Alex A

Well, that comes as a big surprise. Once owned a Naokatsu and spent a good while looking into his work, im done with this infernal hobby! Shows how difficult kantei can be without seeing the whole blade. "Shinshinto is dull", i will now ignore.

Does not look Shinshinto to me. At first glance I was thinking Nobukuni line (but thats not an answer, cant make it fit) This may take a while

That makes me think Edo. Il go with Hizen Masahiro, copy of an older works.

Ok, cheers

Nakago pic Kirill ?

3

Same way as us, but with a lot more knowledge and resources

Another point, risky from an health and safety point of view. Might get knocked over, visitors mess with it, etc etc

Some desirable swords in the sales section at the moment Im trying not to look, bad timing for me, but hopefully another time.

One of the things that can get annoying about Ebay is a sellers unrealistic expectations, but this one is in another dimension

Thanks all for your replies so far, appreciated. I have a blade here that dates to around 1750, typical length, but slender, likely was never more than 6mm Kasane, that's what got me a wondering about original weight. Lighter, but still more than adequate for the job. Never thought about it much before, i guess for the most part it was a one size fits all from most schools, but then the fussy customers with their exceptional requests about weight and length. John, id totally forgot about Keicho Shinto sugata, i do wish info would stay upstairs. Cheers all.

Very cool, cheers

dunno, I like to watch a football match on tv

Thanks John. With regards Edo blades, ive not given much notice to the thickness up until recently.

In contrast to heavy blades from the late Muromachi period etc, occasionally we see lighter blades. Im not talking about overly polished blades, just blades from the Edo period that where particularly slender to start with. I see no reason why smiths might not get a request for a custom order lighter blade, just wondering if there is any evidence anywhere to suggest this is the case ?. A thinner blade, lighter. From a street fight/duel type scenario, im assuming a lighter blade would be preferred, as lets face it, only takes one strike. Maybe one for the iaido guys.

Nice blade, especially as a starter, mumei really has a way of getting you more involved. Some interesting features, seems a decent amount of clues.

At first glance, blade reminds me of sue-seki

You will find some examples here www.thelanesarmoury.co.uk/shop.php I do wish this place would calm it down with the commercial polishing, another subject though. Some nice stuff.

A few clues there Chris. The hamon pattern, the long turn back, and think I see an original file pattern on the nakago, the mune shape. Cant make out the hada. How thick is the blade?

If I see a blade and the work is spot on, but the mei off, the first thing I think of is Dai-mei. (signed by family or students) That opens lots of doors to variations in mei, and as Brian mentioned above, there could be another reason, in fact many reasons. Sometimes ive seen papered blades where the mei as struck me as gimei and was actually going to start a thread about it, so it works both ways. The fact that NBTHK cant give a definite answer is not necessarily a bad thing (in my book), kind of sums up the hobby, which is not an exact science.

Heres one Tsuruta San disagrees with. https://www.aoijapan.com/katana-hizen-kuni-yamato-daijyo-fujiwara-kanehiro-first-generation/ With cheaper swords, wouldn't bother me.

Hi Kevin, where did you get those framed?, looks good

Cheap fakes/reproductions will stick out like a sore thumb, lack of wear, patina, crisp edges etc, look machine made Fakers need a balance between profit, and how long and how difficult it is to reproduce. Ive read of folk buying iron reproduction arrowheads and ageing them, burying them etc, then a few years later back on Ebay as medieval Not looked into expensive yanone much, but don't think its at that level. But what do I know.

See a lot of reproductions coming from India. India coming up a lot these days in reproductions, anything from Yanone to medieval suits of armour.

Good to see folk helping out Especially after witnessing the death of another forum. Due to various reasons, but mainly finances. All the online community and all the info gone for good, was quite sad. This is an excellent forum for learning and selling, dunno what we would do without it. Best to not take it for granted.