Stefan

In my years off collecting and study I do have only one bad experience. It was an Daisho with fresh polished blades in Koshirae. As the parcel arrieved the tip of both blades stuck out of the sayajiri and the saya and the polish were ruined. Fine, the lacquer of daimyo quality has had been freshly restored. I do not know what the parcel service has done with the parcel. Thrown it out of the window ? It took over half an year to get the money for repair from the parcel service.... All the other blades I did send and receive arrived without damage.

Please keep in mind, times are changing. In the beginning of my nihonto hobby, gendaito has been cheap. 600 bugs for an Chikamitsu in polish by example.( This blade did have an extrem sudareba hamon, really nice ) 600 Bugs, today 300 Euro.... Another example or finding : A Shinshinto Blade in complete Mino-Goto.-Mounts of the best quality. 800 Deutsch Mark ( DM ) at this time. Today only the tsuba will be priced like this. In those time the internet has not been in existance. Today, in the international time, prices for mediorcer blades do explode. Oh it is an Jumei tosho, wow, 3000 $... On the other hand, the prices for slightly higer priced blades are acting like waves. I do think that there ist an connection with the always actual paper problem. ( Yakuza and the NBTHk, Eto the Whistleblower, the NTHK Shisma etc ). The only things which does not change : Junk will allways be junk. Super High class will never be cheap. But to be true : In the meantime, even junk is expensive for what it is. 500 Euro for an unhardend blade with false signature... No, that is not an exception

Unfortunatly, I must agree. There is something wrong with the nakago. The Sabi partially peels of. This is not a good sign. In most cases it is a sign of repatination or forgery. I do hope that i am wrong. Stefan

Uchiko is always bad. I use cleaning alcohol. It does not scratch the blade, nor does it harm the polish in terms of weakening the hadori. After using uchiko over the years any hadori is gone an one ends up with an ugly form of pseudo sashikomi..

I knew that is possible to remove Gimei on swordblades. But how is it in the terms of tosogu ? I knew that in swordblades the signature ist punched in ( therefore the makura ) and in tosogu they are carved. In my understanding there is no material to be pushed back in tosogu. I have no idea how an Gimei can been removed here. It is possible to get papers on tosogu with a false signature ? ( If the the same rules are applied as in blades the answer would be "NO" ) I am not sure.

Take a close look on the nakago funbari. The Hamachi has been moved as well as the Munemachi. Now the Problem is hidden under the habaki, the sharpend part is O.K. This a traditonal way to "solve" such problems. I don´t like this as Umgeane...

The blade is slightly machi okuri .....And no, tempering cracks are not only vertical. Karasuguchi by example.This one goes through- It is identical shaped on both sides of the blade. That is unusual for an normal "forging flaw". And no, hagire can be pretty wide open. I´ve seen this many, many times in the past 35 years. It is an missunderstandig of this flaw that they are thin and only absolut vertical. A tempering crack is always a serious problem, especially in the habikimoto area. In olden times things as Yakidashi and Yakiotoshi have been done . Why ? It is an weak point in the bladestrukture at the habakimoto. Therefore a hagire there is a problem.

Unbelievable. The next Hozon-blade with hagire. Because of the hagire the blade is slightly machi -okuri. For an unknown reason Tsuruta San do not mentioned it. http://www.aoijapan.com/tanto-harima-daijo-tadakuni-the-first-Generation

Yes, it has been an fine blade, and yes the polish is well done. Just believe me, in a few years, You will only see the nasty hagire. Why ? It is the result of the years of study. Also keep in mind, if You want to sell such an blade...it will be a nasty suprise.

Per defintion an Hagire is an Hagire. It does not mater if it is only visible on one or on both sides . Therfore, in every case it is fatal. Even if one do not see the hagire on the opposite side, in so many cases it is there ! Super fine an nearly invisible. How should I explain this. It is the same trap as an bad fukure underneath the surface . You can´t see it, but it is there. Probably an example is more helpful. Some Years ago a client brought a blade. This has had an story telling vertical stripe in the ha on one side and a slight bend. He wanted me to bend the blade back, I denied because of the fear of hagire, so he did it by his self and the hagire opend also on the other side of the blade. Before it was only very faintly visible on one side. The lesson of this accident ? Hagire is major struktural problem even if it is invisible on one side. In most cases it goes through, even one is not able to see it.

It is fatal. In most cases only parts of the problem are visible on the surface.Only grinding very slightly down the blade in the togi process will revieal the next steps of it. For the Kenmashi, a nightmare. I knew a case of hakobore. Simple Hakobore, nothing more. So no problem ? Of course not. The layer of the steel has been broken, so it has not been possible to reduce it up to zero. Every time someone will try to grind it out the next part loosens.

I do think it is a matter of refraction on the sharp edges of the hagire.

NBTHK Standard 2016 Hozon Token1) Edo and earlier blades with correct mei, or mumei blades on which the time period, kuni and group can be identified, may receive Hozon paper. 2) Blades that meet the criteria given above can receive Hozon paper even if they are slightly tired or have kizu, as long as those may be permissible in their appreciation. 3) For Nambokucho and earlier zaimei blades by famous smiths, re-temper can be permissible if the blade is valuable as a reference, and if the jiha and nakago are sufficiently well preserved. However, this has to be documented in the paper. 4) Repair on jiha is permissible, unless it significantly impairs the beauty of the blade. 5) Blades made in Meiji and Taisho periods, and those by recently deceased smiths, can receive Hozon paper only when the blade is well made, zaimei and has a ubu-nakago. 6) Blades are put to "reservation" if a decision could not easily be made on the authenticity of the mei. This also applies to mumei blades in which an attribution is difficult to make. 7) Blades with hagiri may not receive Hozon paper. The paper of this Kanetsune dates 1985. At this time the NBTHK was even more strict. Therefore I do think this blade was papered in an bad polish condition. In such an condition Hagire are often not visible. After the new polish the hagire has become visible. BY the way, the new polish seems to be pretty good. I do not think that any of the better Togi accepts blades with hagire. Therefore, even the polisher did not see it because of the bad condition of the blade.

In such case : Form followos function. If the function is nearly zero, the asthetic is mostly the same. This Blade is Shinto...... In the case of Kamakura, well it could be of historical significance, even with hagire. Is this blade important ? By the way, a hagire is never the result of correct polishing techniques. Even in tatsu o tsuku the blade is not pressed so hard on the stone.

At a first glance I would say low class Shitahara...Sengo ? Absolutley No.

In my point of view a normal shinshinto unokubi zukuri tanto. Nothing special. The Koshirae is nice. Stefan

Hallo Jean ! Indeed, an nice blade of quality without any doubt. But also here : It gives the viewer an slender Impression. That is the miracle. By the way i have seen several blades by this school does not mean pics, it does mean I ve handled them. And all saints, this school is gorgerous. Stong blades with an slender, elegant form, but without harming the strenght of the sugata.

I ´ve seen several unrui blades, they have been all slender and nevertheless strong suguta. I do really think that this miracle is one trademark of this school.

I don´t understand for which reason tsuruta san call this sword an Ko-Dachi. Now it does have an nagasa of 63 cm and it is o-suriage mumei. That means nothing is preserved of the original nakago. Taking this in account we can aprox. an original nagasa of 75 + cm. A normal length for Tachi of this time. Ref. the Term "ko-dachi" : Kotoken Kajihara explains in his book that every tachi shorter than standard length is called ko-dachi. But is an o-Suriage mumei Tachi still an Tachi or is it know an Katana ? Many of the old tachi have been shortend for the reason to be used as Katana, therefore this blade in discussion is an Katana and no ko-dachi. Only my point of view. Greetings from Germany Stefan

72 Points at NTHK shinsa fore this blade ? No more questions....

O.K. You are right. hazuya and hadori Stone are both uchigumori. is one finer ? No ! In most cases after the last "big-stone" the Jito all is visible. The restof the process ist cosmetic to produce an pleasing Picture. If been told by a togishi that is a good idea to round of the corners in hazuya in all steps. Jitsuya : A critical stone. it can easily destroy the face of the blade. Darkness is not the desireable Thing. We want colour as Mr. Bohay said so many years ago. Some of the later Mino-bnlades are nearly blid in the surface, owari is dark blue like a sky in summer. Early soshu ? Like an "Marmorkuchen" (i don´t know the englisch word for it ) Here we are at the colour Point of tetsu. Ji-Tetsu ist ot Ji-Hada. Tetsu is the steel where the hada is made of. Take look on Norishige, Hankei, Satsuma-Mono...All are full of colours. Indeed, these are fine points, but essential in kantei. Chinese blades : Yes, folding mono-steel in layers is nonsens. But this is the Thing the chinese mostly do. They fold industrial steel. Therefore no colours. On the other hand the old Japanese : They were forced to work with different qualities of metal, therfore we do have these colours. Same with the hamon It is usefull to produce allways a "crying " hamon : No. By example. Many lesser Sue Seki kaji are known for their mild tempering. So it should be polished in this way, that means not to loud.. Of course there are many things written in the books, but i do strongly believe that the good old "give it a try" system is even in the togi-world still at work. Many, many years ago i did have a talk to Matsumura Sensei. I asked him "is this and that true ?" Well he smiled an showed me some things.. None of which is wiritten in any of those books, neither english or Japanese. But why not ? To say it with the old german Chanceler : "Es zählt was dabei rauskommt ! " ( the result counts, nothing else" ) Regarding Ashi : You are absolut right, they come done from the mume ! But we can see tthem only in the Yakiba. If You take now the sunagahii-system into your account, how brilliant is that ? Nearly perfect in an selctiv hardend blade. Greets Stefan

O.K. Regarding Tampan togi : Just try it out on broken blades. There are pretty eough around, broken pieces with nakago but no kissaki. I use thes pieces for studies the effects of polishing techniques. It is much easier to jugde a polish if You know what is happening. That solves many Problems, in , my humble point of view. Greets Stefan

With tanpan polishing the hamon does not become brighter. That is not my opinion, that is an simple technical fact. I am pretty sure that an expert kenmashi like Setsu Takaiwa knows more about the background than we do. The next thing : It is the goal to make the boandary brighter, the hamon. Th Yakiba is not the hamon. Yakiba = hardend area, hamon borderline between ha an ji. Another joke : In the example blade the blade has been polished in hadori-style. Therefore, if it is only halfways profesionell done, the Brown hue in the area between the Hamon and the Ha-Saki disappears. No brownies there ( I couldn´t resist this joke ). The hatsuya removes the brownisch cast in the yakiba. But hey, stired it all also up in future, You will have much fun here... By the way : If You know all these things : Why You are asking ?

Well..... Hatsuya and Hadori stones are both slices of Uchigumori hato Stones with the same purpose. It is simply the same. The White of the hadori has nothing to do with the colours in the ha and the hardend area. In the hadori process the ha ist roughend a little bit, therefore it does look white in contrast to the ji. That´s all in simple. Your comment about ashi is simply wrong. Aahi are "cutting" through the layerd construction of the blade verticaly. They are mostly visible as whtie lines,nevertheles the Yakiba is blue, black or whatever.

Do you mean "naga-ashi" ? ( Ashi that are nearly reaching the hasaki. Typical in shinshinto blades. ) Thereare no ashii flamening into the ji...Such tips in the hamon are known, far as i know, as togari etc. Ashi are always pointing toward the hasaki. Colours in the Yakiba : They have nothing to do with acid or tampan polish. They are there as the different colours of nie are. By example : Black nie ist a sign of later blades in most cases while brilliant white without clustering is in most cases a sign of an fine Koto or Shinto. Colours in the area of the ha : Why not ? It is also differently forged steel, even hardend. Therefore different colours can appear in the yakiba as a result of tempering and folding the material. Greets Stefan