vajo

Its thin but its there. reshaped

He was very gentle in his comments.

The price of everything in ancient times was affordable for the target group. A samurai with deep pocket could buy nicer stuff than a poor samurai. Its the same like those days It's like building houses today. Everyone complains that they can't afford a house, but they don't want to save and still want to afford a vacation and a car. Our parents built large houses with high interest rates and low incomes. They didn't go on vacation but worked for their dream. And that's exactly how it is in all cultures from the Stone Age to today.

With some fantasy i could imagine that there is a star stamp to see. Ask him for better pictures Did you see it?

Colin i think i misunderstood you, sorry. I thought these doubled color tsuba was the work of the artist. No i understand it was obvious the reason of a long time presenting.

The side is longer treated with niage. There is no mystery in making one side darker.

Not a big deal - mähhh

Yanagawa 柳川 school Someone of the shimizu family. My guess.

Sodomist Samurai

After looking deeper on PC on those pictures i go with Bruce its a total fake sword. But its a very good made. With some nice paint job it could fool me.

Bruce I'm not sure with this that is a fake. I would need better pictures. From my point the nanako is not inverse which shows mostly fakes. The menuki looks sharp. The hi looks nearly correct. The number looks not bad. The seppa has the original looking cherry blossoms on the rim. The clipper looks authentic. I'm not sure. If its fake its one of the best fakes i saw so far. Thanks a lot for showing it Bruce. Really cool. By the way i would not buy it because of its brass tsuka

Maybe the ura side got an extra treatment with niage?

@Bruce Pennington It's dated. The sword is not mine. I friend sent me the pictures of the sword he own's. oil quenched blade that looks acid polished for me.

Yes @Spartancrest

Some "Brass" Tsuba examples and their patination colors.

Thanks a lot. That was impossible for me to find it out.

I think it could read Yoshimasa but I have no doubt its a showa-to

Brass in Japan isn't the same brass with fixed mixture in the west. Those shibuichi brass have niage patinations in a wide range of colors from greenish to brown and red, from bright to dark. It depends what the artist wanted to show.

Looks like an intersting mumei waki. Could be echizen shinto.

Good Tsuba. Price reflect the quality. You don't need any paper to see if it is good or not. Maybe its the mother of this?

@Dale did you know another picture of this tsuba in better condition? Motozane Genpu Oyama

It is not restoring removing the patination. Its vandalism.

@Bruce Pennington a lot of people uses now that term. Mostly in a negative context because they favorite Type 98 or want to sell higher. Thats my observe of the problem. I didn't know if everyone knows what the term means. In Germany we called FIAT cars "Fehler In Allen Teilen" (failure in all parts). It was from the 70s up to the 90s a big problem for that company. Type 3 sounds neutral. The NMB as an information board makes the music. If you rate here you make a vote up or down. It is not a closed community.

I'll never get used to the term Rinji Seishiki. The term means Provisional Emergency Model. So derogatory in all respects. It sounds like someone quickly cobbled something together so that no one has to run around with a bare blade.

That term Rinji Seishiki (Special Contingency 臨時正式 ) from Nick Komiya who was neither a collector than an military expert, read that word in only one document and you all jump in that boat and call this nonsense name which doesn't refer to a sword type. Call it what ever but Rinji Seishiki is total worse. It sounds like an obsession You could search the whole wide net about this 臨時正式 and you will find nothing. "Sweetheart? Yes, darling. Have you seen my "Special Contingency" sword? Yes, it's in the umbrella stand. Could you tell me, why do all the other officers have Type98 and you have a makeshift sword? Oh, darling, I'm just a sucker." Btw. The first "makeshift" special contingency rinji seishiki swords with high quality gendai-to blades came out 1942. And why the IJA produce low quality showa-to blades from medium range smiths equipped with your so called "high quality " Type98 mounts? They put scrappy showa-to blades into a bling bling koshirae and expensive tamahagene forged gendai blades in a special contingency koshirae for what? Blaming their officers? Is that really that what you belive? The type 3 has iron fittings. The type 98 is equipped with brass fittings. Did you think the ancient samurai walk into a war with brass fittings?