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Greetings all！ I just want to share a recently acquired tanto, made by Izumi no Kami Kanesada和泉守兼定 （Seki Kanesada, 2nd generation) This tanto is his early work.

@Kiipu @BANGBANGSAN and anyone else who charts - I found I had 2 charts running at the same time for number stamps on mune. I combined them and cleaned up some other stuff there. I'm attaching the entire document to replace the ones I've sent you previously. stamp survey (1).docx

This one caught my eye on e**y back in February... It is 83 x 85 mm; 5mm thick at both rim and seppa dai ; rounded rim and chisel cut, tekkotsu not visible. The loop that has lost its patina sits above the main plate 1 mm. Any ideas on time period or school for this piece ? Now that I have "accumulated" a few pieces it is time to figure out what I have. Possibly Later Edo Ko-shaomi ? If you have seen the original listing the white crud in the corners was old dried wax.. Thank in advance for any information you may be able to provide. David sorry second image is upside down..

Probably won't get the answer you are looking for here as most are against the use of antique blades for sport (myself included). Almost all are going to recommend picking up a shinsakuto, they have fairly good prices on the second hand market compared to older blades.

I have managed to track down the 'tachi' stamps from Japan, from what I gather it is possible to order your own stamps to be printed in Japan just as I was able to do in Australia. Further to that, it may also be an option in France. This may come as a shock to the Japanese and French members of NMB but other countries may also have this opportunity but be unaware of it. Next time you visit a post office just ask if such a thing is available, it does not mean you can't produce your own stamps outside the field of tosogu of course. https://kunkun888.exblog.jp/15135430/ http://www.fabiennejouvin.com/blog/category/Correspondence-.-Stamps Totally non tosogu related - my first grandchild-

Nothing groundbreaking, but I thought it was a nice 30 minute watch. Thought others might enjoy it as well so here is the link: https://aeon.co/videos/a-rare-glimpse-inside-a-samurai-sword-workshop-where-ritual-meets-mastery Sincerely, Austin

Marc, Massimo may have had some (part time) kind of training by a togishi. But a full traditional training is 12 hours per day during 8 years at togishi's home, and that makes a HUGE difference at the end in term of qualification. If you use a good agent to have your sword polished in Japan, you won't have an average polish but top end polish. In Europe you will at best have an average if you are the lucky.

Hi all if your after a good book to read please take a look at "Tokyo before tokyo " by Timon screech. Recently released. Available on amazon and about history of the Edo period and its art. Timon screech was my professor in London and I was fortunate to study with him during my Masters. Great lecturer and knows his stuff. Kind regards

Thanks Austin I also highly recommend this channel and its videos

Sorry for the delay. Please PM me your PayPal info. I will take QTY 1 in orange. Best, Brian

I think the signature is - 東山住大江美平 - Higashiyama jū Ōe Yoshihira. The smith was from latter part of 1600's.

Tony, message me your old account and I'll merge the 2. LOVE this blade shape. That will definitely not be muji. Just overpolished/buffed. Needs some restoration.

Hi Paz, I was alluding to the first poster, Mikaveli, who mentioned it was his first sword. But for you, if Terukado is your second sword you are still doing extremely well, I reckon. The trick now is to make sure your next sword is better than the previous one you bought.

No mistake François. Massimo told me himself he did not do his apprenticeship in Japan. He is probably a talented, passionate nice person but not qualified to polish any nihonto. Long story short. One or two years ago, a french owner of an obvious gimei famous shinshinto smith known for his great horimono, contatected me. He had his gimei sword polished by Massimo and was looking for some kind of approval from me I guess. I told him his sword was gimei and that as a supposed togishi Massimo should have been able to spot the false mei and warned the owner. I did not warn the owner the sword was gimei and thus should not be polished. Was it because Massimo was not capable of recognized the gimei? I don't know. The owner never admitted his sword was gimei no matter what I told him. It was too hard for to admit he had been fooled both by the seller and the polisher. This cannot happen with a togishi. As for the NBTHK awards for amateur. Yes they exist but are more given as "relational" papers to keep good relations between Japan an Western swords societies. (not sur if I am clear here).

Lovely blade! The lines are very smooth and flowing. Good polish too. Congrats, it's a very nice piece.

Kanetsugu RS with a bullet hole. Found on this Wehrmacht-awards thread.

This Nagamitsu has nakago mune markings 阪 2511

Dave it was actually a question rather than 'suggestion'. Just an open question that came to me when I saw your first Wakizashi picture (Re: Shawn McDonald's post). The blade just appeared so straight that I wondered about possible shortening therefore leaving all nakago markings untouched (Showato in this case). You have ably answered that query, thank you. The link on flaws is very good tks also for that. Rob

Tiiireeeed 😁 Great guy but .. he never advertises motogasane.. J.

David, KO-SHOAMI (not SHAOMI) is a school that was popular about 1500 or earlier. Your TSUBA looks to be much later, but this is only my guess based on your photos.

I do love ayasugi hada. I have a tanto with that grain as well as a Dewa Gassan blade. It's an amazing technique.

On a Showato only as a quick and dirty fix in the field during the war, so it's very uncommon....It would be visible to a trained eye and the value of the blade gone forever so no point in retaining the mei. But why suggest such a rare thing when there is solid evidence for Showa made wakizashi.http://www.ksky.ne.jp/~sumie99/flaws.html

The nakago mune markings of 阪 イ143 are the Ōsaka Army Arsenal final inspection mark followed by the arsenal assigned serial number. In this case, it a 1st イ series and not that of the proceeding 0 (zero) series. These markings are common on Ōsaka swords but are rarely mentioned or photographed. I am unaware of anyone seriously studying these swords like the Mantetsu swords are. I briefly touched upon this subject in the thread below. Stamp Survey

I seem to recall this topic being addressed on the board, but were there not cases of army and navy officers carrying waks? I'm not simply referring the cases (or the myth) of pilots or tankers carrying a shorter gunto. I realize that carrying a wak was not common, but it did occur, among the ranks of army and navy officers, did it not?

Nope it was already in that condition.

The smith name is not Kanesuke (兼祐) but Kanehiro (兼裕).

We can't see the ura view very well but there are no obvious signs that it has been mounted. No tagane-ato marks. Perhaps a presentation gift?

Both swords still have signatures and stamps on the tang, so they are as they were made. Showa blades can depart widely from tradition, blade shape, blade material and forging technique. Amahida made some very different blades to traditional, a conversation on this site linked here.

I have to say I'm with Jean on this one. The gilding caught my eye immediately, with it's odd colour. Looking closely we can clearly see un under-layer of copper. This means it's electroplated, First a flash coat of copper which bonds well to iron and then a light coat of gold. This is not an Edo period processes, needless to say Apart from the excess flash Kyle has circled there's an area of roughness on the edge of that hitsu, bottom left, that doesn't make sense in terms of the filed ground but is the sort of casting flaw that result from the breakdown of the investment mould at high temperature. Similarly there's a fair amount of poorly defined carving on the dragons body, where have all the scales gone? And finally theres and area of mould seam still visible inside the nakago-ana at the top. Perhaps they didn't have a suitable needle file to get in there.... Someone has gone to some length to make this copy, imo, but filing up a reasonable casting isn't a big deal, it's fairly basic procedure in the trade, so relying on obvious rubber mould seam traces to identify fakes is not reliable. But these are merely my own observations, for what they're worth.

Bob, this one looks cast to me. Have a look into the left HITSU ANA. Do I see a casting seam there?

Well I have looked and looked for any other tsuba related postage stamps and come away disappointed. That was untill I remembered that here in Australia we can order our own stamp designs - so I thought why not? It then became a problem of what guard to display, I tried several but this is a case of the more detailed the image on such a small surface the less you actually see, so that I finally went for a stark outline guard against a black background - the heart shape indicative of my 'love' of tsuba. So if you still use snail mail - why not get your own stamps printed!

I see a couple of conflations here. The first is lumping together blades that never were signed, with those that had their signature removed. The other is collectable value being considered the same as commercial value and vice versa. Just my two pennyworth .

One of the (very few) advantages of being divorced. I can put my stuff on the wall.

Thanks Steve. That means the next sword is going to be very expensive lol

Lots of swords promptly went back to war in backyard operations.

Welcome Bryce, I think a simple search will tell you why. Just Google your question.