Geraint

Dear Chris. Love it! It is quite an experience and well worth doing even if the finished result is not as good as yours. The process really makes you look at a blade in a way that nothing else does. To all those who have thought of doing this I would recommend trying it even if you are not confident in your artistic abilities. As Anthony suggest a frame is a good idea, when you do your own swords you have something to keep even when the sword leaves your collection. Keep up the good work! All the best.

Dear Judith. Welcome. Please add your name to your posts as we all do here. And also please don't rest the swords on that stone floor. So far one WWII sword, one Chinese reproduction and a wakizashi, the shorter sword. Any signature on the tang for that one? All the best.

Dear Brandon. (In your profile please auto add your name to all your posts). Given the three mekugi ana and assuming that the mei is original then your sword has at least had the machi moved up, That is called machi okuri and is a way of shortening the blade length. Given the current length then this would originally have been just into katana length and at or around 60 cms one might expect it to have been an uchigatana from 1500 to 1550. Your decisions about restoration are complex. In order to do this properly you will need to have it polished by a trained polisher, if you decide to do this then please ask for recommendations here as a poor polish will ruin the sword. Is it worth it? That depends on you, financially almost certainly not; you would most likely have to factor in the cost of polish and a new shirasaya, of and while you are about it papers. Is it worth it in terms of the reward of seeing it fully restored and knowing that you have brought it back? That is up to you. It certainly is not worth having a new koshirae made for it though we have all felt the need to do this. Polished, papered and in shirasaya would be the way to go. If you really need to own a sword in koshirae then find one and buy it, possibly letting this one go to fund the purchase. Interested to see the outcome if you do decide to have it properly restored, meanwhile enjoy your sword. All the best.

Dear Uwe. Nice Hirado Kunishige tsuba! All the best.

Dear Harry. The golden rule is don't touch. Almost all Japanese fittings are deliberately patinated and any cleaning puts them at sever risk of damage. Once you have understood a lot more about them then you will find recommendations to remove active rust from iron tsuba with small pieces of bone or antler. One member recently posted an iron tusba which he had been carrying around in his jacket pocket wrapped in cloth for a few weeks which seems to help. Anything in soft metal is best left alone or given to someone who really knows their stuff like Ford Hallam. For dismounted pieces a very gentle cleaning in hot soapy water with a soft brush is all. From your descriptions of your treatment of your Indo Persian stuff I think we would all urge you to leave well alone. If that "bargain" turns up then please do post pictures and ask for advice here, lots of people willing to help. All the best.

Dear Jose. The tsuba has been drilled to mount it and what about the extra large hitsu ana? Ian has beaten me to the punch but to add the monkey looks as if at best it has been added to the tsuba, at worst it might even have been a spelter casting. The whole thing looks as if it has been assembled for the late Meiji tourist market. If this is so then the first buyer thought they were on to something and then discovered that they were not. All the best.

Dear Bruce. Run! Run far and run fast! While it is impossible to see anything of the blade from these photographs, other than the fact that the geometry is off, everything else is fake. To get your eye in, as we say, take a good look at some of the stuff on here for example, https://www.aoijapan.com/ Other sites can be found i the links section at the top of the page. All the best.

Hi Matthew. I'm afraid I can't open the blade images either, nice shot of the habaki though, (blade collar). It's what is called a niju habaki or two piece, a classy option as the majority are single piece. If you measure the blade from tip to the notch on the back edge where the habaki sits what length do you get? Ray has pointed you in the right direction so your sword may well be from 1504 to 1521. Fascinating or what? If the bug has bitten and you want to go further with this then you need to get someone to see it in hand. The best treatment will be a proper polish and a shirasaya, (plain wooden mounts). This is not cheap but you will be restoring something of some history. As the sword was a gift then it is probably worth it financially. Please do ask here for recommendations for proper polishers, a lot of people think they can do it and ruin swords. If you can fix the pictures maybe we can see a bit more to help you. All the best.

Dear Logan. I would think you are right bout it being an Edo period piece. I am intrigued by the fuchi, do I see kanji to the right of the tree? Standard advice is that a mumei shinto wakizashi is never going to repay your investment in a polish in financial terms. However that is not the only criteria and there is some joy to be had in seeing a sword in fresh polish. The question is are you so keen on this sword that you can stand to take a loss financially just to see it in all it's glory? I am sure that you know that there are also risks, a hidden flaw that shows up after polish for example. Personally I don't usually buy a sword that I don't intend to keep and so for me the answer would be to have it polished but most people will counsel you not to invest. Your sword, your call, your money but do let us know how this one turns out and please can I see some more of that fuchi? All the best.

Dear Joe. I'm afraid I can't open these as images of a size that is useful. They seem to be thumb jpegs. Can you post them as full images for us please? All the best.

Dear Jason. The area you show is supposed to be the finish to the kaeri of the boshi. The end of the frosted surface coincides with the point where the kaeri runs into the mune. All the best.

Dear Omar. I assume you are concerned about the width of the habaki against what could be called the length of the fuchi. I don't think you will have a problem, once seppa and tsuba are fitted I think it will look fine. It is not always the case that the fuchi is exactly the same size as the saya. All the best.

Dear Omar. Tsuruta san dismisses the koshirae as modern and of no value so at least in one regard your eye is doing well. All the best.

Dear John. The mei reads Kunihiro. Pictures of the blade might help here. All the best.

Dear Matt. Bishu is one way of writing Bizen which is the province, Oasfune is the town and Ietsugu is the smith. Something like Texas, San Antonio,Matt. Can we see pictures of the blade and mounts? All the best.

Dear Dwain. The simple answer to your question is, yes of course. The boshi is a continuation of the hamon and can have activity such as sunagashi, nie and so on. All the best.

Dear Szab Roughly flower badge piercing. Mon are heraldic emblems, sukashi simply means pierced. Welcome. All the best.

Dear George. Not to speak for Tom but some of the terms are hard to cope with at first. The machi are the steps at the junction of the blade and the tang. Machi okuri is a process where the machi are moved toward the blade's tip to shorten it somewhat. Your blade has very unusual grooves, three is not often seen. Moving the machi has altered the position of the end of the grooves so that they are a little lower into the tang than they would have been. Hope that clarifies the technical terms, the rest of Tom's post I will leave to him to expand. All the best.

Dear Kevin. To answer your question, not a cat in hell's chance of getting any paper, (unless you count a pink slip.) Question to ask yourself, why extra mekugi ana on a shingunto? All the best.

Dear Georg. It is great to see that you are moving slowly and carefully, please do keep that up. Something to bear in mind is that even if this proves to be gimei it is still a cracking sword! As you have recouped your costs with the other items then you could have this properly restored and still be in the the money. It would be a very nice sword. Of course we all secretly hope that you have found the real deal and we would love to hear how this develops. All the best.

Dear Pete. Better eyesight than me! As I said I would be delighted to be wrong and hope that as Jean suggests once the mastic is removed all is good. All the best.

Dear Luca. I can see why you liked them but I don't think you need to worry about mounting them. The tanzaku mei should be engraved on separate thin metal plates that are held in place by a tiny metal stitch. I fear that on yours they are cast in one piece with the post. I would love to be wrong. Have a look here, https://www.aoijapan.com/menuki-tanzaku-signature-tsuchiya/ Note the right hand menuki, back view. All the best.

Dear Michael. Not necessarily the case, it is quite common with shorter blades to find a longer saya with more curve and almost impossible to find a saya that will fit another blade well. If you want to check then a thin dowel or some other item will easily tell you the depth of the saya which you can compare with the blade. As long as it's a good fit when assembled you have nothing to worry about. All the best.

Dear Andrew. (In your profile auto add your name to your posts.) As you are within reach of London hi thee to a Token Society meeting, good bunch of people who will probably be happy to take a look for you. http://to-ken.uk/ All the best.

Sankinkotai? All the best.