runagmc

Should insist on proper terminology :lol:

 

Back to the topic of funbari and the pic of the mino blade with "no funbari" so that I may compare and see what I "think" you are talking about if the blade were shortened as it appears to be would the area where it is slightly wider not be eliminated? :?

Yes it is obviously shortened and machi-okuri which would cause it to lose its funbari (if it had it before shortening). But for this purpose I thought it illustrated the difference well. I could post a pic of an ubu blade withouy funbari for you if that would make more sense.

without funbari:

with funbari:

I always thought any blade that flared at the machi was said to have funbari.

Blade has a katana mei (signature) that looks like Kanemitsu to me. Everything looks to be real and the mounts, at least, look to be high quality. This is my favorite style of tachi koshirea (mounts).

Can't tell as much about the blade, but it is a real Nihonto. Looks pretty old. (I could be wrong, I didn't look at the photobucket pics)

I don't know what you paid but it looks like a good purchase for someone new to the subject. Mabey someone else will be able to give you more info.

Although the boshi could point to earlier, the rough forging and nakago would suggest mid to late muromachi to me.

Now you can tell us how wrong we all are

Edit: after another look the nakago seems long for muromachi.

Is it correct to say that funbari can only be found on swords prior to Nambokucho period? I have never heard this. I thought it was more common on late heian/early koto era blades, but not exclusive to them.

Here are a few pictures for consideration...

without funbari:_____________________________

Shinto blades with funbari:_________________________________________

I assume what he means by 'kazu-uchi mei' is the simplified mei that was used for lesser quality kazu-uchi mono sometimes.

An example would be the Osafune smiths of late Muromachi era signing the Bishu Osafune mei rather than the longer mei they would use on higher quality special order blades. This rule, like everything else partaining to Nihonto, is full of exceptions so I guess it can't really be considered a rule.

From what I can tell, the difference between kazu-uchi mei and nakarishi mei might be that kazu-uchi mei weren't necassarily done by someone other than the smith.

I'm not sure if this was one of the terms you were wondering about but if it was then there you go.

Sometimes it's better to leave some of the chip in order to keep the proper shape and to lengthen the life of the blade. Small chip is not as bad as poor shape IMHO. If you use a good polisher he will probably tell you what is best... hopefully.

good luck if you decide to restore

Alot of times when the master of a forge or school retires or dies, he passed his name down to the person who is to take over the top spot. This can happen over and over for generations.

To say a gimei sword isn't worth collecting is an over simplification, like Chris said. Don't we always say the quality of the craftmanship is whats most important?

I guess Guido's saying a poor quality sword with a big name on the nakago isn't worth collecting, which is a fair statement for the most part.

I think it's a persons personal preference to remove a gimei or not, but to keep one on a blade because it's 'part of the swords history' doesn't make much sense, to me at least.

This is slightly off topic, but I would point out that I think it's a good idea for new collectors to start with lower quality Nihonto until they feel comfortable with taking care of them. Alot of times I see people telling newbies that they should buy the best quality sword they can afford. That doesn't make much sense to me. Newbies should make their mistakes on lower end blades & not high end ones in my opinion. When I say lower quality I don't mean unpolished ebay junk, I mean lower quality Nihonto in good polish.

My 2 cents.

Alan, I would say they look very different too, but I don't know how consistent or inconsistent this smiths mei were.

Lots of differences in those two mei, for sure.

I wonder who makes more off the sale of swords right now, the craftsmen or the sword dealers?

Also, the Japanese craftsmen would be doing alot better if so many of us collectors weren't so poor. I wish I had a couple hundred thousand extra laying around that I could spend on shinsakuto and mukansa polishes, but...

Lets face it, too many of us only have enough money for the necessities... and swords are no longer a necessity.

BTW, no need to thank me for brightening up the mood

I've looked through this post several times since it was started and every time I'm amazed by the high quality koshirae. Are most of them newly put together?

Wish I could visit in person... unfortunitly I live on the opposite side of the planet

There's not much going on for nihonto enthusiasts in Georgia. Big surprise, huh...

Thanks for all the good pics and info. You guys keep up the good work.

mei reads: oshu kuni wake wakabayashi ju yamashiro daijo fujiwara kunikane (I think)

I did a quick search on nihontoclub.com and they didn't have all the generations listed but out of the ones they had the shodai was the only one to use 'wake wakabayashi ju' in the mei. Mabey someone else can give a more definative answer.

Is it a nice blade? The early generations are pretty highly ranked.

Shodai was ranked:

Hawleys- 80

Fujishiro- jo-jo saku

toko taikan- 8M

Are you sure it's a Mino smith? There were several Kaneshige during this period outside of Mino. Also I assume the date may be refering to the period that this owner wore the blade and when the kinzogan mei was done. The blade may have been made earlier. Just things to consider.

Here's some info on the citrus oil cleaners if you were interested...

http://www.ascleanedontv.com/articles/c ... aners.html

when I use an uchiko ball I hold it a few inches above the ji and tap the ball lightly with my finger and the uchiko just floats down. I don't really like the idea of hitting a pom w/ abrasives on it on a nice polished blade (not saying that's wrong, I just don't do it). Also it keeps the fabric of the pom from getting oil on it.

Like others have said quality uchiko is important. I filter mine by mixing it with water in a container and I only keep the powder that's small enough to stay bouyant for 40 seconds or so. The bigger stuff sinks to the bottom and I dump it dow the sink. It doesn't get much more low-tech than that but you end up with pretty fine uchiko.

Pretty much the only time I use uchiko is when I want to study a blade. Excessive cleaning w/ uchiko takes away the dark staining of the steel from nugui.

btw: this is just what I do incase anyone cares

Jan, I happened to run across this on aio-art that says jumyo has a 'lucky meaning'. mabey this is were you saw it too. Just thought I'd point it out.

http://aoi-art.com/sword/wakizashi/11230.html

Here's a good example of matsukawa hada to compare with.

http://www.nihonto.ca/norishige-2/

The sword in question looks to have a similar pattern but I'm not sure it has that very bold look of matsukawa hada that they say comes from the mixture of two different steels. That being said this sword has pretty bold hada for shinshinto. I would probably call this itame/mokume w/ masame in yakiba. Now if I can just find some ayasugi in there... :lol:

Thanks Alan, that post answered all my questions.

Sorry for the repost. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction Chris.

Its interesting you say the style is archaic. The way the beveled edge tapers off before the machi reminds me of more modern things like hunting knives or kitchen knives or something. And the koshirae is awkward at best although it looks very well done. Ok, I'll shut up now since this piece has already been discussed without much interest.

I ran across a style of small tanto (I guess) and koshirae here :

http://world.choshuya.co.jp/sale/sword/ ... gemasa.htm

and was wondering if this style has any history behind it or if it was just something these craftsmen came up with. The tanto is unusual in it's own right but the mounts are even more strange. Does anybody know anything about this? It's been for sale for a while even though it's not overly expensive. Mabey the style is turning people off.

I'm thinking this blade has seen some serious polishing. When I look at the pic of the full suguta I see a very bulky looking nakago in comparison to the rest of the blade. Also the way the blade kind of flares out toward the machi points to over polishing to me. And the flaring I'm talking about is different from funbari. It seems to flare out at the ha machi also. This is just what my eyes see and by no means concrete.

A thin hamon is fine as long as it doesn't go off the edge anywhere. What's important is the overall preservation of the original shape and that it has no "fatal flaws". If you could find a knowledgable person to inspect it in hand they would be able to tell you if it's worth sending it to a polisher for further inspection.

Adam

How often were kazu-uchi mono (mass produced blades) signed? Or I guess the question should be: what do existing works show us about kazu-uchi mono being signed VS unsigned?

Adam

To me it seems like the difference in a sunnobi tanto and ko-wakizashi is the shape. When a blade has little to no sori and looks like a long tanto I call it a sunnobi tanto. When it has sori and looks like a short wakizashi I call it ko-wakizashi. Mabey I'm wrong.

Conflicting Terminology

Adam

Also. if the hira-niku is polish down on a blade, it could, in theory remove the soe-hi without changing the moto-kasane drastically. If that were the case you might not be able to tell over polishing by the difference in nakago_kasane and moto_kasane. Just a thought ...

Adam