ROKUJURO

Tom, SHINSA results can sometimes vary depending on the sword. If it has more general properties, this can happen. Swords with specific attributes may be easier related to a school or even a smith. Japanese nouns have no plural form!

Leo, welcome to the forum! As Jean and Ed pointed out already, your blade seems to be factory made with non-traditional methods. It is considered a militaria item, not NIHONTO. The sales value on todays market may be a quarter or a third of the cost of a traditional polish, so unless the money would not hurt you, there is not much sense in restoring. The problem is also that you could not even send it to Japan; it would be confiscated as a weapon. On the other hand, there are not many options for a competent restoration elsewhere. Please dön't bring it to the scissors grinder on the street! My suggestion is to keep the blade as a memory item as is, prevent it from moisture and give it a regular very thin (!) oiling so that no oil gets into contact with the sheath. Read here on the forum about care and etquette of swords.

FIKIRA, what is your name? Please sign all post with your first name and an initial as is requested here. Compared to KAMIZORI, these razor blades look unusually crudely made to me. The signature looks Japanese though, otherwise I would not have believed these to have been made by Japanese craftsmen. I am not familiar with this subject, so this is only a newbie's impression.

Dwain, if I had to do a similar work, I would be interested to keep all non-Japanese materials invisible. In this special case, I would try cyanoacrylate/superglue. Japanese craftsmen often use URUSHI as glue, when it is not visible.

Rice glue will work on wood, but not on metal.

HAGIRE is a stress crack in the HAMON. It shows that there is high tension in the material of the cutting edge which ends up as a crack in the weakest spot. Welding a HAGIRE does not mean that the sword is technically repaired; other HAGIRE may still occur in other locations on the edge. Welding will always introduce heat into the steel, and the necessary temperatures to fuse the metal will go up considerably above 2.000°C. Microwelding is a good means to reduce the amount of heat introduced into the steel, so that the effects of it are limited to a very small location. Nevertheless, the nearest 'neighbourship' of the microweld will infallibly lose its hardness, and this means the special martensite structure which forms the HAMON will be altered. Also, another steel alloy will be introduced into the HAMON, different from the TAMAHAGANE composition, as the picture shows. Microwelding may conceal a HAGIRE, if a TOGISHI succeeds in giving the spot the correct metal colour. I don't know if that is possible, but if so, it could open the door to nice 'cosmetic' repairs of precious blades in museums, but also to fraud.

...and to add another point: If corrosion occurs on steel, it does not stop as long as oxygen is around. So to prevent the deterioration of a blade, you want to keep it clean and without 'patina'.

Grant, a good (intact) TSUKA has a tight two-dimensional fit to the NAKAGO. Japanese NAKAGO are technical masterpieces as they taper precisely in two dimensions. If a blade is 'set' in a correctly made TSUKA, you should be able to hold the blade tip-down without MEKUGI. You may try this at home if you trust your TSUKA, but be careful and put some blankets underneath to prevent the KISSAKI (and your floor) from being damaged. The MEKUGI does not secure the blade, but it secures the press-fit of the NAKAGO! This is why the MEKUGI-ANA in the blade and the MEKUGI-ANA in the TSUKA do not align properly! The MEKUGI has to execute some pressure on the blade to keep up the tight fit. This is one of the reasons why older TSUKA are sometimes not safe for handling the blade, especially when the MEKUGI-ANA in the wood is worn out. Glueing a FUCHI (or a KASHIRA) seems very strange to me, and I have never seen that except in swords that have been tampered with by Westerners. However, I have seen paper strips in FUCHI for a tighter fit, but the TSUKA is mainly reinforced by the ITO. In SAMURAI times, TSUKA and SAYA have always been sword parts with limited life expectancy.

I think I can read NOBUMITSU as smith's name. It is a SEKI blade but as the photo is not well focused I can't properly read the second KANJI. Might be SUKE.

Omar, of course there is! It is a part of the basic metallurgical knowledge to be able to differentiate between low alloy carbon steel, TAMAHAGANE, and industrial stainless steel and their respective treatments. And there are other steel alloys which still need other hardening methods!

Grev, that is no good idea as the wood of old TSUKA often has dried out and split and does not allow for a safe fit of the NAKAGO. Sometimes, when an old TSUKA gets a new ITO, it happens to be too tight for the NAKAGO. Making a new TSUKA is no witchwork if you know how and have the necessary tools. It is a precision work, and safety should always be considered, otherwise you have 'The house of the flying daggers'!.

Barry, with this not so well focused photo it is NIOI at best to my eyes, and you see that also in oil quenched blades.

Mark, I am sorry, I can't help you with the MEI, but (having been a longtime KYUDO practioner) this looks like a beautiful bow! In case this has some age, please refrain from putting a string on it or even use it! Old (traditional) YUMI are made with fish glue which tends to become brittle after about 60 years. This applies also to the bamboo backing and the lacquer, so damage is possible if it was used. Enjoy it!

Omar, that looks like a nicely crafted beefy SAYA, and as far as one can see, even the TSUKA-ITO was bound in a correct way. The blade may be well made, too, but it does not look Japanese in some aspects. It does not seem to have any HADA, and of course the polish cannot bring out more than is intended and 'invested' by the smith. It reminds me of many oil-tempered WWII blades with no activity in the HAMON. I am not suggesting to use it in TAMESHIGIRI, as I don't have the slightest idea about the technical qualities of the blade (resilience, hardness, correct cross-section a.s.o.), but it may be suited for that. Better than using a genuine (expensive) sword!

Guillermo, when you have looked at a few hundred TSUBA you can spot the fakes at once. There is not much on your TSUBA that could erroneously be taken for genuine, be that the rounded outlines of the design elements, the shape of the NAKAGO-ANA or the look of the basic metal plate. Diecasting can produce quite good results if the original and the mold are well made and not used too often. This seems not to be the case here. There is nothing wrong with these TSUBA-like items if you buy them as such for the price they are sold in Japanese souvenir shops, but even the TSUBA for blunt IAITO are often better.

Dwain, steel sword blades which are not made traditionally with TAMAHAGANE are not allowed in Japan. They are simply considered weapons. Exception are IAITO with blunt aluminium-zinc alloy blades.

Both bad industrially made decoration pieces. Value: $ 5.--, if someone really, really wanted them.

I admittedly admire the Japanese experts for their practical knowledge, derived from longterm experience. However, metallurgy is a modern 'western' science, and it often approaches the technical questions differently. In addition to that, translation difficulties can lead to expressions that are not correct. One of my daily works as a blade-smith is fire welding steel so I know what I am talking about. I could explain at length why and how FUKURE happen, but this may not be necessary in this context.

Dwain, a FUKURE is not an 'air-pocket', it is filled with iron oxide which prevented a tight weld in the forging process. It is a welding fault which comes to light when a blade is polished a number of times until the KAWAGANE becomes thin. Ted describes that perfectly. The main problem is that FUKURE present a weak spot in the blade. If they break from a hard blow, it will be in this spot.

Interesting, but not NIHONTO. Should perhaps be moved to IZAKAYA?

Patrick, I don't think HEIANJO. What you call inlay would have to have a recessed area or groove in the metal plate to accommodate the (mainly) brass inlay pieces. Depending on the period, HEIANJO had flat (HIRA ZOGAN) or slightly raised inlay (TAKA ZOGAN). On your TSUBA I think I can see remains of metal on the surface which would then be called NUNOME or IROE ZOGAN. This is not really an inlay, but an application on the surface of the TSUBA plate by amalgam or soldering techniques, as far as I know. But this, again, is not a HEIANJO technique.

That is WASABI horror.

Yes, indeed! But chances are better that you win the National lottery the next three times in a row....

Ellie, welcome to the NM board! This might have been a genuine MUMEI blade which someone - certainly not a Japanese swordsmith - tried to 'enhance' with a well known name, but unfortunately not with the right tool and technique. The non-symmetrical HAMON is very probably not intentionally made.

RAYNOR, welcome to the NM Board! Is your TSUBA magnetic? To me it looks like iron, but that may be due to the photos (or my old eyes). Please sign all posts with your first name plus an initial.