Alex A

Morning Guido, happy new year! With blades, you might see one more polish, last chance saloon. With koshirae, when its gone, its gone. I suppose beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Beholder may want to bare that in mind, when a future sale occurs. Suppose if done well, helps Was actually looking at a papered Daisho the other day. that was done nice, papered though. Where ti draw the line ?, upto the owner. With antiques, anything original adds to provenance/authenticity. New tsuka often get me wondering if just a recent assembly All relative to owner Best

Herewith where the problem lies, whilst me, you and Ray agree to preserve the original tsuka, For some, the impulse to re-new is far to great. Wish folk would leave antique tsuka alone, and look to preserve. Seems folk want pretty, which often antique isn't the case Best

Whilst being slightly drunk lol, my feelings over the last few years regarding worn ito, totally should be preserving Ito, if possible. I like nothing better than antique koshirea, even if mediocre, Should be left alone. Happy new year!

Horimono looks a little worn, possibly Koto?, dunno. Cant see any way of repairing the ito, which is a shame, as new ito on an antique koshirae does not have the same appeal. New ito $150. You might want polish, not sure what that costs your end, not cheap Usually with old saya and new polish, would recommend shirasaya made to store the blade, $300 upwards. If hes asking $2000, im guessing hes had it valued. If he doesn't want to sell, maybe hes asking an high price? I would aim low or not bother. At that price there is just too much about, in perfect polish and without secrets. Good luck.

Kaneteru is a master polisher, would doubt unintentional http://www.users.on.net/~coxm/?page=Kimura Maybe ask Malcolm (website owner), hes familiar with their swords, and think hes a member here. Also, the school has an English speaking representative (if memory serves me right), maybe ask there.

Hi Tom, the "rule of thumb" regarding good or bad. I ask because I would expect horimono from these guys only on good blades. If I understand whats written below correctly, the mei can on occasion be the other side. From Nihonto.com site.HORIMONO: Umetada Myoju, Munenaga, or Yoshinaga made all the horimono for the Shodai Tadayoshi. Bo-hi and futatsu-hi are rare. The name of the horimonoshi often appears in a soe-mei. It should be noted that when the Shodai Tadayoshi added horimono to his blades he customarily put the more elaborate horimono on the side that he signed. In the case of his katana, this is the ura or tachi-mei side of the blade. Of course, when the horimono is present on only one side of the blade, the mei is put on that same side. This is an important kantei point for Hizen blades.

Hard to say for sure, perhaps Tadayoshi, Tadakuni (see quite a few with cutting tests) As for the horimono, who knows, may be original or added by a later owner (ato bori), I cant say judging from the photo

I read somewhere, cant remember where and I may be wrong, Tadayoshi did sign tachi mei, but when horimono is only present on one side of the blade, he signed that side.

Was thinking Tadayoshi, but would expect mei and horimono on same side, this appears to have a cutting test in the way. Is there possibly a more elaborate horimono on the other side?

Hi Chris, the bottom horimono looks like Rendai. https://markussesko.com/2015/03/18/kantei-1-sugata-4/ Also, page 79 of connoisseurs Not sure what the two bonji are though

Im reminded of another discussion a few years ago about a similar tsuba, although that showed porosity defects. That also was suggested to be a "presentation" or "tourist" tsuba. The details are too sharp to dismiss it as a modern copy. For me, they come with a ?, that makes other folk go ?, when its time to sell, easier stuff to collect.

This is a good sword, I like it. Moneys tight this time of year for a lot of folk, swords especially are harder to sell this time of year, although im sure this one will sell eventually. Lots to like about it, Hozen, and reasonably priced.

Just wondering if there is a possibility its been done to hide something maybe ? Another vague guess

Handy bottle opener ? Only Jokin

I know someone who had a similar problem with one of their swords, spider rust that would return after a polish. Eventually ruined the blade. Ken, im not saying this is whats up your tsuba, but maybe with this one, keep it in an air tight plastic box with desiccants as folk do with troublesome iron meteorites.

Thats one really scruffy mei, personally, id ignore it.

Good one Jussi, that one really had me going around in circles. Obviously be a lot easier should i have seen lots of blades in hand, but alas, books and internet have to suffice. Looking back to the beginning i was thinking along the lines of what Michael and Paul were saying about the jigane not being refined enough. Connoiseurs mainly mentions Enju with a "fine ko-mokume mixed with a little Masame". It goes on to say that later Enju jigane is "hard" and shows features common with Sue-Koto. I couldn't find a mention of anything "running", until I looked online and elsewhere. I found examples of papered Nanbokucho Enju with either a "running itame "or a "running Masame" . That's when I stuck with Enju, reluctantly. Learned a lot, cheers!

My condolences Jean, you gave Riesling a great home.

Haha, its a case of "I will make it fit what I said it was"!

Jussi, Looking at the oshigata of the boshi, do I see Nijuba ? If so, when combined with masame-nagare, its a typical characteristic feature of Enju. According to a page 751 of koto kantei Just a thought.

Enju late Nanbokucho/early Muromachi (wild guess)

Errr, struggling here Dwain. Best I can do is speculate about the nakago-ana being enlarged at a later date. Maybe you could narrow it down a LITTLE by looking at the shape of the nakago, file marks. Have fun.

Yes John, sometimes i wished id started a less complicated hobby like particle physics

Worn Shakudo can look brown sometimes. Quick example https://www.aoijapan.com/tsubamumei-a-mokko-gata-shakudo-tsuba-of-autumn-flowering/

I thought the same thing Steve. Difficult as not in hand. You can look at hundreds of images of blades, then something grabs your attention for one reason or another. goes with the hobby, i suppose