JH Lee

Generally a bad plan to try to match a blade to a saya or vice versa. A properly made saya should fit each particular blade for which it is made.

And I thought a person would go blind or insane or both while doing nanako work. Wow.

That is not nioi-gire. The hamon is rising into the shinogi at that part, and inside of that random "bubble" indeed appears hardened steel.

I concur that it is not a Kamakura piece. But the ware aren't too terrible, and it's in good polish for what it is. Even the one by the edge isn't hagire (I don't think). That said, there are better blades for more reasonable prices being offered by the dealers who post on NMB.

Thank you for your help, Steve.

According to what I have read, Rai Kunifusa was quite fond of naming his swords along the mune of the nakago. In fact, another of his swords posted here on NMB had a different inscription meaning something like "Warmth." And there was another named "Shanghai Neck Cutter" and so on.

Fascinating.... So, the sword's name is "Time." What a name for a sword! And Bruce, the original mounts were basically disintegrated and not salvageable, unfortunately.

What is this character/meaning on the mune of the nakago? Thank you in advance.

If someone could please help me figure out what this means (on the mune of the nakago) I would really appreciate it.

Thank you! Sorry, I just have one close-up photo of edge damage (which is not very interesting).

Last two pics. Just thought I'd share.

New two-stage habaki by Josiah Boomershine.

A heavily rusted/pitted Rai Kunifusa, with combat damage (edge chips) was restored. It is made from some kind of homogenous, unfolded modern steel (hence the not fully traditional polish) but was water-quenched in the traditional way. There is an abundance of nie/nioi everywhere, with billowing clouds rising into the shinogi-ji in parts. The hamon/yakiba rises from the monouchi and fully hardens the kissaki. Very interesting and unique piece among WW2 era blades. There are a couple of spots where the nioi is less dense (like ashi?) but the hamon/yakiba does not actually fall off the edge and follows the rest of the nioguchi. Very interesting visually.

I think something like that has always been inevitable.

Gorgeous!

Whoever is making and putting these out, the most prolific reseller has been komonjo. I'm sure there are others.

Wow. Looks really really nice. 😍

Tsuba doesn't look cast to me. It's certainly no masterpiece, but it looks like actual inlay work.

I like the fittings, but that's about it. Many years ago, I bought a really nice piece from showa22. Since then, he's started using (I believe; this is just speculating) some kind of software to engage in shill bidding and other shenanigans to drive up his prices. Not cool.

I'm just speculating. This is one of the nicer ones, it seems. Whoever is making these is getting better at it... for better or worse. But there are some details in the pattern of the hamon that I think I recognize as being consistent across a lot of the blades from komonjo. Specifically, the rounded tips of the choji "bulbs" have a very particular definition and shape. It's worth at least as much as you've bid. There isn't anything in the reproduction market that comes close to this one. But if you start approaching the $1K mark on this, I'd say you'd be better off buying some nice tosogu. Just my 2 cents, such as it is.

I believe this is one of the controversial blades from the eBay seller "Komonjo" which has been repolished at some expense, with artificially aged nakago.

Also consider that the thickness of the new piece may not be suitable for your blade's saya.

Safely locked away in gun case with multiple padlocks and combination locks. I have a very acrobatic and surprisingly clever toddler, so....

But slender profile alone shouldn't qualify a blade as a chigo-zashi, should it? I've come across an ubu wakizashi that is ~2.8cm at the motohaba tapering to ~1.7at the sakihaba, with signs of combat damage. Then again, it had a relatively thick kasane of ~7.5mm or so...

What exactly is a boy's sword? Just a smaller version suitable for a child? How can one distinguish between a blade that happens to be slender and a blade that was made intentionally for a child?