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Aaron Justice

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  1. Ah, okay. The bill of sale was from 1993. I figured it must have sat around for longer than that before it was sold. The saya is very nice, but the koshirae is a black lacquered over brass set. Exact same set you see on the Hyper-Cafe eBay store. I have some nice silver fittings to compliment the habaki.
  2. Perfect, thanks. This blade was probably made in the mid to late 80's before he gained a bit more notoriety. Regardless it's a beautiful piece, going to get it remounted, it's currently in Iaito level koshirae.
  3. Picked this blade up for a good price, regardless the smith. Seller had a bill of sale included that it was purchased from a museum in Kyoto. Just wanted an outside verification, Kobayashi Sadanori right?
  4. I decided to do a small clean up on the blade just to make sure I wasn't sold a gimei oil quenched blade that someone worked over to make it look like a Shinsakuto. Yeah, I know that's a bit paranoid, but with very few of the blade details visible I needed to give it a try. (*Disclaimer - Yes, I know that any traditionally made Japanese blade deserves the attention of a qualified and well trained polisher to do the blade any justice. I simply polished a small 2 inch area with a hazuya and jizuya stone to see if the blade cleaned up any. Hazuya and jizuya remove so little steel in a polish that it would fit on the point of a needle) The jizuya I had was a little too hard so I stopped using it. After only two hazuya stones I found a pretty good one, and the hada started popping out. It appears to possibly be a ko mokume hada? It's going to have to take a full repolish to see what really comes out. I heavily contrasted the picture to make the hada stand out more.
  5. As I expected. Luckily a line of pitting ended up being nothing serious, I thought there was a possibility of a long but thin grain opening in the shinogi ji, but it ended up just being dotted rust and pitting, shallow as well.
  6. Some pictures of the entire thing. Took me quite a while to get the light to hit it right so you could see the nioi in the habuchi. As you can see it wasn't a very good polish to begin with. The areas of pitting look worse in pictures than in person. They are very shallow and should be removed in even a fairly light repolish.
  7. Hey Joe, how's it going? I picked up the giant Shinshinto mentioned above from Joe here by the way, so he understands what I mean when I say it's a thick blade, even comparing it to the monster I have now. I would definitely fit this blade in the lower class Shinsakuto level. Come to think of it, a lot of iaito websites advertise custom made Shinsakuto, and usually for around $6,000 starting price. I would put this blade in with those. Not a fantastic art blade by any means, but still a nice piece considering the price tag. If I had to guess, the blade was cut with in some tameshigiri sessions, and the blade was never properly cleaned afterwards. Perhaps the tatami was still a little wet because the blade has stains, spots, and some minor pitting here and there. Nothing major, no nicks or bends. However, in a panic after being discovered, the blade was poorly cleaned off, and efforts to scrape out some oxidation from the pitting was made. The tsuka is just under 10 inches long, so definitely more iaido like in that sense. Nice solid silver habaki, but fairly plain Higo fuchi and kashira and kojiri. Japanese production made fittings with the kojiri being a floral design with inlaid gold and silver toned patterns.
  8. Well, you may be right. I neglected the second pin for it. I also have a massive Shinshinto far larger than the majority of mid 19th century Japanese could wield, but that doesn't mean there wasn't a 6'4 Samurai somewhere that needed a 4 pound katana. There's always exceptions to every rule.
  9. Thank you, that is much more to go on. The blade is definitely not a iaito though, it's a very thick blade, 8-9mm at the habaki. Probably closer to 3 pounds despite being 26.9 inches for the nagasa. Shorter than most Shinsakuto, but too heavy for iaito.
  10. Just picked this blade up from a Japanese furniture and antiques dealer that sells blades now and again. Took a bit of a gamble on it, and it might have paid off, blade is extremely healthy, extremely thick and a very wide hamon with a lot of polishing life in it. Already have it set up for a polish. Took it in the sunlight and the habuchi glowed off the blade, but it's absolutely masked over in the current polish. I looked up the info I had (Yasuo Koshu, forged 1990) but could not find any info on the smith. Seller isn't in the sword business so they had relatively little info. I'm guessing a relatively minor smith, but the blade was nicely forged, very tight nashiji hada from what I can see, but the hadori finish originally done left a lot to be desired, the polish obscured details rather than showed them off. Any identification would be appreciated. Regardless of the smiths notoriety, I got it for less than I've seen beat up and over polished nihonto in cracked shirasaya sell for, so I think I made out fairly well.
  11. Thanks for the info. I thought the Chrysanthemum mon looked a bit iffy. It is still a serious piece of tamahagane restored by a (once) great polisher. Won't get into the ugliness there. I'm getting it fully mounted soon. It was kind of half heartedly mounted before, this time it will be done correctly.
  12. Oh, geez, I already had all the info. he posted two classifieds when selling it, one has all the info I was looking for. Belonging to the Fujiwara family and bearing the title of Governor of Iga province... would this then be a presentation piece as opposed to one made for use? The length and size match that of a large Nanbokucho blade that late Edo pieces were often designed after, but the thickness is almost double that of even a decently thick nihonto.
  13. Hello Folks, been a while since I posted here. I asked for identification on a mei a while ago on a blade I decided to sell on eBay. My decision to sell it wasn't involved in my postings here, but I got a message on eBay from a member from here who accused me of using NMB to gain info to benefit myself on a sale. I didn't bother to respond because I don't have any interest in arguing with people and justifying my actions and timing. Anyone who knows me knows I constantly move swords to fund other projects, or simply tire of owning the piece. Anyways, I decided to show my face again to further benefit myself from this free online service, mwah ha ha... Not really. Bought a nihonto on SFI a bit ago. Freakishly monstrous blade, Shinshinto era, signed Kanemichi, and with an Imperial Chrysantemum Mon. I have a half dozen reference books, none have any info on Imperial Mon except for one which only briefly identifies one on a nakago. Searching online has only turned up pics for me, and a general explanation of the Chrysanthemum mon in relation to the Imperial family, but not the significance of one on a nakago. The Chrysanthemum is a little off center, and the design varies a bit from the ones I've seen. However, I've seen some with a larger center, flower stems and leaves, and even a star for the center, so I guess I am asking if anyone can translate the nakago to see if everything seems in place. Now, just some info on the blade. 30 inch nagasa, 35mm wide at the motohaba, about 28 or 29 at the sakihaba. 9mm thick at the mune of the motohaba, almost 11mm thick at the shinogi. Stays very thick, about 6.5-7mm, all the way before it forms the kissaki. I have no idea the weight, but I am guess near 4 pounds. This is one masive nihonto, either for a much larger than average Samurai (it is comparable to a large two handed sword in weight) or possibly a temple blade. Purchased by Rick Barrett at a San Francisco sword show, polished by Brandon Thell, then mounted, oddly, by persons unknown. The shirasaya was reshaped into a saya. The blade is so large that carving a new saya would have been a nightmare for even some experienced wood workers, so I guess just shaping the shirasaya was tempting. The tsuka was a bit of a joke, it had a 40mm fuchi on it, and a 10.5 inch long tsuka. This blade needs at least a 13 - 14 inch tsuka, and a minimum 42mm fuchi as the old one was dwarfed by the size of the saya throat. Interesting project.
  14. Blade came in Shirasaya. Habaki is a bit rough, so it may have been a gunto habaki, not sure. I'll have pictures of the blade itself. Lighting isn't good now, but it's in very good polish, extremely tight konuka hada.
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