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Identification Help Or Hints?


jct3602

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Trying to get thoughts on a piece that has puzzled me for years.  Any help would be appreciated.  Since there are so many things going on, will include a picture of the omote (tachi-mei), and the formations near the machi on that side and near the kissaki, then more if desired.  Appears to be machi-okuri about 6 cm with a gimei signature, so may at some time have been even longer.  Present nagasa is 56.7cm.  Marumune except for 2cm at the tip, that perhaps a result of kissaki reshaping for repair?  Mune is completely hardened with extensive muneyaki.  The omote appears to be Mino with a lot of Soshu; the ura more complicated (think Dorian Gray in League of Extraordinary Gentlemen).  Hope these cell phone pictures do not compress to an extent that makes them of little value. 

    Also two pictures of it from the advertisement for purchase in early 2005; piece looked less rusted in picture than it actually was; bought it for polishing practice and was surprised (these two were photos of my computer screen from an old computer that no longer could contact outside electronic world).

 

john twineham

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John,

the KISSAKI looks to have been damaged; the proportions seem not to fit.

The polish is wrong and certainly not bringing out the beauty of the blade. I hope the HA has not been damaged too much. 

On the other hand, the photos are not very good, so maybe I am not seeing this correctly.   

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Jean,

     I agree about the kissaki; the proportions are wrong, and the yokote had vanished long ago and needs to be reestablished.  In fact, the iori mune in the last 2 cm would indicate rework, I think, unless that is a normal finish for a marumune..  The cleaning is certainly a work in progress; it is in an early intermediate stage, so this is not any sort of finish polish.  I have a friend whom I show it to regularly who apprenticed in polishing to a honami trained polisher before he started forging swords (Michael Bell), to make sure I am not damaging the blade, and he has been very pleased  (I bought it for cleaning practice for very little; probably did 500 hours of slow work before it turned out to be more than that, and that was probably 500 hours ago).  The lighting for the photos was not very good, and it was a cellphone.

     I believe the machi-okuri was done very poorly; the filing and machi are poor.  Also, the remaining portion of the mei below the machi-okuri leads me to think it was gimei to begin with.   The surface when i purchased it was almost all rust (good old black rust, not the reddish hue in the sale picture) with a layer of oil that had hardened into lacquer.  Embedded in that lacquer were wood fibres, I think from a shirasaya that had disintegrated.  The seller could not tell me anything about it.

    Anyway, I would appreciate thoughts about it.  I thought perhaps it was showing enough that I could get some feedback.

 

john twineham 

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