jrs

Col. Hartley was my mentor from when I was age 13 until his death. I looked through the auction catalog and remember some of the pieces from his collection. He was always generous sharing his knowledge and passion. Even being a teenager, he sent swords home with me to study at length, many being juyo. I'm not sure I could be so trusting. I miss our visits Col. James

beautiful craftsmanship. I like everything you did but the door/drawer pulls are my absolute favorite part!

I did ask him. He wasn't very forthcoming. He said it should go to shinsa. James

Mr. Benson polished the blade 2 years ago. James

Thanks for everyones interesting comments. I can see the hamon run into the nakago, the hadori runs off just past the machi and one side of the nakago is filed down with almost no shinogi left, so I do believe that this blade is suriage/o-suriage, unless someone went to great lengths to make it look that way on purpose. I did find another picture that shows an area of the "anomaly" more clearly. Plus a few more showing the hada. James This one show it above the hamon as a white area in the bottom 1/2 of the picture. The activity in question is made of very fine nie i believe because it looks moist and it sparkles a little. In this example it runs for several inches mimicking the hamon. In other places, it is just a cloud of clump above the hamon. It doesn't appear near the shinogi at all. And hear are clearer pictures of the hada.

It is a mokume with Masame elements to it. Or vice-versa. James

more pictures

Thanks for the picture Paul. I'll try to take more pictures of the blade today and see what people think. James

The blade has seen use and many polishes. It just seems older than shin Shinto to me.

The blade has been a conundrum to me. I bought it in gun to mounts. Pretty bad polish but the hada was visible. Sent it to be polished, new habaki and shirasaya made. The Nagasaki is just under 24", suriage or o suriage. 3 mekugi Ana. Maru mune. It had an unreadable mei, something Mitsu, which the polisher said was bad and he removed it. He suggested it go to shinsa and that was my plan, but after I got it back from him, other things kept happening to prevent me spending the money for shinsa, so I've just been holding on to it. One on side the Harmon is very gunome and on the other more suguha, but the activity in question appears on both sides.

They are not as defined as the hamon, but instead look like "moist" spots. James

I have books and references, but I am stumped at defining this accurately. I wish it photographed better because its very visible in person. Some times it is a small cluster, in other places it key run for several inches above the hamon. The best way I can describe it is that its like a reflection or shadow of the hamon, but because it touches the hamon, or is just above the hamon, I don't know it would be called utsuri. I'm attaching another picture in which I circled the areas and have arrows pointing to what I'm talking about, just to show the exact locations. Compare between the 2 pictures. James

Hey Everyone. What is this activity called? There are patches of nie above the hamon on this blade. I'm not sure how to classify it. If it was by the shinogi, it would be utsuri, but just above the hamon I don't know what to call it. Any help would be nice. Sorry about the pictures, it was very hard to capture on the camera. Thanks in advance, James

Looks like the grooves were forged instead of being cut, IMHO. James