ggil

Shitodome get filled all the time, but the fuchi? This is new to me

Hope you are feeling better Mr. Bernard. #1 was my other choice, and now we see the mimi! That is cool! Do you know what the design symbolizes?

Any other pictures?

guessing later filled after retiring the tsuka as art.

amateur hour, damn! Any other damage besides what is seen? Id take the insurance money and...buy another ! looks like it could have been WAY worse though!

I will be enjoying the "fruits of your labors" Mr. Morita San. Thanks!

Bought it from the site Hamfish mentioned. Thanks though, Stephen San, and everyone. And yes (I see your new footer), the military did strange things to us: I for one have tendency to go all out anal retentive if I see laundry piling up. At my house, this means I'm pretty much certifiable all the time. My wife truly has better things to do in her mind. She is quite a lady though!

Nice Tsuba and great prices Mr. Bernard! Never seen a mosquito eater tsuba before! Very thrilled to get the super finely made copper sukashi with all sorts of implements on it! My first copper tsuba!

Has hamon, and boshi. The foundation polish is better than wartime, with a really nice looking habaki. Don't go assuming to much based on what we see from a photo. I bet it's 200 years old. Kassaki looks like some bad work was done to it (maybe they did what they had to?). Also, if it's gimei doesn't mean it's bad at all, some smiths gimei qualifiers are excellent, especially after the the mei is removed. At that point collectors interested in good blades rather than names get a deal because it's mumei (and the signature premium). the nakago is almost always hidden anyway, think about it...

Will do Hamfish. Since the blade came to me, may as well try and learn its secrets, and im quite fond of it actually. I will be on the lookout for the book you mentioned. Thanks again for the help!

I wouldn't either. it's just a theory, knowing that blades came to the states in abundance, and the owners mostly had no idea of the value and so damage via kids playing pirates or something is quite prevalent.

Yep, I have a young coworker that recently informed me about his grandpas 3 blades that he and his cousins used to play fight with. I gotta convince him to break them out so we can kantei them.

Chris, even if the crack is part way through, if the crack extends into the blade (if it isn't purely a surface effect) then functionality is compromised. Maybe only destructive testing would show how much. The polisher would know right away if it's just a scratch or a crack (they would try and remove it probably). Probably it's simply scratches and the 100kb pictures make it look hagire all the way!

Damn, now I feel like a real dumb@ss for marring up the nut and filing down the mushroomed part of the post. At least the blade got wiped under the habaki and is now serviceable. I guess material value lost big time, but not too much actual value IMO. I probably could have had someone like Ford Hallam do it for almost free and even maybe set the post back to where it was prior to service/inspection. I may check with him or his students to see what they think on the matter.

Thanks Hamfish San, I'll take a look and Google the type 25's. YOu don't need to look up your library yet, but thanks so much!

#14 please. PM sent -Grant

Hello folks, Will someone please translate the pictured kanji for me? This blade is wakizashi length, shinogizukuri, with bright nioi. F&G lists one of these as traditionally made. IVe seen enough of these (and imagining that they were police standard issue) I'm thinking a small factory was banging these out semi-traditionally. Being that the guard is held on by a pommel nut and the post is peened over, most people won't disassemble and inspect, for damaging the ensemble. Since I removed the guard and found the kanji, I wanted to share and save other owners the trouble of devaluing their pieces, and hopefully figure out what the kanji means. thanks, -Grant

According to Fuller and Gregory: the decoration on the guard indicates Army Generals's blade, not police as I originally thought. What I was taking to be the 5 sided police insignia is actually a chrysanthemum. The last two pictures show guards from police issue short sabre (these blades have bright nioi), and the supposed army generals kogarasumaru-french fry blade. Looks like weak oil quenching, that left little if any nioi. Of course it still could be polished on hamon for all I know. Hopefully a polisher will know for sure.

https://www.amazon.com/Art-Tsukamaki-Thomas-L-Buck/dp/0984377956 Here you can learn the knots and use of folded up paper pieces that allow the silk to be shaped perfectly as it is done in high quality work. This book shows how to make your own ito with snake skin (or other pelts I'd imagine). I especially love when the Ito is made up of many smaller diameter ito threads). Nice looking hada on that blade.

Call paypal and/or ebay. Maybe they can access their old databases for you. Given the fact that it is philanthropy you are up to, maybe worth a shot!

Thanks Stephen. I gotta start learning some Kanji!

one side of the tang is actually the date the blade was made (this is the convention: ura side = side facing you when worn or 'hidden' = mei..... and omote = side facing away or 'public' side = date). Pretty nice to have a dated blade! Also that blade is "ubu," or original; meaning that the nakago (tang) hasn't been shortened. This also is a plus!

Thanks everyone. I've spoken with a polisher who is interested in examining the blade, at the show. I'm getting really exited about the show. Like a kid in a candy store!

That is a nice tsuba that somebody cleaned way too much. If it had its original patina or somebody restored it I Imagine it would be worth a good amount of money.

Those are lovely! If you want you can go here to search a 100 year old book that Tom had at the meeting last Sunday. Just type in the search bar and you may get some ideas, or get some greater understanding of other Fittings. It may be good to keep an open mind about what the animal is (my vote is fox) as we may not know the way different animals were depicted back then (or look in Japan today even). https://books.google.com/books?id=V2wuAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA156-IA1&source=gbs_selected_pages&cad=2#v=onepage&q=Moon&f=false Japanese art motives by Maude Rex Allen. I ordered this book so will be reporting on the reprint when it comes from Amazon. -Grant