vajo

Hi Bruce, i refered from buying this sword. Yes it was in Type 98 fittings.

I made this from Brians photo. Its not typical shinto to me, more shinshinto as an utushi of an older sword. These hamon in the boshi is to eye catching. So my guess was Kiyomitsu. But you are right it has not a kaga nakago, thats look different.

For me it is an utushi of Kaga Kiyomitsu. Compare the hamon of the waki with works of him.

Museum quality overall. What a great sword. I would not sell such a fine looking piece if i had it in my collection. Thats a lifetime offer!

Its a nice package in my eyes. I would go with a ShinShinto utushi of an older work. Look at the hamon in the boshi. And it has a fine looking kaga work nakago.

Yoshishige 義重 ?

I think it is reshaped NCO.

What a story Ian. This is incredible. Just WOW! Your last sentences drive me into tears. Great.

Great job John. Its allways a pleasure to see one restored.

As for me i use camellia oil mixed with choji 5/1 for a little smelling of clove.

I've tried to do better.

Ah, thanks Brian. I will made it.

Andrew i paint this fast to explain. On the upper side you see gendaito / down side showato. You see on a gendaito the structures of the pearl matrix of the iron after hardning in water. On a showato all is uniform. with a mostly dark line during the hamon and dark shadows in the spikes of the hamon if it is not suguha-ba (straight hamon). Most of the gendaito where forged in masame hada - straight lines. Most of the showato you didn't see a hada between the layers of the iron. If you see some dark or bright shining spots which looks like asteroids rocks in front of the sun, this is nie and dark ones like ara-nie and a sure sign of gendaito. Btw: Don't forget that a wartime polish isn't such shining as a modern polish. The sword looks much more decent and you must play with the lights and angles to see all the beauty of a blade.

For me it is a replacement fake habaki and saya. The sword looks assembled together from parts. The story sounds nonsense to me like the most storys about captured bring back swords and then they lying around in the garage. But i understand that everyones grandfather was a hero. Now that trophy is in a cruel condition. Dirty with a lot of fingertips.

for what they should put a no. on the habaki? I see this stamped habaki only on junk swords, mostly faked.

I would prefer the second one. Looks like a strong sword with a nice barracuda boshi.

450 bid is to low. If this is a new one the work is very good. But i belive now its an older blade. Look at the ara nie so much to see in the blade. This will go for much more i think.

I thought i see a layer. But you know it better, you have it in hand.

Polished blade without habaki. Komonji? The sword is well forged. A lot to see. Really not bad, but i`m with Kirill could be a new one. But if you look on the nakago it looks like this was an old sword with cleaned and removed patinated nakago. Maybe it was a ww2 mounted old family sword in a bad condition and some one let it polished by an untrained guy? There are no filemarks on the nakago but deep scars. On the other hand the nakago ana looks new made. On a deeper view it looks old! I would say its an shinshinto sword. But with overpolished nakago. Or the picture is badly made.

Nice sanmei tsuba Geraint.

Damn that is a nice Showa RS. Mostly they are in very bad conditions but this a museum example. Congratulation to that sword George. Oh! Edit. I read it false! Its an RJT Sword. So i see much differences between Showa-to RS and a RJT mounted one. The Tsuka is wide above the Showa-to blades.

Sorry John when i flummoxed you (i learnt the word new, haha). No i don't look on this as a ww2 weapon what it is not. But it looks nice in that mountings. Its a modern koshirae for a new sword. Btw the first shinsakuto in the style of a chukoto what i have seen.

John as i wrote the sword is in Japan and has no shinsa. If it would be a historical important gift sword it would had hozon or something like that. It is what it is. A nice looking chokuto styled wakizashi with an nice inscription.

No problem Stephen - have fun!

Btw cool Tsuba Stephen i like it very much! I could not resist by the Godzilla call.