runagmc

It looks kind of like a fan and a gourd... but that could be way off...

Hi Lorenzo, I know pure gold habaki are rarely done, but do you think they would be alloyed?... I would think 24k gold might be too soft...

Hizen kokuju Omi Daijo Fujiwara Tadahiro... One of the most famous smiths from the Hizen Tadayoshi school of the Shinto period... there is plenty of info available online... be aware that gimei are common, especially if the sword doesn't have reliable papers...

Hi George M., Personally, I love good katakiri bori... it takes a huge amount of skill with the "iron brush" to do it well and make it look somewhat organic, like the lines were painted rather than chiseled...

I would guess oxidation from annealing and soldering... When the pros make solid silver or gold habaki, I assume they are alloyed with copper or other metals for strength. I wonder what the common alloy ratio they use would be?... maybe something like .925 silver, and 14k or 18k gold?

Hi Vaughn, Thanks for sharing your sword here. It could end up as quite a nice piece, as others have said already. If you can come up with the money for a proper PROFESSIONAL restoration, I'm sure it would be well worth the money, as long as the sword has no serious flaws hidden by it's current condition. A togishi, or other knowledgeable person, will be able to tell initially if the sword looks to be worth restoration (keep in mind, even then, there's always the chance a flaw can appear during polishing). If you do get it restored, we always like seeing before and after pics and hearing about the experience. Good luck...

Looks very nice. Any pics of the kissaki?

I don't really collect tsuba, but for what it's worth (nothing :lol: ), I like the design of yours better than most sukashi tsuba I see...

I'd say it's close enough to the nidai's mei that it should be seen in hand by the pros...

As long as great swords with great age and history are fairly prevalent, newer swords of the highest quality will obviously be at a huge disadvantage (as far as importance of preservation and status within society is concerned)... but as time passes, modern swordsmiths of the highest caliber will have their names and stories 'added to the history books', and eventually they will be recognized for their greatness. You can see certain 'modern' smiths who's names are growing in importance as we speak. Eventually, they will be the Minamoto Kiyomaro's and Suishinshi Masahide's of tomorrow, I'm sure...

Not to argue with Oya-bun :D (as I don't think there's anything wrong with his suggestion), but if you just make sure it stays oiled, I don't think the corrosion will progress. Crushing the rust from such a delicate part of the sword may be difficult for someone who might not have any experience doing this kind of stuff... just a thought...

Regardless of which definition of funbari you want to use, I don't see either one in the oshigata (or pic) of 'Odenta'... There's very little taper overall, and there's not a 'widened stance' in the habaki-moto...

Like Chris said, maybe it was a marketing point (marketed as a positive characteristic) at the time... similar to the way nambantetsu was included in some mei, seemingly as a positive characteristic...

Oshigata of Odenta- Miike Mitsuyo

I think it would be impossible to know the exact contruction without cutting the sword and polishing the cross section so you could see for sure how it was constructed. All you can really tell is that a different steel was used for the edge, which could suggest several different contruction methods. As far as one being better than another, I think that would also be hard to say... I wonder if there has been any performance comparisons done on different tsukurikomi... Here is info from the Usagiya website that talks about tsukurikomi and some visual characteristics, http://www.ksky.ne.jp./~sumie99/shingane.html

It's very interesting to see what some of the top tsuba guys on the board consider their favorites...

I'm just playing... for my own enjoyment :D

Hi Junichi, I only meant to say that it's possible that the example Ford posted (or any picture of nanako for that matter) might not be quite as perfect as it looks... I made the point because while reading the post I was looking at a nanako ground plate in hand, and you might be surprised how overlapping punches can disappear in the shadows with the right angle of light... only Ford can tell us for sure if they are as perfect as the picture looks... for what it's worth, like I said in an earlier post, it looks to be about the best nanako I've seen... Maybe Ford or someone else can give feedback on the multi-nanako punch and its effectiveness...

I assume by matrix punch you mean a multi-nanako punch, which is a possibility... I've never tried one, but having played around with regular nanako punches, I would think it would still be very difficult to maintain such uniformity even with a multi-nanako punch... After a fair amount of experimentation, I can do pretty good looking nanako, but I still haven't been able to achieve this kind of perfection, so I don't know One thing I do know is that the angle of light reflection, and viewpoint of the camera (or your eyes), can hide imperfections in the nanako, so maybe it's not quite as perfect as it appears in these photos...

Ford, that may be the most uniform nanako I've seen to this point... it would be hard to do any better than that I think...

To me they are obviously made by the same hand. I think the real issue is exactly what Bruno pointed out earlier... Unfortunately I'm not sure if anything can be done to stop this kind of stuff... If I bought one, the first thing I would do is crush the fake mei... :D

PS... Not that I don't like Pete's pic of Andrew, but I'm sure we would all love to see his work if anyone has any pics of that...

Jean, I happened to run across this Juyo Tametsugu and thought it may be of interest... The hada appears to be outstanding... http://www.nipponto.co.jp/swords/JT989035.htm

Hi Lance, what's the quality of the horimono? Any better pics of it?

I thought the same thing, Brian... I would have expected better... Then again, the lighting and magnification could be partly to blame...