mightythor101

i am showing it to someone later this week, they said they think it is kane nori. keep in mind, i dont know anything about these, other then i can tell it is old, and genuine, whatever it turns out to be. it is not the cheap junk coming in now from china. i can tell the fittings are all old and genuine, i know it came back from wwii from the pacific theater, and that the family that had it had it for many years. they were not the soldier that brought it back though. the problem i run into is what i will try to explain. i have one right now that i am going to sell to a friend of mine, i am a military relic dealer, so i have to turn things over, so that i can buy the next collection/estate. i do not see these very often, but am smart enough not to get burned on the chinese junk, but kind of feel like when someone walks into a coin shop and says, "i have some old coins i want to sell............" and for many years now, the people who do know about these, never want to share the knowledge, and no one likes to sell something too cheap. i have another one, like i said, that to me, looks great, but has what appears to me, a straight temper line on it, and i took it to the big louisville show, and walked around with it. i was mugged many times, by people trying to buy it for $300.......... i showed it to a couple of guys there that said, "if i polished this, this one would be an $8500 sword." they polish them themselves. i said i would take $1500 for it, and neither one of them bought it. i think i came down to 1300, and still neither one jumped on it. they said they would have an entire week in time polishing it, which would make it worth $8500,..... so, ok.... at $110 an inch, they would have an 8500 sword, but wouldnt spend 1300 to make that kind of money? ........ i am not a surgeon, replacing kidneys or livers every week, but a $7000 dollar profit for a weeks worth of work..... i'm up for that. i would do that lots of times, to get that kind of money. i cant say i have had very many $7000 weeks. i sat around eating shitty hot dogs and nacho's, to buy this sword, had i not been there, maybe it would be slicing water melons right now instead of having a shot going to some collector. i had to sit through 5 hours of them selling crappy dishes and glass ware, before they got to the table this was on, and 2 large thunder storms on top of that.

so this is around 1500's? what kind of value does it have? thanks for the info! i am learning about these, have not had very many of them.

Another fitting piece, showing dragon fly

Very nice dragon fly fittings

It shows wear, and damage, it is not in perfect condition, here is a picture of the tip, showing the angle and shape of the tip, and a bad rust spot.

Here is an image showing the shape of the spine of the blade, and the thickness of the blade

Here is the image of the tsuba

Here is one side of the tsuba

It has a very long tang

Thought I had picture of the signature on the first post! Sorry about that!

I don't know how to attach more photos.....

That being said, I picked one up recently, and would like to learn more about it, and it's value. It has a different handle then usual, the handle is very finely braided black twine, I thought it was baleen whale hair, but if it is, it is mixed in with the braided thin/fine twine. The blade is maker marked with only 2 characters. It measures across the top of the blade 27 inches long. The tsuba is iron and signed, probably dates from the early 1800's. I am thinking the blade is older then that. It is very thick and heavy. Will include some pictures. Sorry for not knowing all of the technical terms.