Taz575

Yeah, I am not sure of the acid content of stabilized wood like Curly Koa and Curly Maple? Its wood that has been dried below 10% moisture content and then put into a vacuum/pressure chamber so epoxy resin is absorbed into the pores of the wood to make it more stable. I am leary of the acid content of that and also that moisture doesn't typically get absorbed by stabilized wood, so it may promote the rusting, even with the honoki inner core. It was stabilized years ago, but I am not sure of any out gassing over time, too? Not looking to do super expensive with the koshirae; even modern reproductions are fine. The blade isn't that old and I got it for cheap. I figure the Aikuchi would be the least expensive style since there is no ito maki, no tsuba, etc. and was looking at the simple buffalo horn fuchi/kashira and a small menuki on each side, dark blue lacquered saya. I have an extra tsuba already (bought for the first wak, but was WAY too small!), but had no clue what went with pine straw as a fitting theme if I went the full mount route.

I have a tanto (showa production, not super old, but with nice activity) that I am getting ready to send out for a polish. I am debating the mounts for it currently. I am wavering between Aikuichi style (ray skin, no ito) with a lacquered saya and a regular style with all of the fittings. I have a nice little tsuba I picked up a while ago with a straw broom and inlaid straw needles on it that would fit very nicely size wise (it will need some filing on the nakago ana to make the nakago fit since it is fairly wide). What other fittings would go well with the Straw Broom theme?? If I do aikuchi style, I have some nice stabilized woods and M3 composite material and I was wondering if anyone ever did fittings from this or would they need to be metal fittings for strength? I see buffalo horn used often, but I wasn't sure about other materials. That would be a nice way to go and to use up some of my left over materials. I also have some nice, thin pieces of Curly Koa and Curly Maple that are stabilized that may make a nice saya; maybe even have one of the saya made where the inside can slide out for cleaning from Honoki and the outside can be the stabilized woods?

Yeah, I am doing more research into the Kashu swordsmiths! The hamon really reminds me of waves, but another friend I showed it to in person this morning thought the hamon looked like clouds, too!

Very nice!! I tried to see some other pics of blades from these smiths, but there are very few pictures. Too bad because they are really interesting up close!!

Finally got a papered Katana today!! Well, it arrived from Japan today! Kashu Iehira (2nd generation) NBTHK papered katana, 26.13" Nagasa. Nice shirasaya, 2 piece habaki. Killer Hamon: I think this will match up nicely with my Wak #2 as a Daisho, ocean/fishing themed. Both hamons look like waves. On this one, it looks a bit like a whale in the hamon at one point in the first hamon pic towards the right of the frame.

Beautiful blade!!! You have been doing very well with papered blades!! To get pics of the hamon, I used a semi dark room, dark cover on the sofa/loveseat, stand above it and use the flash. The flash area will wash out, but the area to the left and right of the flash will usually show the hamon nicely. Or hold the blade up at an angle in a mostly dark room, take pics with flash. Takes a while to get used to it, holding it the right angle/distance away for the camera to focus properly. My new Iehira Katana Pics using the above method.

If the munemachi was relocated, might someone file/polish the yasurime down to have the habaki or other pieces fit farther forward? Again, I see many tangs with some filing/polishing evidence on the yasurime areas, especially on cut down blades. Some even have polishing done at the very top of Kiku and Mei! These areas may be thicker and need to be thinned down a hair when relocating a munemachi or maybe its the displaced metal from chiseling that was smoothed out at one time so it wouldn't make a burr and scratch the other fittings? On my 1st Ebay Wak, the one many thought was a welded tang, has similar wear on the yasurime. It looks like the munemachi was moved forward a bit and the thicker part of the nakago was at the yasurime, so maybe they were filed down a hair to let the habaki slip past farther up the blade since it was tightest at that point? The yasurime on mine was checked at the Orlando Sword Show and determined to be legit and of a pattern heard about, but rarely seen and not an amateur hacking away at it as some had suspected. Pictures can be very misleading! The shiny spots could it be wear from a tight tsuka, tsuba, seppa, habaki sliding on and off the sword for cleaning possibly? Look at the shinogi on the nakago, it has bright spots on it, too, so something was rubbing there at some point. The mune area has a polishers signature and the lines look nice and crisp and even to me, which is generally accepted as the sign of a good polisher. I can see a very very tight grain pattern in the pictures, something I wouldn't think I would be able to see with a poor polish? The habaki doesn't look "polished" to me, but looks scuffed up and aged a bit with some wear to it. From the Kiyomitsu I have researched quickly, the end of the nakago looks accurate, but I think they often worked in a coarser hada pattern that is more visible typically? But there were lots of generations, so there would be variations, too. It it was mine, I would keep it, study/research it, learn from it and move it on later if I got bored with it. Not everyone needs a pristine, papered, all original Juyo piece to enjoy the sword. I took a chance on a $400 rusty Ebay Wak with some flaws recently. Everyone said it was junk, don't waste your time/money cleaning it up, etc because of the flaws it had. In hand, I could see a lot of activity that the pictures couldn't capture. I had a window polished and there is a ton of activity on the blade, which is why I got it in the first place. I love blades with active hada/hamon/hataraki and this has all 3 and should be awesome when it's finished. You have the sword in hand and the question ultimately is: Do YOU like it? We all give comments based on what we see in the pictures, but from first hand experience, I know that the sword in hand can look completely different than the pictures actually show and often pictures don't do the sword justice. I am new to this (a few months in) and I know what you are feeling. Many more experienced people see this as a garbage sword and it makes you feel bad about your first purchase. 1) It's a real Katana with some History 2) Fittings look much better than some of the junkier ones I have seen, tsuka can be re wrapped (looks like they struggled with the thick menuki possibly?) 3) To me, it looks like a nice polish, which can cost more than you paid for the entire sword. I am using a large, 23" monitor at work and the hada is there, but incredibly fine according to what I can see with the picture that is around 16" wide on my monitor. Viewing on a laptop, cell phone or tablet, it may be much harder to see the hada! 4) It's not a Chinese knock off sword 5) For $1050 USD for what seems to be a fully polished katana in Koshirae, I think you did extremely well and can overlook some flaws like the ito wrap not being perfect and some mystery behind the blade itself.

The ad wasn't misleading. Never said the mounts were old or original, just that they were good quality. A blade in fresh polish is considered mint condition,which this one is and looks like it was done very well,too. The blade looks like it does show a very fine grain structure, which is hard to see unless the polish is very good. Mekugi ana thru mei is incredibly common. It looks like the mune machi may have been moved forward at some point in time or the mekugi ana redrilled for a different mount style/length, as is common. Many tangs show a line like yours does and doesn't always mean it was welded. I think it is from where the tuba rests; tons of nakago's have this line, right where the tsuba is located. The Kesho yasurime looks good and the tops were polished down a bit, which I think tends to happen during the grinding/sharpening/polishing process. To me, it looks like a beautifully polished blade with good quality mounts. I cannot vouch for the mei being accurate, but other than that, it looks like a nice sword. Did the auction have any pictures of anything of it or was it just based on a verbal description? The ad describes exactly what you received IMHO.

More Pics:

Well, USPS delivered the package safe and sound, no damage to it. Window polish was done, too. This was on the side that barely showed any hamon at all unless the light was perfect.

Bryant, many hardware stores sell gasket material in different thickness' and material. You could make some seppa and a sekigane wedge with these materials pretty easily at home with an exacto knife and cutting board. Now that you have the sword in hand, go back and look at the pics and video and compare them to what you see. You can see how lighting, white balance, etc effect the photos and what the defects look like under those conditions, especially ware, which can look horrible in pics and be barely visibly in hand, or worse in hand! Cardboard tube or box with the sword wrapped in bubble warp is how I received all of mine, too.

Thanks! I have over 20K in firearms alone, plus another 6K in swords so far, so that 25K quote isn't bad at all!! I tried the NRA one and it was almost double that IIRC.

This is the link from 3 years ago: http://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/11935-insurance-for-swords-and-fittings/?hl=insurance The NRA has a recommended insurance company for firearms, but I don't know if they do swords as well.

Found it, last post on the last page...lol...figures!

Yes and almost every post was dealing with shipping insurance?

Now that I have a few thousand invested in various swords, plus my gun collection, I am looking for insurance for these items. Homeowners only covers a small portion and I have individual firearms that are more than what Homeowners covers total (Thanks Colt Python!!) Any recommendations for companies that insure swords and guns in the US?

I think another issue is in todays world, most of the learning is done online/books with pictures and text rather than actually physically handling the item. For example, the Shigekuni Wakizashi I got from the Classifieds recently was described as "clear" jigane. The pictures kinda showed it a little, but in hand, it was a whole different level. So when people see "coarse" jigane, weak jigane, clear jigane etc on a sword in person, it registers so much better than if someone is reading a description of what those terms means without ever having seen a sword in hand with those traits. Or they may think what they are seeing is correct because they haven't seen the difference between coarse and fine, strong and weak, etc to be able to make those determinations. If you think about it, many of the texts we look at well predate the Internet era and were based on hands on physical study. People who were into Nihonto met and handled these blades and discussed them in person. Now, a lot of this is done online and many of these terms now seem obscure, vague, out of date, etc to those just learning mostly by internet and book and without being able to physically handle many blades. When you think about it, hard and soft jigane strikes me as funny...it's metal, most of which aren't considered "soft"! I think of hard and soft as heat treated/tempered versus annealed steel from my knife background, but in the case of swords, it's a completely different meaning.

Came across this at Aoi Japan today: http://www.aoijapan.com/wakizashi-houshu-takada-fujiwara-muneyuki Some pieces in his hamon are identical to ones on this sword, in particular where the togari meet and form a sloppy circle of unhardened steel and the general unruliness of the hamon and not being a repeated, clean pattern. So I am now checking out Takada Fujiwara Muneyuki and other related smiths. This blade is gimei for Bicchu no kami Tachibana Yasuhiro, which I expected from the beginning and I haven't seen any of Yasuhiro's hamons looking like this!

I would say 1, 3 and 4 are softer and 2 and 5 are harder. Harder steel often polishes "clearer" and more mirror like, where softer steel tends to be more matte finish, but this is based on my clad kitchen knife experience. Tamahagane and other steels may look different based on the composition of the steels themselves, so some steel may look clear, but still be "soft" and vice versa. Of course, it all depends on the polisher, too and how the steel is polished and with what stones. Then the photography itself; was the white balance or other settings tweaked to show the hada more clearly? Lots of variables would come into play, so I am not sure if one could tell this from a photograph or not.

I've seen very similar markings on tangs as well with the shallow semi circular cutouts on the sides of the tangs and am also curious as to what they are from?

Many swords like this have modern put together koshirae and are very sloppily fit. A loose habaki may scratch an otherwise nice polish, too. A shirasaya and habaki may be a better option and get a tsunagi made for the current koshirae. I know I don't like it when I am showing a koshirae to someone and the fit is loose and wobbly!

I used Wally Hostetter recently for a new habaki, seppa, new tsuka core, new full same wrap and new ito wrap with the existing fuchi/kashira/menuki and I am very pleased with his work, price and turn around time. Pics are in the Heianjo Ishido Masatoshi post in the Nihonto Section.

I got one from Daimyou45eb and it shipped a couple of days later. I don't know if the sword was de registered, or if they just don't bother waiting for the de reg to go thru before they ship.

When I looked at the spine of the Shigekuni more last night, I thought I could see a different core layer and side layer, but it may have been my eyes playing tricks on me. I've been looking over many sword pictures and rarely see pictures in close up detail that show differences like this. I know there were some very complicated lamination/construction methods used, but never really saw that the final outcome may look like on the sword itself until I got this Shigekuni; it's polish and forging allows me to see details that I never though were possible to see! It's an interesting difference between the swords and kitchen knives! I am a junky for the steel and activities within and this just kinds got me thinking about the numerous methods of forging blades and how it would look versus a tired old blade.

Very nice!! That picture really captures the hada very nicely!