Ganko

Wow Ford, I hadn't even noticed those patches initially. Nothing misses your critical eye. No matter how many items I have observed over four decades, I still find something new. I guess he was calibrating his nanako punch for the job :-).

A shot of my tanto's yakumo hada.

Thanks for the link. Never saw one offered for sale. I have a mu-mei tanto for the next shinsa with the yakumo hada but doubt f they will paper it to him. I am pretty sure it is a Mito piece though.

Welcome Bruce. May you find what you are seeking.

Nice drawing Jussi. As can be seen from the picture any shortening will always reduce the value of the sori and in some cases can change the point of maximum sori to a much different location.A large amount of shortening could turn a koshi- sori piece with fumbari into a tori-sori piece or turn a saki-sori piece into more of a tori-sori. If one is going to use the sori value to make comparisons for kantei purposes, you need to know where the machi was with a high degree of certainty. Fortunately most blades are not shortened to the extent where it would make too much of a difference and it is a useful kantei factor.

Seems to me that the sori would no longer be relevant in determining the time period of an O-suriage sword. Who knows where the original machi was? Kind of difficult to extrapolate it out. Just an educated guess and conjecture IMO.

High probability of shrapnel damage.

Thanks for the enlightenment Ray. You have the recollection of an elephant.

It might be Kanetoshi?

Pete, the book I have is the "Shinsen Kinko Meikan" by Kenichi Sakubo 1993.

Wow, looking at the 12 examples in the Kinko Meikan I would dismiss that one as gimei. I guess his mei varies considerably. Your first example has better correlation.

Really nice work, excellent piece, but I wouldn't count on the mei. The examples in the Kinko Meikan are close but?

Very nice one.

He is not listed in the Nihonto Meikan either. Looks like a decent quality piece and seems to have a nijuba temper.

There is a 9th gen mei in the "Tomei Soran" signed Hizen Kuni Tadayoshi that looks cut similarly to me.

Doesn't seem to be much merit there.

It most certainly is and probably from the 1600's

The paper says shinto.

A more recent book and not on the list "The Sword of Japan" by J.W. Bott. Excellent first book IMHO

The first one has a large opening near the habaki on the omote side. A serious flaw. Don't be in a hurry, take your time and I think you can do much better for the money.

Nice looking koshirae with baleen wrapped tsuka, probably late Edo.

The latest star stamped type 100 I found was may 1945 and the latest star stamped type 98 was April 1945.

I recorded dates on many star stamped Type3(?) and type 98 swords for over a decade from numerous sources (115 pieces total)and the earliest I observed was Mar 1942 for type 3 and Feb 1942 for type 98. There were type 3 by Gassan Sadakatsu, Miyairi Shohei, Tsukamoto Okimasa, Kato Sanekuni, and Mitsuoki(Shibata Ka pseudonym) as well as well as many other well thought of gendai smiths. Could it have taken two years for smiths to start making them?

Nice tsubas. I have a tanto in a koshirae that I've had for many years which has similar workmanship. It is all ensuite with a kamon on each piece. It contains an Enju Kunihiro. I have always felt that it was early to mid Edo, but have never found other examples to compare it with. It is definitely etched rather than carved. The masking medium appears to have been urushi as there are traces of it in the back of the fuchi. Any thoughts on it would be appreciated.

These fakes are generally sold as bare blades which should be a cautionary clue to the uninitiated. Many of them have good gendai swordsmiths names inscribed and the nakagos all look like they were artificially colored by the same hand.