Wickstrom

Thank you for your response Jean. It’s unfortunate to hear its a copy but thankfully I waited to make an offer for it.

Hello All, A friend of mine who owns an antique shop got a hodgepodge of things from a local collector in. Everything from Bronze Age Luristan Daggers to 20th century African Pendants. This Tsuba was in the mix as well. Any information you could provide would be greatly appreciated!

Everything went well. Glad we could work out a deal!

Thank-you very much Piers and Uwe. That would probably be a very good assumption given the fact it was more than likely a loaner set borrowed by a retainer from the Daimyo's armory. I'm sure they would have had some inventory system in place related to sizing to expedite the process of outfitting troops before a campaign.

I picked up this set of munitions grade armor a little while back. It's certainly seen better days but this is my first "real" set of armor and i'm very happy with it despite it's condition. There are two characters written in paint on the both of the kote near where it attaches to the dou. Any guesses as to what it says and means? Thanks

I was referring to the gold patterning on the top and bottom rather than the shape of the tsuba

Last year I acquired a sword that came mounted in a military tsuka and a plain honoki saya. The saya has a few characters on it that I was able to have a friend who reads Japanese translate and relayed to me that it is actually a personal name. I imagine this could possibly be the soldier who owned this sword at one point. Is there anyway to research information on Japanese Vets? Or are all these records lost?

This design is also a common style in Chinese art, usually found on bronze vessels most frequently. Sometimes it's called a diaper pattern sometimes it's called leiwen. perhaps this is a nanban tsuba.

Kory, I'll give it a shot at helping you out a bit The nicks on the spine of the blade are indeed blade strikes called Kiri-Komi. I recall reading somewhere that the NTHK don't count kiri-komi against a blade when they judge it so I don't believe it would detract anything. As for the flaw on the shinogi, it looks like it could be shinae maybe? I'm not sure on that one. The hamon looks like Gunome and Choji mixed together to my eye. Your description of the hada definitely sounds like itame. I'm not too familiar with the different schools, but maybe a more senior member could help you out with that.

That was what I was trying to say, but it is still early over here in states. I really should start having my coffee before I check the messageboard. :lol: 1.)Smith makes katana 2.)Samurai breaks it/ is too small for it 3.)Different smith makes it into a nice wakizashi for the samurai Something along the lines of that. :D

Ahh, listen to Jean. His judgement far outweighs mine on swords. A suriage is just a term meaning shortened nakago. It was usually done by the owner long after he had possessed the blade, not by the smith.

Nakago looks like late Muromachi to early shinto IMHO. What is the curvature of the blade? Also you should post a photo of the whole sugata.

Here is an older example for sale on nihontocraft, Has a few open layers and what looks to be 3 small tate-ware in the 5th picture. Otherwise pretty solid looking sword to my eyes. Always thought these were quite interesting, they look like huge tanto. http://www.nihontocraft.com/Hirazukuri_Koto_Katana.htm

An ant is loyal to it's queen just as a samurai was loyal to their Daimyo. That is why you will find many insect themed menuki and maedate, or in this case, jingasa.

Hey Guys, sorry for the delay. I've been up to my knees in work lately. I had some time to take the sword out again and try some the acetone treatment. Overall I think it went pretty well, It didn't get it all off, but made some significant progress. Still quite a bit of gunk on the Ura side of the blade to get off, but the omote is coming along nicely. I'm going to try Harry's and Stephen's suggestions next week to see if that will finish the job up.