Jamie

You might consider posting a few pictures. This will give a better idea of condition and then you'll get better advice as to how you might proceed. It just depends on condition if it can be saved. If you decide to have it polished, it's important you choose a Japanese trained polisher.

Impressive. Brian, Any single one of those pieces and you have a very good day. It's nice to see that type of quality together. Thanks for the pic.

Wow that's nice. Thanks for sharing pics.

Usually engravings are referred to as Horimono. In this case there may not be a translation. I believe this blade is not of Japanese origin. It's more than likely a Chinese copy or tourist piece. The tang (nakago) looks to be rather crude. I don't mean that badly, but usually Japanese Tanto will have a better finished Nakago. I hope this helps.

Let me know how that works out for you. Thanks.

Thank you. Interesting read.

You might start just by oiling it and cleaning it periodically. This will stop active corrosion, and some of it will come off. Use good oil, like sewing machine oil. Google nbthk sword etiquette and you'll see how to do it

That's incredible

Gorgeous blade. Congrats.

They are incredible Kevin. Good work man.

Yoshisuke

I'd suggest saving, and in the meantime buying at least a few books. Then when you're ready, buy something in polish so you can study your new sword. Rather than putting it in a polishing que for an extended period of time, at considerable expense.

I understand Jean. What I was asking is, why the shirasaya was made prior to new polish. Looks like a nice shirasaya but another will need to be made when/if the sword is polished.

Nice sword. I'm curious why you'd have shirasaya made before its polished.

Looks hira zukuri, and long

You might consider turning the picture upright so people can read it as it's written. You might also post a pic of the whole bare blade, no Habaki. Hope this helps

Please post pics of it after the polish. Many times it's hard to tell these questions from blades in polish much less out of polish. The kissaki obviously being possibly telling.

Thanks for the detailed description of the display. Sounds very nice.

There's no sword club in Denver that I know of and I'm here. Post some good pictures and you'll get a conclusion.

Many times the togishi can be involved. It's a common practice to get new shirasaya at the time of polish. Again please use a Japanese trained polisher. Not sure where you are but if you're in the us, Bob Benson is a solid choice he's located in Hawaii and one of the very few polishers properly Japanese trained residing outside Japan. Jimi Hayashi is another and I think he is in SF,and Kunitaro San on this board also can send your sword to Japan for polish also. People here seem to be happy with his service as well. I've tried to list everyone so as not to leave anyone out.

Daniel, If you plan on having the sword restored (polished) then you might consider shirasaya at that time. If you have one made prior, you'll need to have new one made for the fresh polish. So you might just do them at the same time. Please use a properly Japanese trained togishi.

Can you add pics of overall bare blade and nakago please. Looks nice, too bad someone carved numbers in it. Nice koshirae.

Here is a pic of hozon Hiromasa

They have a signed sadamune , or they did. Maybe beware.

Steve As we discussed It is hitatsura and not utsuri. It's not brought out well I think so it's hard to see, but it's hitatsura. I will agree that it looks somewhat like utsuri but is indeed hitatsura. And for the sake of accuracy it was a 10x magnifying glass used to determine this.