Jim B

Just a quick update. I took the swords to the Japanese Cultural Center sword club and was given the following info. Blades appear to have been made in the 1500's The wak was shortened by 4" and is tired. No polishing would be advised. The Tonto has fire damage, possibly house fire type or being used as cooking tool stirring coals. Temper destroyed. It was thought that these could have been a Japanese officers heirlooms abandoned in Korea during a hasty retreat as officers would bring their belongings to take up residence. This all brings me joy as the cooking angle plays nicely into my father being a cook in the war. It also justifies my feeling when holding the wak that just maybe a great Samurai welded it in many battles polishing it numerous times as he contemplated his heroic efforts. They are now our familys proud heirlooms. It's all about the history!

I'm only a maintenance contractor but the duct tape and aluminum rustoleum paint do look familiar.

Yep yep, The design is such that I can easily store the sayas when the Emperor and his dignitaries come over. Those spots in the back are for a shorter Wak and a Katana

As promised, my $30 custom wall mount and frame. Waiting on home made rice glue to dry for tsuka and were set. Again, I want to thank everyone for their comments and who knows, maybe I'll find myself another treasure someday.

BTW Mark, I don't think you can have it both ways. I now see a thread from early 2009 where everyone is trying to guess the fake. The answer was the sustained depth of the chiseling. One look at mine and it is obvious the depth was amazingly similiar. wow, not much left but most is still there...pretty good faker if you ask me

I apologize Brian, I could have sworn I was skimming thru posts and saw you had said something about too many pics and to use outside services. Was just being helpful. I will put them back, no worries to me what so ever. I can post them all if you like. I don't think my Flilr's will dissapear, my beautiful face has been on there for over a year.

I deleted the pics so as to not take up space, all are viewable on original post with flickr. Thank you forum administrator for the ability to have some fun.

Question on my sword of 59.8 cm..isn't the proper description of that Kodachi and not Wakizashi? I'm making a custom unique wall stand for these with a picture frame and want to describe the long sword properly. I'll post a pic when done. TIA

One question about gimei. I have heard it has been around for 200 yrs. and the obvious reason would be for $$$$. Why would anyone go to the trouble on a blade with this much wear to gimei it? There is about a 140 yr. span that it would have had to be done since it is in my families possesion for 60. A guy buys a nice blade (he thinks) and goes and uses it a lot? or the blade was in major wear state and he pays a fortune for it? No, I'm not seeing either of these senarios. The blade has little value in its current state even if real due to the use and rust factor. I can however see this blade being purchased from a fine craftsman and being used and used as a blade should be. Someday I will have them looked at, till then, they are what they are. It's not everyday I find an authentic Tanto with lotus and gomabashi that was enjoyed repeatedly by its owner. I like that fact alone.

Hi Mark I totally agree, I would also expect to see some file marks. There are none. The blade has been used a lot, the rust factor on the tang as I have said is pretty bad for whatever reason I don't know. Saying that, depth would obviously have been lost to a degree.

Thank you Jacques for taking the time to examine the photo's. Maybe you could give me some specific examples or pictures to refer too? I would appreciate that. My limited knowledge and study shows only (1) tonto so far googled "An Awataguchi Tanto" at Christies. The signature like mine is omote with proper placement on the right side of hole and the tang end is almost identical with Tadatsuna being mostly referred to as ha-agari kuri-jiri given the amount of rust. I'm not sure what your getting at in the "Usually mune is steep oroshi and mune and ha of the nakago should be roundish" Most blades I've seen of Tadatsuna like this one at Christies has a smaller edge on the ha side. Please explain in a detail I might better understand. TIA

VERY happy man tonight I cleaned the tang on the tonto with isopropyl alcohol and low and behold the signature appeared. Without any doubt in my mind it is Ikkanshi Tadatsuna. It matches his signature on "The Weapons and Spirit of the Japanese Warrior" page 68 by Clive Sinclaire.

Thank you John and you were right. I'm just throwing this out there for any other noobs, don't use wood glue. It obviously destroyed the metal. I'm am going to clean it out to be able to get the tang back in properly.

Many thanks kind sir..This forum and folks like yourself are much appreciated. Your time and kindness I bow too.

This very well may be the case. I will certainly now do more professional exploring. What is interesting is my father was a cook and today we see Tadatsuna cooking knives..might be very ironic or lucky. With further investigation the Wak looks very similar to works from the Tadatsuna school in "tadayuki"'s work. These very well may have been a pair.