perfectly normal in all the other places that retemper is usually evident. Is this retemper? You decide! I have seen this many times in blades of the Muromachi period and wonder if this wasn't something done often as acceptable during the demands of the warring period state. I have seen very good and very functional Muromachi blades with this hallmark, but I have never seen a great blade with it. I cannot recall having seen a Shinto or Shinshinto with this trait, although I must have at some point.

There are other variations of odd things seen on some blades. When there is any doubt, it gets declared 'retemper'. I have known the NTHK and NBTHK both to declare blades 'retemper', and the other organization disagree and paper them. I have an o-tanto that I like very much with the NTHK declared 'saiha' and the NBTHK gave Hozon in one shinsa, then Tokubetsu Hozon papers in another years later (Oei period, early muromachi, o-suriage...so not signed, if it ever was! - so it does not meet the criteria Nobody shared with us). As to which organization is tougher on this, I cannot say- though I think you could fill a rainbarrel with the number of blades that came out of the 2002 NTHK shinsa with 'retemper'.

 

Minister Amos, to answer your question: "yes".

But don't get your hopes up. The large majority of retempers *are* retempers. None of the better organizations will pass them.

 

Curran

[kusunokimasahige]

what if a sword is fully retempered by an experienced smith... can you still see??

 

KM