Brian

Star stamp is the prize. Means it's a RJT smith, meaning it's a Gendaito, handmade from tamahagane. Likely a decent sword.

I would put money on the fact that this was redone at some point on a knifemaker belt sander or arsenal level. The Japanese were fussy about quality, even late war. Fairly obvious if you are in the knifemaking world. Sharp edges on all the stamps and grooves shows it too. Plus the surface finish is a belt finish, not the usual buffed one. Not serious though, since they are monosteel I don't think it detracts much. Nice sword and as Sam said, a rare one.

Well done Dale, wish you success, and thanks for all you do with these publications.

The ones I have seen had real blades, although nothing spectacular. Shin shinto mainly. But it's a very striking koshirae and must have meant a lot to someone.

Thanks Mike, appreciate your understanding. Saves us all another huge back and forth debate that has been done to death here. Ads for your sword, with that "chippy" style mei, it's almost certainly a Showato. I'll leave the translation up to those more qualified than myself.

Marius, Probably 90% of the visitors here are novices or people with a casual interest. I think your book looks extremely interesting and covers topics that I haven't seen addressed anywhere up to now. I think you underestimate yourself, and would love it if you posted about it. Sorry to call you out....I want to see our members get the recognition they deserve and you have contributed a ton towards serious tsuba study..it's only fair people support your efforts

Ok, not to be funny, but I do feel like I want to mention this, as it is something I have been wondering about for a while now. The Nihonto community has a resource here that gets between half a million to 1 million visits a month. Visits..not hits, which are over 10 million a month. Maybe only a small fraction of those are serious Nihonto enthusiasts, but that is still many thousands a month. And it's free. Mahala. Gratis. So why aren't publishers/authors taking advantage of free promotion? It costs absolutely zero to post about a new book here. You have more freedom that just about any place offers. You can post links, excerpts, contacts, information...all free. Contributions are voluntary, there's no pressure. Not even expected. And you reach your target market instantly, from over 32 countries. So why aren't people taking advantage of this and posting about their new publications? Why wait until some random customer posts about it after stumbling upon it accidentally? Can't be lack of time...it takes seconds to post. Can't be cost...already mentioned it's free. Lack of motivation? Disinterest? Unaware? Whatever the reason, I encourage people who have new publications, shows, events etc to post here. If you need help or have any questions, just message me. I promise, I won't tie you up and torture you to contribute. I've seen new (and by the looks of things excellent) books coming out from people like @Marius JSSUS, Paul Martin and others. You don't have to post them here. But I can't think of any reason not to.

Indeed. Chinese fake, with all the above applicable. And like Kiril noted, those looking like "Damascus" welded blades seldom are anyways, just acid etched. Not that it matters.

Mike, You'll find that amateur (non traditional/fully trained) polishing is frowned up on here, and we don't advocate for it. Welcome to the forum, I'm sure there will be some interested in your other services, but best to avoid the topic of polishing to avoid the usual debate and criticism.

Worth bearing in mind what Darcy had to say on the subject. https://web.archive.org/web/20200923034718/https://blog.yuhindo.com/daisho-and-daishoisnt/

This is a traditional Japanese sword forum, so getting recommendations on what are essentially modern copies with no artistic value is probably not going to get you the answer you are looking for. You're trying to buy something to swing around that looks like a Nihonto but isn't. Doesn't really matter who made it, it likely comes from China, and no matter how well made, it's still going to be a fake copy of a Japanese sword.

You sure it can't be a misread Nori Piers? There is a: HIRONORI 廣乘 NTS: made tsuba and kozuka. B.C. p. 428 #207 D 2215 text p. 167, shibuichi kozuka Kanzan and Jittoku with gold touches. SCE. W—146—U—10

Chinese fake.

It has a fairly recent professional polish, so you can be sure it has been submitted and failed. Other than the mei, nice looking sword though.

Only things that made me pause are the fact that the blade looks buffed, and the habaki back is too close to the blade. Level with the machi. But that could be from impact. Nakago will tell the full story.

I'd wait for a US shinsa to happen first. Get it papered or verified. Then you can decide on a professional polish. Or send to a polisher like Woody etc, and ask for a window to be opened and for their opinion. Wakizashi restoration and polishing is a labor of love...you seldom get your money back oneday, so you need to be sure that the sword is ok.

Signs of sudareba, and a decent looking mei. Looks good to me.

No. As mentioned previously, these are almost always (never seen a single case of anything different) put there to mark the blade and identify it, likely for fittings purposes. If you send out a number of blades for fittings or work, you are going to want to mark them in such a way that you can identify what goes with what later.

IMHO, oil quenched.

He did state set....not matching set. Yes, they are a set of fittings. Matching set would have been something else entirely.

Give them a double edged ken, then see whether the natural instinct is to rest the blade on the hand

Look at self-publishing. In today's world, it really isn't that difficult, even if you want a high class product. There are lots of resources and print on demand. We're way past the point of just Lulu now

Confusing matters by posting 2 different swords in this thread. The original sword is a repro. The second one looks to be a decent one. Swords with bonji and horimono on them, even if shortened until they are in the nakago, should be looked at more closely for quality, as it could be a decent sword.

What a joke. You think museums know anything?? Unless they have experts like Markus on board, you can assume they would show a dustbin lid if someone told them it was an ancient Chinese battle shield. C'mon...pull the other one.

Yes, but I think we are both wondering who is the modern smith making it?