Mag

Ok, so we just need to figure out how to remove the grip, anyone? don´t want to destroy it! Is there a time span on which things like these were produced? Any pic´s of a complete example to see how the saya would have looked like? It sure is bad that the saya is missing but it´s luck for me, with the saya it would not be legal to own and sure would have been scrapped already! Thanks! Greetings, Magnus B.

Hi, I recently got this strange sword or whatever you may call it, I think it may have been some kind of sword cane blade or similiar, there is no saya with this one, I think this is also the reason of the bad condition of the blade, there is quite some rust and pitting in some spots, one side more and one side a bit better. The former owner already tried to clean it up a bit but sure got things only worse. Cutting edge length is around 47,5cm, width at habaki 16mm, so quite small but very thick with 7mm at habaki. There is a hamon to be seen very clearly, this is what made me courious about this piece, my friend who gave it to me wanted to almost scrap it (he found it during an old house cleaning) but i told him to give it to me to check it out. The grip is made of wood with some kind of bark around it, looks very realistic, i remember to have seen a yari saya on here which looked almost identical. All other fittings are brass. I can see no way of removing the blade from the grip/tsuka, no mekugi to be seen. Any ideas on age or a way to take the blade off to maybe see a mei? Or is it just tourist junk? Many thanks, Magnus B.

Hi, thank you for the links and info! About pictures of the hamon in the kissaki area, there is nothing to see in this condition as the kissaki is the worst point of the blade. For the thickness of the blade compared to the nakago, sure the blade is thinner, but not by much, so I think it was not polished very often but I´ll do a pic of this tomorrow. Greetings, Magnus B.

Thanks for the kind words! Realy helps me a lot with the decision of keeping it and getting it polished and in shirasaya. I have looked over the blade very carefully and could not see any hagire, but to be sure a polisher will need to check it out i think. I was recommended to contact Tony Norman, but did not hear back yet from him. Is there another polisher in the EU that is known to be good for such a project? I´m so excited to see this blade polished! Greetings, Magnus B.

Thank you very much for the information! What type of pictures would be need to evaluate it a little further? I´ve managed to take a pic of what look to be the hamon maybe, unfortunately the blade is very dull. The biggest problem at the moment seems to be that the blade is bend in several places and the question is if this can be solved so it can get polished and brought back to life? Just let me know what type of pictures are needed and I´ll do my best! Greetings, Magnus B.

Hi Guys, I´m new here and this is my welcome posting on here. I´m from germany and new to Nihonto, all started with a ww2 gunto katana and now I´m more into the real stuff. So, here we go! The sword has a total length of 87,5cm, 66,8cm cutting edge. Width at habaki is 31mm and on the kissaki area 22mm. It was mounted in heavy Gunto mounts, metal saya with 2 holding loops. It sure is not the best condition but as a start up to get into this i think it was an ok investment. I´ve emailed Tony Norman on his thoughts about a polish of it and wait for his quote on this. It´s hard to take pic´s of details on the blade but there are shadows of the hamon visible in some places and some fukure in some spots. What can the experts on here tell me about it? Unfortunately it´s shortened and a part of the mei is missing. Thanks in advance and I hope I can learn a lot on here! Magnus B.