ChrisW

Hey guys, I seem to have an affinity (or I am cheap) and another wakizashi has found me. This one is supposedly signed "Bizen no Kuni ju no Osafune Norimitsu," and I believe it has a date of production as well. I believe it's Koto. It sadly does not have a habaki and the saya does not likely belong to it nor does the tsuba. But they all came together and the blade still has decent geometry, minus a few nail catchers. I would love your guys' opinion from kissaki to nakago, any information and if this would be a good candidate for polish would be appreciated. P.S. I apologize for the pictures being upside-down and such, they would not cooperate with me this time for some reason.

Youtube is your best friend for this. I followed this lady's lead. She explained and showed it very well and seems to be very skilled at it.

I love me some phoenix motif. Unless this is rooster, then I just can't tell the difference.

Hey guys! You'll probably be able to point out the flaws in it. I can tell that the ends are a bit off center, but this is my first attempt at sageo tying; so I thought I'd share it with you all! This is on a wakizashi that I bought from a guy here and I replaced the tsuba with something I felt fit the piece better. Obviously the sageo's coloring is off for this, but its the closest I could find. I am still fairly proud of it (maybe my boy scout days are paying off, maybe not), though I am sure I'll look back on it years from now and shake my head.

As the old saying goes, "play with fire and you'll eventually get burned." Of course, I wouldn't say we play with our nihonto so much as enjoy them. But working with something potentially dangerous means (usually) eventually your number does get called.

A very handsome blade despite the nakago issue. I wonder what era/school it belongs to.

That explains the part that looks off. I've never seen one with a bolt.

The blade looks nice... the nakago looks mangled to me though. Extreme case of a last-minute put-together back in the day?

I agree. This should all be documented and studied in greater depth. I feel the metallurgy has a lot to do with how styles fluctuated.

Scary stuff.

It may be a reasonable asking price when comparing to past sales, but there simply may not be any buyers at that price level currently. A person could be selling a $250,000 Ferrari but if there's no buyers for that price level of a Ferrari, it will go unsold.

It could simply be that buyers are not willing to pay the price that sellers are asking. Its all supply and demand. Anything is only worth what someone is willing to pay. Once those with money have what they want, then all the gorgeous and highly-sought blades in the world won't matter.

No, sounds about right to me!

Hmm. I am not sure then. Might just be an inferior heat treatment... which would be unusual. But let's see what the guys have to say!

Eh... if it were hardened steel on that tip, it'd be broken off I'd think. Can you make out a hamon through the boshi or does it appear to run off? If it runs off, that indicates that perhaps the original tip snapped off and it was reshaped into a new kissaki. That then means that this blade is effectively dead as that's considered a fatal flaw. That sort of goes along with you observing that this blade is signed katana-style. (Although I don't truly know the difference myself). The fact that the person is willing to accept any offer sends off a red flag. This thing feels like someone has significantly tampered with what was a dead blade that I wouldn't be comfortable offering for it. Also, I could be wrong but Morihisa is a BIG name smith from what I remember and a likely target of gimei. There's just too many red flags. Of course, I am no expert and I would wait to hear from someone far more knowledgeable. These are just my initial impressions.

Interesting, thanks Jean! Its something I never really looked much into. I always thought it was overly-dramatic and fictionalized. As with most things, there's a seed of truth buried somewhere down in there.

I always thought this was the stuff of fantasy... I mean, ninjas WERE real in a sense, mostly as political assassins/peasants who took up arms against samurai by using the implements they had at hand (IE farmtools). I know some things were real like a kunai with chain. I didn't think that stars were a thing though. Neat if authentic! Honestly, the thing above looks more like a broken/bent caltrop than a practical star though.

Thankfully I've never been cut by any of my nihonto in my relatively short time as a collector! Though I've had a 17th century french court sword do that to me unexpectedly. Was cleaning it and my grip slipped and it poked a nice hole in my thumb.

@Ken, I can see that one very much still has enough steel on the spine to have structural flexibility. I just wonder about the one he showed us. With it being so wildly erratic, wouldn't it simple find a point where there's little flex and snap/crack through? Regardless, it is a very pretty blade (at the original). Definitely a work of art.

Is that core steel exposed all over it? It looks like it should fail spectacularly if it were to ever be used (hopefully that'll never ever happen). I get that its a purely art piece, but at their core, Japanese swords were meant to be utilitarian items. The samurai lived and died by his blade, like any other swordsman.

That's awful to hear. The nerve of some people.

It depends on what you're wanting and your budget. At $750, you might expect to reasonably obtain a machine-made blade or you might really struggle. For nontraditional, it goes up from there. For full-on traditional (kai gunto), it varies widely on smith and quality/condition. Kai guntos can easily run several thousands. As for the kind you mentioned, Kyu Gunto? They can run a wide gamut as they come in both traditional and non-traditional machine-made blades in both katana and wakizashi sizes. But their mountings are characteristically western in style such as this one here: http://yakiba.com/Koshirae_D-Ring.htm(koshirae only, blade is a tsunagi "placeholder") I would suggest either dealing with Ed @Yakiba or one of our many members here. They do pop up now and then and you can expect to be treated well here. But if you're looking to only spend $750, it might be hard at that range for even a machine-made. Also, please make sure you make a signature with your name in it so members know how to address you! Forum rules.

Ah. I wouldn't know personally. I was just attempting to interpret the conversation. It would take me decades to even begin to approach your guys' expertise.

I think they're calling it gimei with a reshaped nakago to reinforce the deception of it being 1st gen. Tadayoshi, Hamfish.

That's pretty scary when you consider what Showa's been up to, John.