Grey Doffin

Hi Justin, San Francisco every August, Tampa, FL every February, and Chicago every late April, early May. Grey

Hi Joe, Appears to be a real Nihonto. Don't know anything about the smith; he might be the one in my index with a 1989 date. Picture 3 shows a close up of what might be a ha-giri (crack in edge) which would be a fatal flaw. Grey

Showa Arsenal stamp, signed Yoshi something. and dated Showa Ni Ju ..... I'm sure others will fill in the blanks for you. I'll tell you that you should waste no time in making a new mekugi for this sword. Without a mekugi to lock the blade in its tsuka, the blade can move down inside the scabbard and shatter its point. Grey

The nakago looks no earlier than Shin-Shinto, maybe even Meiji. The Bonji seems out of place to me. Sometimes horimono was placed to cover a defect in the blade. It looks like there is a patch of rough steel along side the Bonji; possibly there was a blister that needed to disappear. I could be wrong about this, and a nice looking piece regardless. Grey

Excuse me but this is getting nuts! We're supposed to be about preserving Japanese swords and we have this person with zero experience tapping on blocks of wood with rubber headed mallets and heating the habaki with a butane lighter? And towards what end? To get the habaki loose? And what good will that do anyone? Enough already! Leave the poor sword alone. All that is necessary to determine what Lori has is a good, in focus photo of the nakago. Grey

Yes. Grey

I agree, Joe. There are too many openings in some of the wrong places to justify the expense. What's more, no reason why the blade can't be enjoyed as is; the present polish is in good enough shape to show what there is to see. A common misconception is that polish is necessary to protect the blade; unless active rust is involved this isn't the case. Sometimes, and I believe this is one of them, well enough is best left alone. Grey (not too far from you, in Minnesota)

Ebay will tell you, and I agree with them, that they can't be checking each of the millions of auctions up at any given time to see which are legit and which are less so. And how would they know even if they were to try? I don't want some knucklehead at ebay deciding if my items are the real thing. What would be nice: if ebay let us search the world except for items located in specific countries. Wouldn't it be great to search "Japanese sword" located anywhere but China, Thailand, and Pakistan? Grey

Hi Peter, Other than shodai & nidai Kunisuke, Kunifusa and Nobuyori signed "Iwami no Kami" and made it into one of the references in my index. Nobuyori wouldn't match with the top of the last Kanji, but you might want to check Kunifusa. Grey

Do you know who polished this blade last? I'm wondering if what you're seeing as utsuri might not be an effect of the polishing process, which, for some reason I can't put my finger on, doesn't look right. I may be wrong about this; I'm often wrong and kantei from pictures isn't easy even for those who are often right, so please don't take offense. To answer your question, though. Utsuri and Bizen like hamon on a mid-Edo blade could point to one of the Ishido schools. Grey

Nothing has happened to this tanto; that's the way it was made. This dates to WWII, and quite a lot of this sort of thing were made then. Not sure what exactly their purpose/use was; side arm for officer or some other? Probably partially hand made out of tool steel with either an oil or water temper but no great art. You see them on ebay often, marketed as Japanese WWII suicide dagger. Grey

Hi Steve, I have a bottle of brass aging solution I use to darken new furniture hardware to match the old (I build & repair furniture). I could patina a fake Chinese tsuba in a couple minutes. Spend lots of time looking at good stuff and then the fakes will stick out like a sore thumb. Grey

This brings up something I've wondered for a while: if a tsuba has part of its design on the seppa-dai (as this one does), was it meant to be mounted or just for show? Grey

A bit out of my area but I'll take a whack at it. This looks to be partially hand made and partially machined. The hi (grooves) were cut with some sort of grinding wheel and polished smooth above the nakago; true hand made hi would have been cut by hand. The fact that it has the gov't license tells me that it is probably water quenched, not oil. The piece looks like it was made during or shortly before WWII, not earlier. The license tells us only that it is Nihonto, not anything about who made it or what quality it is. All Japanese swords in Japan need this license; it has one. As to whether you made a smart purchase, if the goal was to collect militaria you did OK, I guess (but I don't know much about values on this sort of tanto). If the goal was to collect Nihonto, I would have recommended spending your money elsewhere (books and study). Hope this helps, Grey

Unless the blade was made by the big name Rai Kunimitsu there will be no way to learn of its history. Even then it could be tough. Where do you live? Maybe someone qualified to appraise it lives nearby. Bob Benson lives in Hawaii. Be wary of appraisals that come with offers to buy. Grey

David McDonald in Montana, USA does nice work reasonably. jswords (at) mcn.net Grey

Be very careful with this blade. Without the tsuka and mekugi to lock it in place, the blade bottoms out inside the saya and the kissaki is easily broken. 2 blocks of wood with holes bored in the right places, and a dowel through those holes and the mekugi-ana in the nakago, the whole held together with a stout rubber band, will limit the travel of the blade into the saya. Grey

Joe, Rather than spend what would be necessary to fit your shira-saya mounted blade with new koshirae, for about the same cost you could buy a sword mounted in koshirae you like. Then, rather than having one sword in koshirae and a useless shira-saya, you would have 2 swords. The purchase of tsuba, F & K, and menuki, and paying to have a saya and tsuka made and wrapped, adds up. Grey

Hi Keith, I had about 6 or 7 attendees at my care and etiquette talk, and another 3 or 4 who showed up at the end got a truncated version. The lack of a notice board in the lobby with show schedule hurt; no one knew it was going to happen until I made an announcement just before. Grey

The show wasn't slow for everyone; I was busy. The American Branch of the NBTHK presented 2 sessions: how to do kantei, and later a chance to try your newly learned skills with a kantei on 4 blades. The latter session also had about 6 very nice blades that weren't for formal kantei; just to enjoy. The highlight of the session was a Tokubetsu Juyo tachi by Rai Kunimitsu. Grey

Your pictures show 3 Kanji. The last 2 are Yasuyoshi. I'm wondering if there is a 4th Kanji (1st actually) before the one above Yasuyoshi. It might be mostly obliterated by corrosion and the 2 mekugi-ana (holes). Take a close look and let us know what you can see. Grey

Hi Rob, Definitely an older blade, shortened more than once, and mounted for WWII. No one will be able to tell you much from the pix; it needs to be seen by someone who knows Nihonto. In the mean time, make sure you're up on sword care and etiquette (look to links above) so it doesn't suffer damage. Grey

Chinese. Grey

Tyler, you're providing tremendous use to the forum already. Without beginners like you us old farts wouldn't get to act like we know something. Grey

I agree with all above and one more thing sticks out to me. In the 9th & 10th pictures it looks like the habaki sits crooked on the blade (it actually makes the blade look crooked at the machi but I'm sure it's just the habaki). A habaki that doesn't fit properly probably wasn't made for the blade. Possibly a bunch of parts put together to make a salable package. Grey