Kronos

Oh I would never split a katana with it's Koshirae unless it was absolutely necessary (hagire, god awful koshirae with an exceptional nihonto etc). Merely stating I want the Koshirae and would be willing to pay a premium provided the katana made the entire package worth it. if you get my meaning. Anyway it's at a local auction and I've bid considerably more than their estimate so as long as there's no experts in the room it should be ok.

I might be listing a copy here soon but I'm not sure how interesting the price will be, certainly better than $300-$600 which is just ridiculous.

Bad pictures, lack of polish/activity and paranoia :lol: Just thought I'd check as my initial thought was late shinto or shinshinto but I want the koshirae and no point bidding more than what they're worth alone if the sword itself turns out to be less than an average mumei shinshinto piece. I've just found another picture where it doesn't look half as bad actually.

I'd just like to know peoples thoughts on age of this katana based off the nakago alone (if thats possible). It's in late edo mounts however I have a sneaking suspicion it's later although I can't see any distinct stamps from the photo's but there's something under the tsuba and maybe a stamp in the red rust on the furst image? Maybe I'm just seeing things.

Nice Tsuba, any info on it?

looks ok to me too. This may help http://www.jp-sword.com/files/gunto/tassel.html

Today I went to an arms fair and saw a few nihonto. one caught my eye though because the hamon was extremely varied and seemed to have everything. It started off O-notare, then went through suguha into Hato midare which was dominant, then finally gunome I believe with lots of ashi and that was just one side of the blade.The Boshi was yakitsume one side, Ko maru (maybe sansaku) the other and there was random activity like a single kinsuigi etc. The other thing was that near the Kissaki there was what looked like a single massive Tobiyaki only just inside the hamon but next to it maybe a break in the hamon. But I couldn't get the light correct to tell if it was a break, another Tobiyaki or the hamon just swerved right through the shinogi. For the record the nakago looked suriage, 2 mekugi-ana, very old black rust with pitting (koto) ichimonji nakagojiri, kiri yarusime. The owners sending me photo's so I'll try to upload them but I'm just wondering what was I just looking at? Was the smith just experimenting, not very good or some form of genius to fit all that onto a sngle blade?

Excellent news. I guess there's still hope of uncovering treasures

thats good to know. Everything seemed good until I got the Tsuka off expecting to find some rust :lol: I seem to of found the answers I was looking for: http://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=468 http://www.antique-swords.eu/672-WW2-Japanese-Naval-Officers-Kai-Gunto.html Now a whole bunch of other questions, namely who or what is Inaba...

Picked this up for next to nothing but after looking at the nakago it seems a bit 'off'. It's clearly been cleaned but can't tell if an amatuer has just ruined it or possibly a fake, yet the blade looks ok to me. I'm not getting anywhere with the mei which lead me to believe maybe a very good fake. I'll try to get photo's of the blade tommorow.

Yeah thanks guys, will be ordering a Mekuginuki from there and have Uchigo and microfiber cloths sorted. I'm not convinced there's any point spending 5* as much on Choji oil rather than just a high quality mineral oil if any one has a suggestion for that. Also I was reading a thread on here where denatured alcohol was suggested instead of IPA 99. Seeing as IPA is ridiculously hard to find as chemists don't seem to sell it anymore due to people thinking they can drink it (kids these days :lol: ). I could get IPA off amazon but don't want to wait until after the weekend as the katana has fresh fingerprints on the blade I don't want to rust.

What electrolysis does is create rust, I suppose what it's doing is rusting the surface so much that it just falls off as it's 100% rust with no remaining steel to cling to. Whats left will be a fine layer of surface rust that hasn't been exposed to the water that should wipe off fairly easily. However I'm not entirely sure it's as non-corrosive as he suggests and you'll still be getting rid of a fair chunk of black rust/underlying steel. Worth giving it a go on a tired/fatally flawed blade to see the results.

So I've just got my first Nihonto (only a cheap one for now) and need things such as a good mekuginuki, lint free cloth/rice paper, Isopropyl Alcohol, oil and Uchigo (I am aware of the discussions on this and will only be using it in certain situations). Looking for relatively high quality stuff not the cheap cleaning kits you can get and wondering if anyone knows good suppliers, preferably in the UK. Thank you in advance for any assistance that can be provided.

I've seen holes like that on the skulls of people killed in the 15th/16th century at Sedlec Ossuary in the Czech Republic. They were caused by arrows/spears although it could just as easily be a blister that popped.

I'd bet it's Soshin and will go for no more than $2000. Looks very tired...

Thank you Morita-san. I too think it is wonderful cursive Kanji. I'd like to think this is very much an older Edo Habaki given the Bushido influence that may not of been so prevalent later on?

I came across this interesting Habaki recently with Kanj on either side (I've only come across 1 other example of this so far and that was on these forums) and would like some translation assistance/any other relevant info. Hopefully I've rotated the photo's to the correct alignment.

No matter what that looks like a great blade. There's not a lot to go on as to whether it is ubu shinshinto or o-suriage koto simply shortened at a much later time. Only the quality of the workmanship will be able to tell. Edit: From the last photo I'm inclined to think very early shinshinto but I know nothing of what I speak so ignore me

Got mine a lot cheaper but that was a long time ago... Same, I think mine was for just under half of that but that was just before it went out of print. It's almost quadrupled in a year or two since so a good buy for anyone without it. I may get this as a second copy if it doesn't get any bids. it's a good deal for anyone who doesn't yet have it.

Thanks for sharing, some of the sets of armour are particularly stunning.

After looking again I think there may be 1 more Kanji not in the photo, under the Kozuka so I doubt they'll remove the Kozuka. This is from a Wakizashi auction that I'm thinking of bidding on so I should post the entire blade/Koshirae really. Just waiting to see if they can get me pics of the nakago as they can't remove the Tsuka for some reason... If anyone could give me possible matches from the partial signature that would be good but not necessary.

Aha that would explain a lot. I was looking at it the wrong way up Now I have the answer I feel I could of done it on my own had i been examining it properly. A good lesson learnt none the less, thanks everyone. P.S. Sorry about the rotation, I don't currently have any decent phto ediing software that allows me to rotate things other than 90/180°

Could use some help translating this kogutana as I'm dreadful with kanji and this seems even more difficult. Thanks in advance.

I was thinking more along the lines of proxies but thanks for the suggestion grey and I'll be sure to try that if ever I see something again. The sword in question was infact Stephens :lol: I really like to inspect something before buying so ebay's generally not for me unless there's Aoi-Art quality photo's but Stephens listing was the exception.

Any way of getting around this? Trying to bid on something on ebay.com but still won't let me...