Geraint

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.

Dear Nick. Is this a wakizashi or not? Value really depends on that among other things. All the best.

Dear Chian. If you are the buyer then of course it does, if you are the seller then absolutely not! On a more serious note any modification to a sword has an influence on how it is regarded but I don't think machi okuri on an otherwise ubu nakago would bother most people unless it tripped the sword over the katana/wakizashi demarcation. All the best.

Dear Jerry. Since your search for a comparable peony kashira will likely be a long one there is another option to consider, have a look here, https://www.aoijapan.com/img/sword/2015/15965koshirae.jpg (Click on the image to enlarge it.) A plain black horn kashira would be much simpler to source and would finish your sword out very nicely. I am sure that I am not alone in asking to see the work when you have completed this project. All the best.

Dear Michael. Well John has told you the details about the koshirae. After that we are trying to judge the blade in out of polish condition and from limited photographs. It looks suriage, by how much is harder to tell. It has a narrow shinogi ji and a small point. If you measure the sugata and add a couple of inches where does that get you? (Original length might help with age.) What can you see of the hamon and boshi? There seems to be a considerable degree of taper from base to tip, does the hamon get narrower towards the tip? If so then that might mean a blade tht has lost shape due to repeated polishes. If you can get the habaki off then what does the blade look like from the mune? The hi looks irregular, can you see if the blade thins down in line with the irregularities or is it just the hi that is wobbly? I know, questions, questions and you want answers. All the best.

And there goes this thread! All the best.

Dear Kyle. Just to add to what Steve has said, the sword is in WWII mounts with a pierced tsuba/handgurad and a silver mon/badge on the hilt. These are more unusual features and make the sword more interesting. The leather cover on the metal scabbard indicates combat use so your grandfather is much more likely to have acquired this in another way. Many swords were destroyed immediately after the war when for a time they were proscribed and handed in to the authorities. For a Japanese person to have retained this, brought it out of the country and given it as a gift would have been very unlikely. Did your grandfather serve in the war? If not then perhaps he acquired it because of his interest in martial arts. A wonderful piece of family history. Take a slow journey of discovery and don't do anything to it other than a light oiling of the blade, not the tang. Interesting sword and we look forward to seeing how this turns out. All the best.

Dear Martin. Welcome, please add your name to all your posts as we all do here. I am not sure what you want to hear about your sword. It is a perfectly genuine antique sword, an unsigned wakizashi in older polish with low end but genuine mounts which is papered to a Takada school smith. I think Teruyuki of which there were four generations between 1650 and 1800. The Takada school is not generally highly regarded, it is suggested that they are not art swords. I have always found that a rather strange statement and individual swords are often very good. Hope this helps. All the best.

Dear Kevin. (Bye the way, you can auto add your signature to all posts in your profile.) If nothing else this has given me some profitable time looking at my limited resources on matchlocks. As is often the case there is much information but not exactly what you want. Brian and Jan are heading towareds the side of this being genuine and I would be delighted if that were the case. Here are a few points to consider. The stock, certainly recently refinished but it is not made of Japanese oak which is the usual material, it seems to be Beech but hard to be sure from photographs. The trigger guard, heavy proportions and the way it is fixed to the stock looks pretty rough, the gauge of the metal in the ring behind it is also a concern. The pan cover, is it brass? The thumb lever to open the pan seems at an odd angle. The barrel protector, again is this brass? It seems to be a poorly fettled casting. The brass butt cap, gauge, finish and the large size of the pins all concern me. The breech plug, looks remarkably clean and new for a gun that is at least 120 years old. The pan, do you think it has ever been fired? Please don't take any of these ideas as more than they are and I hope that Jan will be able to reassure us on all of them, they are just what concerned me and led me to suggest a reproduction. I know that Dixie Gunworks used to sell a reasonable reproduction and I am sure that other companies have done so to. The Dixie example is quite close in style to this one but not identical. Here's hoping for a positive response from Jan and from your gunsmith as regards the shootability of it. All the best.

Dear Kevin. Others much more skilled than I will chime in but I suspect that this is a reproduction. Not the lack of signature but other features suggest this to my eye. It might well be a shootable version but you need to let others assure you of that. All the best.

Not so sure we are going to see a signature on this one..... Hope to be wrong. All the best.

Already featured in the translation section, http://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/28426-katana-mei/ All the best.

Dear Trevor. Roger is a great person to be in contact with and will steer you well on this one. Whatever the outcome of his examination this is a very nice piece and I would suggest you do as little as possible to it with regard to restoration. As David says it is signed Hizen kuni Tadayoshi but it is also signed tachi mei which all helps toward the school. If Robert comes back with a positive then you might need to start thinking about polish and papers but for now just a little light oil on that blade and enjoy it. All the best.

Dear Dwain. Not sure what you mean by recovery, do you mean restoration? If so then ask yourself why a seller should have two very similar swords with strange shaped nakago both covered in nice fresh rust which seems to be uniform across the blade and nakago, both now in USA but from Japan. When you have answered that one then your question probably becomes irrelevant. All the best.

Dear Michael. Welcome to the board. Your suspicions are quite correct, this is not a Japanese sword. It is most likely a Chinese fake. If you want detail then please ask and we can give you a long list. Hope your next one is a great find. Enjoy. All the best.

Dear Logan. Just to be clear you are absolutely right, this is a Chinese fake, Brian is referencing the seller in his reply. All the best.

Dear Robert, The brass curved inlay looks like a type of fence found in Japanese gardens so perhaps this is a tea house? All the best.

So, "Made by Sukekuni who is the third generation Sukenao." Sounds good. All the best.