tokashikibob

Here's a Takayama sword, maybe Masayoshi. However this blade is in army fittings so maybe not made in the Navy forge. Direct from WW2 vet who grabbed it on Okinawa.

Hopefully it is WW2 era occupied territory made blade in the end result.

Bob, real but looks to have a fatal flaw crack in the hamon in pic #4

Stephen, I should have known that mei as I have a Oya Kunisada, and spent enough time looking at father and son checking out my blade. It is remarkable how as you age you cannot remember anything even though you look at it day after day. Mei kanji, nihonto terms and the like. When I hang out with Death-Ace (young guy) here on base; the dude has sopped nihonto up and can tell you the copyright date and publisher on Nagayama....Nakayama.... whatever! Best regards, Bob

I agree with Josh, money well spent. Nothing left to do but pull it off the shelf once in awhile and admire it. I bet the guy who made it would say it is worth more than 500 Obama bucks.

George, That is interesting, as the nakago is very clean and did not show age. Also, when I looked at Markus's meikan his Sanemasa mei's were not close (Kinda sloppy). This mei is well chisled. (Stephen can you post the mei? I seem to have lost it). Those questions I had seem to be possibly answered by your post. Anyway, I have not seen it in hand, blade is out of polish however. I see the owner from time to time in the business and maybe sometime when I go to his town will stop in at take a peek. Best Regards, Bob

I saw your Nam photos so I'm not going to push my B.S. too far!

Gents, A friend of mine rescued this fine lady from the fireplace mantle locally as the widower was cleaning house and downsizing. Does Company clerk Stephen give it a thumbs up? Now if I can only work out a trade of some sort but he's a hard nut to crack. Best Regards, Bob

Surf, Waiting for Brian to PM me about Masamune.

Bazza, Yes they are in fossil fields of the N.C. coast in just a few small areas. The coordinates of good fields are kept secret and the numbers are sometimes sold for many thousands of dollars. The teeth are about 10 million years old. They lay anywhere from 95-110 feet in these areas and basically you look for large pieces of whale bone which are remnants of shark's supper. Most of the surface fossil teeth are gone, so you head down there with a 50 pound scooter with 2 lead acid batteries. You use that to blow the overburden down to bedrock stopping at times to see what you blew out or is laying in the hole. The deeper you go the bigger the teeth most of the time. Time to reach the area is 2 to 3 hours as it is way off shore and sea conditions are usually rough if you are not used to it. I'm probably good for 2017 but will hang it up soon. Best Regards, Bob

Greg, Hopefully she didn't grab any blades. When I got kicked out for a few weeks last year the old lady grabbed 8 or so nihonto I had in grabbing distance. One is still missing! Anyway, let me know if I can help! Best Regards, Bob

Thanks for the kind words on the photo's, maybe Moses, Darcy or Danny will hire me someday.

Thanks for the kind words fellas, I've had a good year buying antiques; handling many antique guns and swords, clocks & watches and toys. Also mined a few big teeth from the bottom of the ocean this year to boot and did not get the bends (3x dudes) or get killed 2x dudes). If I stop posting some day it probably means a big auction sale here of my gear (Don't miss it) as I did not come back from a dive. The only thing that may be better than finding a big tooth is finding and buying a great nihonto in the sticks. I'll have to save some $ for a Shinsa trip as I have been putting that off and really need to get some of these neck shavers looked at as books only can do so much on mumei pieces. Best regards, Bob P.S. PM if you are interested in purchasing a tooth for Christmas, you deserve it!!

Effort + Time + Lil bit o knowledge + Good Karma = Luck

Stephen, You are one easily satisfied Nihontophile!

Fellas, Wow, this was my third stuck handle in my nihonto handling career and took a hour to get the peg out and handle off. Two hole shorten blade, no mei. In my unprofessional amateurish and usually wrong assumptions I would say this work is a muromachi era Soshu work moving towards sue soshu. The thing that really is nice is the holographic quality you get with the hamon. Where with a subtle movement of the wrist you can go to full hitasura to gunome and back again. Really incredible stuff. I am a big fan of these old (Edo?) polishes that have passed the test of time. Auction Story: So I'm sitting in this little auction barn in the small town in nowhere North Carolina. There were a few other military guys who also showed up from around the state as a small collection of military swords where on hand among other decent antiques. The Japanese blade was first on the sword side to go and the left bid on this was $300 bucks so we go from there. I look confident and after a minute or so I win the bid. Sooo, a sword or two later is this really old U.S. sword that nobody really knows much about. The auction says Medical service but I know it is not that. Since I bid up the Japanese sword the competition shuts down quick after I join in the fun and I get the second sword I came there for... cheap. This morning with the help of another forum; it's a rare early West Point Cadet sword pre Civil War. One of 400 ever made and one of 100 sent to West Point in 1856. You know how civil war collectors are, so this is a incredible find as it is cleaner than the one at the West Point Museum from what I can tell. http://www.oldswords.com/articles/THE%20U%20S%20%20MODEL%201839%20CADET%20SWORD%201.pdf So this is a lucky Nihonto, not like the other one with the ghost. Best Regards. Bob

Anything with Colby Bilmore on the mailing tag on the saya would be nice under the tree!

Gents, Headed out after work for a night auction a few hours away last night. I brought this home and it cleaned up pretty nice. Anyone want to take a stab at the bladesmith before I work the handle off? Best Regards, Bob P.S. With my luck it is mumei or gimei.

For some of us this situation is one way on how we acquire our collections. It is of great interest when a collection comes on the market as there are too many pieces usually for the collecting community to absorb in the matter of a few minutes time in the auction crowd or when someone responds to a advertisement.. Guys like me (The newbies) cannot shop at Aoi art often. Best Regards, Bob

Getting ready to carve up the Turkey in a couple days. Stephen says I should cut the bird with this old chow hall Ginsu, I prefer a electric carving knife. I guess I could use this old relic if the bird is juicy. Best Regards, Bob

Hammy, I have many great examples of fine military outfitted blades, I look for the different nowadays. Anyway I liked the look and it's still sharp. I won't have a problem using it next month when the riots start if I'm out of bullets. I'd have reservations on using one of the nice polished blades on out of control liberturds or Trumpers for that matter. Best Regards, Bob

Thanks guys, Especially Bruce, saved me time looking those kanji up. I keep it together even if the parts are worth more than what I have in it. I'm sure we all have repaired & refitted project blades and soon find how hard it is to get a good fit on just about anything on a nihonto. Whomever did this one was pretty savvy.

Steven & Hammy, Here's the Endo Mei. The last inch of the nakago is gone, another mystery. Anyway you may be right but I'm thinking some sort of Navy civilian government worker. Tsuka is good work, Endo Nagamitsu not so much even with the star stamp. I'll get a kurikata for it and put it away for another day.

Gents, You may have seen this before as I spotted it on a few old boards. I was intrigued by the tsuka, as i seem to get excited by unusual in Nihonto and also because I've tried my hand at a few wraps with the help of Thomas Bucks book. Anyway, I bought it. The Tsukaito is gold and the backing is a fine cloth. However, all the fittings are standard Navy. The scabbard is unusual and maybe not original due to theme to the piece but it fits together well and maybe is correct? Has anybody else seen or own odd Navy koshirae blades? Other points of interest are what i believe to be a zodiac date and the Star stamp Endo Nagamitsu mei and a family symbol beneath the tassels on the scabbard. Best Regards, Bob

Koshirae may be a late war civilian base worker put together. Lucky the government employee kept the shirasaya! Nice blade!