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George

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  1. Brian, That is very helpful. I will let the owner know. George
  2. Chris, Thank you so much for the extremely informative reply. I take it then that this sword was made in the WWII time period. I do not see a star anywhere on the nakago, so am surmising that it did not go to the military directly. With the mekugi in place, the tsuka is too short. There was a remnant of a leather spacer shaped like the seppa that was between the seppa and the tsuba. Even with the spacer, the tsuba, habaki, and seppa had about an eighth of an inch play. Some of the looseness was taken up by the leather covering the tsuka, and some by what I thought was a leather thong wound around the tsuba. On closer inspection the "thong" turned out to be a woven shoe lace. Are the tsuba and tsuka from an earlier period? It makes me wonder how this all came about, and why. Was it a common practice to cover the tsuka with leather? The leather covering the saya has a wheal, and appears to be professionally done. The tsuka, on the other hand was covered competently, but not professionally. The woman who owns the sword is recently widowed and would like to sell it. Other than the mysterious history, does it have enough value to pursue selling it? Many, many thanks, George
  3. This is the sword that was in the estate of the Pacific PT boat commander. I had posted it earlier, in Jan., but it got lost in the transition. The tsuka and saya were both covered with leather. The daughter, who now owns the sword agreed to have the leather cover on the tsuka be removed. The leather was laced on with a leather thong. The thong was very dry and brittle, and broke into several pieces. I felt like a vandal. However, there are now pictures of the tsuka and nakago, as well as the mei. I will also try to include the original pictures. Here are the new ones. ] I feel like an idiot. The pictures that I would like large (mei) are small. Others are way too large. I would like to blame it on my camera. If the mei are indecipherable let me know, and I will try again. George
  4. May I ask a couple more questions? When looking at the side of the tanegashima opposite to the lock, there is a diamond shaped iron inlay which act as a nut for the screw holding the back of the lock. In addition, however, there are three holes going completely through the stock which presently have no function. The hole which is farthest forward also intersects the lock mortise. I am unfamiliar with how the matchlock locks were attached to the stock. Would these holes be consistent with an earlier form of lock? The bottom of the lock mortise also has what appears to be remnants of screw tip auger tool marks. I wish I had noticed these features earlier. Thanks, George
  5. I hope these are okay. George
  6. Hi Mark, I'm in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Thanks for the suggestion. I have to google almost every word I read here. Feeling a bit overwhelmed. George
  7. Thank you Jean. The distance from the tip of the blade to where the habaki begins is 13 inches. My son talked me through how to reduce the pixels. George
  8. Please forgive my obvious ignorance in this realm. This sword/long knife belongs to a friend who is elderly and in poor health. He is interested in selling it, and would like to know more about it. He inherited it from his father some 40 years ago. The total length is 19.5 inches, and the blade is 14 inches. The scabbard is in poor condition, but looks as though it once was of good quality. The terminal portion of the scabbard seems to be well done. The brass spacers seem too large for the tsuba, as they overlap onto some of the decoration. The hilt is unmarked. Thanks for the assistance, George Well, my computer ignorance is showing, as well. It is telling me "The file size is too big, maximum allowed size is 1 MB." Even after reading the directions about making the pictures smaller, I still haven't the foggiest. I will submit what I have, and wait for my kids to help.
  9. Ron, I couldn't agree more. A very sincere thanks to all. George
  10. Here are better pictures of the hammer/serpentine. I agree that the the double conversion theory is very attractive. Does Occam's razor come into play here? A couple of other observations: The side plate that could possibly be covering up the previous pan/side touch-hole, has the same decoration as the lock plate, hammer, and rest of the gun. The tapered slot in the end of the hammer appears to be very professionally accomplished. I regularly shoot a flintlock longrifle that has silver inlays. There is a silver oval "thumb piece" inlay on the top of the wrist of my rifle, and it doesn't have the same appearance or color as the three feather inlay on the top of the barrel of this gun. I can't help but think the kamon is something other than sterling silver. Again, many thanks for the fabulous insight and information. George
  11. I am truly amazed by the knowledge and erudition demonstrated here. I will say that I don't think any polishing has gone on in the last 40 years. The Three Hawk Feather kumon is untouched. If it were silver, I too would expect it to be black. The fact that is still so shiny makes me wonder if it is platinum, or ? There is a plate on the side of the barrel, just below the area of ignition. This is very similar to plates in this area on upper end English shotguns and rifles. If the gun were from the 1830 - 1840 era is it not possible that some of the very different ignition systems patented by the English could have been tried here? Many, many thanks for all the information. George
  12. The half size pictures. Hope this is not too many pictures.
  13. It said my full size pictures were too big. I will try to do it 1/2 at a time.
  14. I managed to get some more pictures, as well as some measurements. The total length is 42 1/2 inches. The barrel is 28 inches. Barrel diameter is 1.412 at the breech, the octagonal muzzle is 1.372, and the narrow neck just before the muzzle is 1.160. The barrel is flat along the top surface, and flat like an octagon just above the lock. The rest of the barrel is round. It certainly looks like a broken off nipple where the hammer would strike. On the other hand, the nose of the hammer looks like it was meant to hold a match, and wouldn't reach an average nipple. Again, many thanks for all the help.
  15. The owner of the gun is somewhat elderly and infirm. He also lives 50 miles away. I will try to get more pictures as well as measurements. Thanks so much for all the information so far. The owner is also interested in selling. Any suggestions as to venue? George
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