bigjohnshea

Thanks Harry. No I wouldn't dream of trying to remove the rust myself. I don't have time for it anyhow. Too busy trying to pass my board exams for med school. Cheers.

Barry, Yes I had contacted some polishers a while ago to see what it would cost, but I've been putting the money elsewhere since then though. I still have other swords to focus on. Have a really nice Shinto blade I got from Chris Bowen that has been in line to be polished for more than a year now, and have another I need to make payments on. With those two going I'll be lucky if I EVER get any extra money to put into this blade. :-) Until then it will just rest and be cared for. BTW, I never asked anyone this before, but is there any good reason not to put choji on an unpolished blade? I have a few others that are out of shape and I usually put choji on them (with a different cloth) when I clean my swords every few months. Is there any reason not to put choji on blades out of polish? Thank you again to everyone. Cheers.

Thank you all for your insights. This sword has never been a priority for me and it was very cheap. I have bigger fish to fry, but I always liked this little blade for some reason. Like Peter said, I don't think there will be much left of it if it was polished up though, so I'm just going to leave it the way it is. Wrap it up in some cloth and let it rest in peace. :-) Hope you all have a great weekend! Cheers.

As you can see there are similar markings on both sides of the blade at the same region but they are not originating from the same areas of the blade when you look at it closely. I think Peter may be entirely correct. Perhaps it was wrapped with something and maybe used as a tool. This would explain all the chips in the edge but also the lines of rust near the munemachi.

This is just proximal the munemachi. You can actually see the lip of the munemachi at the top of the blade in each photo. I don't think this sword was welded at all. My instinct is that this was a katana made into an osuriage wakizashi. I had a similar katana that was of muromachi origin and this feels and looks the same to me. Here's a few more photos.

Thank you both for your insights. Cheers!

I do not have a photo of the other side with me but I know they are not present on the other side. I had thought of that when inspecting it earlier. The blade is very rusted, this is true.

Hope you are all well. Here a few images of an unpolished sword I have. The first image is just above the Munemachi and you can see two lines of rust running perpendicular to the Ha. One of them seems to originate from a chip in the edge. However there are other lines of rust similar to this in the next picture at the area where the yasurime should be, and they do not originate from chips. In your opinions are any of these hagiri? Thanks for you time. Cheers.

I would have bid on this if my financial situation were different, but I think this is the most I've ever seen an out of polish nihonto sell for on ebay. Looked like it would be spectacular fixed up. Worth a look. Check out this item I found on eBay: http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.vi ... 58&alt=web Cheers,

Many thanks Sir!

Hope you are all well. If anyone has any additional information about this smith I would greatly appreciate it if you would help share it. I've already found some info about him from Sho-shin online but I don't have access to any of the books mentioned in the description I have included below. Many thanks. Cheers, John

Hope you are all well. Finally got a chance to photograph the shirasaya for this sword. Could anyone help translating what's left of the calligraphy on it? Cheers!

Thank you Kunitaro. I have been reading that link with much interest. Cheers,

Thank you Chris. I'll read up on this more. Cheers,

Thank you John. Would this be Fujiwara Kanenaga who made stainless steel blades for the Japanese military?

Hope you are all well. I rolled the dice and bought a sword from a well known seller on ebay. I do not have good photos of the blade so I will post those later when I can take some. Would appreciate a translation of the mei if anyone has an interest. Mei seemed genuine enough to me. Cheers,

There does appear to be one spot in the nakago where the shinogi has flattened out a bit, but then it does pick up again at the appropriate spot further down the tang. I don't think there's anything wrong with that. I don't cut with my swords for philosophical reasons, but that aside, I wouldn't cut or practice with this one for a few reasons. You should get a tsuba for it before even thinking about it. You should have the tsuka rewrapped and make sure all the fittings are tight. You should have it polished atleast into a practical state of polish so that the dullness of the edge doesn't cause increased tension or torgue in the blade and risk further damage. The fact that the tsuka slides all the way up to the habaki without leaving room for the tsuba makes me think that your tsuka was not made for this blade. Just a thought. If that is true, that is something else that should be rectified before you cut with it. The question is how badly do you want to cut with it, because that is a fair amount of money to spend on something just to have a sword that you can trust cutting with. If you want a cutter, you would be better off buying a used Bugei from someone. There are plenty of them out there. Cheers,

Will there be a shinsa at the 2014 San Fran show? Cheers,

I entirely agree with Chris about the quality of the horimono. The lines are not at all straight, nor are they uniform in depth or width in many areas. The picture showing the ken side of the blade is in my opinion the most evident of this. The lines of the ken are not parallel, neither to the shinogi or to each other. Areas of curvature in the rest of the design do not flow, having variations of width and depth. There is even more evidence of the deviation from the shinogi in the small portion of the hi that is shown. I may only be a medical student right now, but I am also a trained Architect. If there's one thing I know when I see it, it's a straight line. As an aside, I don't see how the impact of polishing a blade would diminish evidence of a quality horimono. Obviously when you chip away at the original you loose something of what was once there, but shouldn't a good polisher make sure that he only takes what he needs to, and that he takes it in an even manner so that no one region of the horimono suffers more loss than another? Cheers,

http://www.nihonto.us/MITSUSANE%20KATANA.htm Decided to use the credit I was issued to put toward this blade, as a future restoration. Seemed like a worthy candidate to me. Any thoughts? Cheers,

I think if you look at my track record here of buying blades out of polish you'll see I'm sort of an optomistic guy. I like the idea of breathing life back into these special objects, and often that interest blinds me from seeing the truth, that often the sword may have no lungs left. From the pictures it looks like this sword is badly damaged. My best advice, if you are determined to restore it, is to pick the most damaged area and have a window polished into that area. That will atleast show you whether or not the worst parts of it can be salvaged. It is also an affordable step. I'm no expert on the mei, but it looks kind of sloppy. If I were putting my name on a sword I think I would have done it more carefully. Cheers,

I had posted the link to site where I bought it earlier in the thread, but purposely took it down. Andy and I have discussed this, and I decided that since this was a consignment blade the easiest thing to do would be for him to issue a credit toward a future purchase. He agreed to this. He was willing to do a total refund but the credit he issued me is about 75% of the purchase price and I'm happy with that. I think that is fair. I will keep the sword and apply that credit to a future purchase with him. Flawed swords need love too, and I don't mind giving it. :-) Cheers,

I cleaned it up a bit and got the light right. I think they are correct. There are a few spots not just on the boshi where the hamon vanishes completely. Hmm... glad this was found. Thank you all. Cheers,

Is it possible that because the sword is in a poor state of polish that the boshi simply couldn't be seen during the shinsa? I can't see it very well right now, but I'm going to oil it and try and get a better look.

Interesting... Thank you for that. Looks like a flaw (perhaps) was missed by the merchant I purchased it from.