runagmc

Does the hamon disappear into the nakago? Could it be suriage? Mabey the hi were added after shortening... the only thing is the suguta is more common in wakizashi. As far as the boshi being slightly different, I think you can find things like that in any school. The kaeri (turnback of boshi) on the ura didn't form as well during yaki-ire.

yes

I've never left enough oil on a sword to even run or drip, much less pool, but mabey that's just me...

And by the way Brian, I've read that before too, about oil pooling, so I'm not saying your wrong. I just wonder if that was really the reason...

I hate to question the fearless leader of this forum , but I'm not completely sure oil was the deciding factor... I'm not sure it wasn't a factor either. I was just thinking about a sword being worn... it would be worn with the saya pointing down somewhat, so.... As far as the tilted stand goes, I've never seen an antique like that... Now I have to brace myself for Brian's wrath...

Ford, I was wondering if you've ever used any of the natural citrus cleaners. In my experience they work pretty good for cleaning wax and most other non water soluable substances. I would think they might be good for tsuba and other metal work... Here's some info on citrus cleaners I pulled from a google search, http://www.ascleanedontv.com/articles/c ... aners.html

Hey Eric, Samitsu is not a smith that's lised anywhere, as far as I know. Your sword looks to be from around the date on the blade to me... and of good quality. Oei Morimitsu is said to commonly have gunome-choji hamon so... I think overall it has a fair chance of papering, but as Jean said, I'm just an amateur. BTW- Eric, google bo-utsuri and see if you can see this kind of activity on your sword. Utsuri can be hard to spot if you don't know what to look for... but if you can see it, it would help authenticate it as Morimitsu...

They were also made for wandering ex-samurai trying to atone for their past brutality... or are we not counting anime history...

I wonder if the seller accidentally added an extra zero on the price tag...

.................................. TRASH CAN that thing should be in a MUSEUM...

Nice Greg... that perfectly makes the point. Don't gamble on internet auctions/buys with only bad pictures, and potentially flawed descriptions to go on... especially when the seller doesn't allow an inspection period.

Jean, your absolutely right, but in this case we were just discussing the proper translation of the mei, not trying to confirm it's authenticity...

I've been able to find a few other Morimitsu's where the Mori kind of looks like NARI so the other guys may have been right... too bad it's not papered. here's a later Oei-Bizen Morimitsu to look at,

I thought it looked more like NARI, but I could be wrong... for his sake I hope it is Morimitsu (although that would greatly increase the chance of it being gimei)... Unfortunatly I don't have any examples of Narimitsu to compare with...

I believe this is nidai osafune NARIMITSU... http://nihontoclub.com/smiths/NAR33

ON EBAY, NO RETURNS, NO PAPERS, NO GOOD PICTURES, CHEAP, (as that one comedian says, "Here's your sign")

Jon, I edited my post above with a good link for some explanation...

No, I'm afraid it's a bit more complex than that. I think you can safely assume this blade is most likely ubu and mumei... edit: if you look through this list, there are a few good article on identifying suriage... as well as many other great articles.. http://www.ksky.ne.jp./~sumie99/information.html

The hamon going off the blade right behind the ha machi is an indicator here of an ubu nakago (even if the real hamon is hidden by hadori in the pics). Mekugi ana can have strange looking placements for any number of reasons, the main one most likely being that it was just a convenient place to put it during remounting. It's not at all uncommon to find mekugiana that look to be carelessly placed. Edit: just to be clear, I know the hamon going off the blade right behind the ha machi does not necessarily mean the nakago is ubu, but it's one point to look for... along with consistent yasurime and acceptable length and shape of nakago for the attributed maker. Anything that might point to an alteration must be considered (other than mekugi ana)... This looks ubu to me, but I welcome other opinions for consideration...

Guido, that's the best picture ever...

Based on the pics, I'm not sure this is suriage. Can you elaborate on why you think it is? Also, I think it would be nearly impossible to give a solid guess about school... that being said, if I had to guess from the pics I might guess sue-seki mass produced... I don't think you should list any school on your auction description, because you don't have any documentation to support your guess... PS: Unless you need to sell it quick, why list it on ebay? Why not just list it here?

If a person was going to forge a false signature, I don't see why adding a false date would be much of an extra risk...

this may be Hidetoki... check this link, http://nihontoclub.com/view/smiths/list ... rt_era=All there appears to be 3 generations from Musashi in mid shinto...

A good lesson for us (including myself) to not assume something is gimei too quickly... specially when judging pictures. You obviously did the right thing by getting it to shinsa. Congrats!

yes, from the 2nd pic it is obviously KANENOBU... somehow, I over looked that pic... sorry :?