obiwanknabbe

Hi everyone, A while back i picked up a rusty short(ish) sword in war mounts at a gun-show here on long island (NY). The Nagasa is 21 3/4 inches long and the nagako is just under 6 inches. hard to tell in the picture but the hamon is irregular midare and it appears to have Itame hada. It is signed, and appears to be pretty old (judging by the black rust). Do any of you recognize this signature? Now there is another part to this question. Sadly, when i did the polish on this blade, a Hagire surfaced. It was under a rust spot three quarters of the way up on the cutting edge and was not visible until after foundation polishing. Fortunately I got it cheep. So here is the second part of the question. What is the etiquette regrading O-Suriage cutting the blade into a tanto and inserting Gaku Mei? I'm not sure if I will actually do it, but I am more interested in what the common consensus is among those of you with more knowledge and experience regarding such things. Pics inserted below Thanks in advance, Kurt

Hey folks, Thanks for the quick replies. I will try to post up some pics as soon as I can. As for the war period of the mounts, its hard to say. They were pretty much destroyed when i got the sword, no Ito, no tassel, and the Koshire were pretty banged up. Fortunately, i have a secondary set of them from an older blade that are in perfect condition and fit well. The saya that it came with was steel with one Ashi and the corresponding decorative fittings. The second hole on the blade is not located all the way at the bottom of the Nagako. It is about 3.5 inches from the bottom, right above the kanji for Saku kore. Upon further inspection, there are 2 metal reinforcing fittings on the tsuka, one on the top, on one the bottom. I am sure that at $100.00, there is no way i could have gone wrong as I have seen them selling anywhere between 700 and 2500 depending on condition. That being said, what i was trying to get at was what you folks think the future potential of this class of sword looks like. It seems that they float in limbo somewhere between gunto and nihonto at present but with some people leaning towards classifying them as the latter. Thanks again, Kurt

Hi everyone. I'm Kurt and I am new to the board. My questions, for any of you who may know, pertain to a Koa Isshin Mantetsu blade that I recently came into my possession ( found it in an antique shop and got it for $100 bucks :D ). It is dated Spring 1940 and signed Koa Isshen Mantetsu Saku Kore, the numbers along the mune are 10, 3, 5, 6. The thing that has me slightly intrigued is that every other one of these swords i have seen has a single Mekugi-ana. The blade i have has two as does the tuska, which is also steel reinforced along the mune side. Have any of you seen this before? Was this a special order option? It seems that it would allow for more aggressive cutting. Secondary, have attitudes started to shift in the Nihonto community regarding these blades? What do you think the investment potential of these class of swords will be over the long term? Thanks in advance, Kurt