63Busman

I've been looking at pictures of blades that are conformed as being made by Nagasone Kotetsu and I'm not sure that I see a bunch of differences. For example: http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/Zoom ... 4/D5078430 http://world.choshuya.co.jp/sale/sword/0504/kotetsu/ http://www.nihonto.com.au/html/kotetsu_.html Others that I looked at: http://s420.photobucket.com/albums/pp28 ... 20Kotetsu/ The top character on all of these appears to be the same one and the style of writing is very close as well. The one from the Samurai Swords book is the closest of them all though and shows the same style of writing. The distinctive pointed end to the characters seems to be a characteristic of this maker. Thoughts?

More pictures ...... http://s420.photobucket.com/albums/pp28 ... Sword%202/ I have the large resolution pics as well.

I'll try to get better pictures at work tomorrow. Thanks for the help! Andy

Yes. The signature is apparently an issue.

http://s420.photobucket.com/albums/pp28 ... e%20Sword/ I'm told that it's a forgery by a couple of different people (and I'm OK with that) but I'd like to know why and what gives it away. I can take better pictures if you tell me what you're looking for. It does scream super old to me and I can vouch for it's location back to WW2 but have no clue how it was obtained. Thanks! Andy