16k

I’d go with Gimei.

Length, sugata, kissaki, patina, all point towards Shinshinto.

Don't doubt, Yurie, WE WANT THE BOOK!

Hi Jean, Well, at least you didn’t end up with Jacques! I guess the second sword is basically the same story though the blade appears a little better to my eye, although it’s difficult to say much more. I agree with you, not easy to find great information in French. best way is to find a mentor as there might be some if you live in a big city. I don’t have that luxury. However, if you have trouble with English, there are a few good books in French. everything by Serge Degorre is great (nippon-to for the beginner, then Koto, Shinto and Shinshinto for advanced learning are great). For the beginner, there is also a book by Bongrain. Different and less recommended, still, it covers some stuff nippon-to doesn’t. If you are into military era Katana, there’s a good book too that can easily be found on Amazon (can’t remember the name right now). There are some cool sites too. Don’t hesitate to PM me if you want more details. Best, JP

Some cool inazuma there!

Agree with Brian. One of those so called Satsuma rebellion sword, so very late Shinshinto/Meiji period, low quality and probably arsenal sword. Not much value but in my opinion great historical value. Pleeease! Tell me that your name is a pun!

Beautiful and mouth watering blade, Ray, as usual.

The signatures look a bit crude and shaky in places, but that will fool a lot of people. Frightening...

Thank you for the link!

Those are great! are you selling?

Nice! Where did you get these? I'd like to get a sample at some point.

I guess there are several reasons for it. First, as John says, tradition. Mino is famous for its Sanbonsugi and even though these swords aren't traditionnal, this hamon is kind of their trademark, so it was probably a way to attract costumer attention by referring themselves to tradition and thus quality. Then, even though oil tempering is supposed to suppress that risk, any midare hamon is supposed to be safer to temper than Suguha. Suguha being straight, it doesn't provide any realese area to prevent cracking when tempered. So maybe, even with decreased risks, they didn't want to take any chance. Finally, I'd say artistic license; Those smiths wanted to inscribe themselves in a tradition and show their version of the Sanbonsugi. All those i have seen on Showato aren't exactly the same and sme have thicker, deeper hamon than others. Of course, that's just my opinion, not based on facts.3

I’ve looked in my files and so far, haven’t found anything close...

Robert, I would say between 1780 and 1876, and yes, based on shape and color. However, this is a guess more than a certainty. The blade doesn’t shoe much in this state of polish and I could be wrong. And yes, looks traditional to me.

I’d say early Gendai too. That nakago still looks weird to me.

If I had to offer a guess, I’d say Shinshinto. A lot of work to do on that one.

I agree that the nakago doesn’t look like a wartime nakago. I’d like to see more too.

I have one by Komonjo. I still think those are excellent blades, made in Japan but definitely Gimei. They have a iaito polish and cut better than any Chinese blades I have. So good buy? I’d say yes since you can get a very nice blade for about $500, but as to who actually makes them, this is a mystery.

I agree. Especially since the ha machi looks like it’s been hacked. chines blades show misaligned machi, but they look clean.

It’s not choji oil that is dangerous, but uchiko. Quality uchiko shouldn’t be an issue, but uchiko is basically grinding stone residue and can scratch a blade in new polish. On the contrary, a blade in bad state will benefit from uchiko. According to Aoi, Choji oil is sticky and vegetable oil and more sticky, so more prone to create rust than mineral oil.

Polishing cream is bad for a real Japanese sword. First, the cream is going to get into the folds of the metall, hiding the Hada, then, the polish will remove or partially erase both the nugui and hazuya make up. So bad, bad, bad! As for oil, I use Choji, but the current recommendation is Tsubaki oil or machine oil. and Uchiko is only recommended on swords which aren’t in great polish. Today, most people use isopropyl alcohol to remove old oil.

Beautiful!

I think it was also a fad. It was apparently first developed (officially) by the Soshu tradition and then copied by others. If it had been so bad, I don’t think it would have stuck, especially during the Sengoku Jidai. And unless the first one was indeed a mistake, the others weren’t. Hitatsura creates tobiyaki, but the type of blade you seem to describe isn’t unheard of either.

That’s what what I saw immediately: the background screams Komonjo... the mei too!

I think he means tobiyaki, yubashiri, hitatsura or ichimai for the boshi. Unless we are talking about a very clear utsuri. And yes, it’s something I’ve often wondered too!