Stephen

Crop and reduce, crop and reduce. or send to me and ill post them

maybe Mike got a offer he could not refuse, auctions over.

looks like it has a mino hamon to my ol eyes, yes parts must have been mixed up, new pix show only the added scenery name.

hint first part of last name is Masa

Barry knows but for those who don't Mike is one of the good guys, its good to have a contact now even if its Ebay.

seen this on face book your pix right? http://home.earthlink.net/~ttstein/kazunor2.jpg Kazunori, date looks like 1943

I am a betting man and i put my money on Clive, the show with sword in hand will tell all.

Steve crop and reduce size, if all else fails mail me or John, one of us will post them for you.

Ray a good togi will let you know if can take a polish, id ask Bob Benson or Jon Bowhay, others as well at the show. The Shinsa could tell you for sure if its the Yukimitsu, i like to error on the side of being wrong that its not a shoshin mei.

Ray (please sign your post) not fake as fake sword, the very big names of swordsmith's have been copied, like Picasso, Van Gogh ect. it will take a in hand by pros to tell. Sword show in Chi town end of this month and one with shinsa in SF in Aug.

not a gunto per se maybe late war civilian mount do to the leather Ito on tsuka due to shortages, older blade signed Sagami Ju Yukimitsu. Big name might have been added to to take to war. Menuki are very interesting, sure would like to see better pix of them. If you cant post pix you can email them to me and ill post them. dont forget to sign off with your name.

Will please sign with your name per sign up rules i cant find a Masahiro that starts with Seki maybe a better pix of it. Also one of the full blade without mounts.

some piecing together on this, two seppa come from a gunto, dont think the saya matches, from the way the Kane is done id say older than Meiji.

blades cure with age, i stand guilty of uchikoing a new polish which at once showed marks from the powder, very fine but there none the less. Id only use uchiko in showing how its done or if its not in good polish , weekly use will bring out actvity.

i think its neat but not to crazy about the ito, not very well done, which brings up flags to me.

I love the smell of choji in the morning!

100% agree, maybe a gun cleaning rod with swab, lightly oiled. I have had many saya lightly tapped on a table, you'd be surprised at what fell out.

no no not mine i used Louies pix of a blade he has for sale. hes a togi and some may be his but im sure a few are getting worked on. I have nothing to show off with.

really there's not much more to tell, pix did not show if the hamon stays that way, I don't see any funbari , so it could be Shinshinto....tell the truth it needs to be seen in hand. You can try one last shot like this to see if you can show any other hamon shape. anyone else have anything to add other than its just mass produced?

also need pix of Kissaki, any open areas not coverd with rust, full shot of the blade with no fittings, sugata.

The blade shows age, the hamaci shows us theres room for polish, the hamon is suguba(which is a clue as most bizen where choji but not all) the nakago jiri is bizen which goes with the mei, it is also ubu not cut down which helps with the value. In the late 1500's there was a mass prouductions of bizen blades which used Bishu Osafune as has been pointed out. so after i do some reading about who used suguba homon in Bishu ill get backt to ya, dont sell ehe blade short because some make it out to be Kazuuchimono (mass produced ) ....photo shop is not needed we know what it says. pix is still not facing the nakago but off to the side. is the rest of the blade in all rust? if the hamon changes from suguba to choji id like to see it and if you can see any actvity between the rust such as grain pattern. edit to add cropped and rotated pix

From Fairhaven Good morning Stephen, The sword presented to the town by Ambassador Ishii on behalf of Manjiro's son, Dr. Toichiro Nakahama, on July 4, 1918, was stolen from its display case in the Millicent Library in September of 1977, during regular library hours. It has never been recovered, though from time to time the library has been contacted by investigators when stolen swords are found. A replacement sword is now on display in a more place. Some interesting notes on Manjiro are that he is credited with introducing both the necktie and the sewing machine to Japan and he appears as a character in the Stephen Sondheim musical "Pacific Overtures." The current Emperor of Japan visited Fairhaven in 1987 with his wife. He was Crown Prince at the time. Fairhaven see many Japanese visitors each year because of the Manjiro story. Christopher J. Richard, Director of Tourism, Fairhaven, MA

lets not get our undies in a bunch, veg oil is not going to cause ruin, do a search here and youll see its what old choji was made with back in the day. John must not have been reading the whole thread all ready fig out its Bishu Osafune Sukesada. Jamie and Lee lets tell him what we see from the new pix, hows the hamachi, what is the hamon? lets work together to pin point the blades work.

nice search Charlie, takiing off part of the link gives us more on the City and John Manjiro, too bad about the sword guess my last three letters to the town was in vain, should have checked here first. lol http://manjiro1.tripod.com/