tbonesullivan

I remember reading some guides that said to oil the blade, and then use the Uchiko to spread powder, followed by wiping off the blade. My first thought was "that will just make a mess". You end up with oil on the ball, which ruins it's effectiveness, and you end up with a mess on the blade too. I remember seeing pictures of a blade with marks where an oily uchiko ball had been used, as the powder was stuck on the outside.

Do you have any suggestions? I also play various brass instruments, so I have an extensive collection of various viscosities of synthetic and mineral oils. I've also got some Renaissance Wax, if I wanted to put any on display.

AH! Now I see it! Due to the photo I couldn't quite make out the upper part of the YASU character. Also totally bungled the Province, but at least I got most of the other characters right. Interesting that MAKIYO was used on some blades. I wish I had better pictures. The "delta" stamp is also interesting as well. 尾 州 住 真 清 正 泰 鍛 之 - BISHU JU MAKIYO MASAYASU KITAU KORE

Yeah, this is not going anywhere near the nearly unissued ICHIHARA NAGAMITSU Type 98 Shin-Gunto we just got, or anything in remotely good polish. In general if I can see a hamon, even if it requires looking in the reflection, all it gets is cleaning and oiling. I've read all kinds of discussions on the different oils that people use for their Japanese blades, including several here. I've had good luck with the Choji oil from "tinyroots", a Bonsai supplier, who claims it is 100% Japanese choji Oil. Blades I oiled 4 years ago haven't shown any noticeable oxidation or changes.

This is another one that has me really confused. It's a WWII Shin-Gunto, arsenal blade most likely, dated 1944. It is signed in the typical arsenal fashion, but for the life of me I can't figure out what actual name is. I have included my best guesses. If I could figure out characters 3 and 4 that would really help. As always, any help is greatly appreciated. 備 州 住 1 2 3 4 鍛 之- BISHU JU ? ? ? ? KITAU KORE 1. 直 ? NAO? 真 ? SANE? 2. 清? KIYO? 3. 正 - MASA? 4. 永? Naga? 次 Tsugu?

I know there is quite a bit of debate on the use, usefulness, potential harm, and so forth regarding Uchiko balls and powder. There are plenty of cheap "Japanese sword care" kits which are probably full of corn starch or something worse, so I'm not looking for anything like that. I'm trying to see if there is a source for actual quality ones, as well as rice paper or something similar that is supposed to be used. I'm aware that it is an abrasive, and that misuse can cause damage to swords. Also please note this is not any attempt to "polish" swords. This will only be used on swords that are not in good or even fair polish, which is the a minority of what I end up dealing with. And of those probably only ones where cleaning with the usual solvents and a microfiber cloth isn't quite cutting it. If there isn't any suitable source now, that's ok as well.

Thanks so much!! I did find it now. Sesko's book uses the 慶応 form of "Kei-o", which does look a bit more similar to what is written on the blade.

I've seen a few where the matching number had lacquer or varnish applied over it, which turns orange over time.

This is one I handled about 5 years back. It came with translations of the tang, but I'm trying to get the Kanji for my list of swords I've looked at. Also one of the few where the hamon really showed up great with a flash. The paper I got with it stated that it was signed BINGO MYOSHI JU SUKE HIDE , also known as TOKOYAMA SOZAMON. That would be 備 後 三 良 住 祐 秀, from what I can tell. The Mei is somewhat worn on the tang. I can't really see if it's BIZEN or BISHU from the pictures. I'm also not sure what the correct Kanji for MIYOSHI would be. The nengo was given as MEIJI 3rd year, 2nd month, but the characters do not look like 明治 at all, especially the first one. I can see the second character being 治, but the first is not a form of 明 I am familiar with.

I would concur on HIROMITSU. Is that a late war pattern P-1944 Shin-Gunto? Looks just like the one I handled previously. As with that one, the mei and nengo were on the "wrong" sides of the tang.

Almost certainly non-traditional Showato from WWII. I can see that very likely could be SUKEGAWA though. Especially considering how slanted the MITSU character is. Just found this from the forum. I also found a few other swords online from "Sukegawa Sadamitsu", but not much information is out there. However, I'm pretty sure that's it! Thanks so much! I wasn't even considering that character.

Maybe Suke Toshi? 祐 利

All I can see so far is that it probably starts with 備 前 BIZEN. It looks like there are two characters after that before the 住 JU character, and then the name. I'll give it another look when I get back from lunch. EDIT: looks like it may not start with Bizen, but with 備 州 長 船 住 - BISHU OSAFUNE JU. The 州 and 長 are somewhat overlapping.

Another Shin-Gunto from the back catalog. The Mei definitely ends with 貞光 - SADA MITSU, but the two before that, I'm a bit lost on. 州 or 川 (Gawa/Kawa) would be the one before the name, but the first character? No idea. I assumed it was a province, but it doesn't look like any of the ones I have seen. So, second guess is that it's a name. Thanks for any help!

That is interesting definitely. The style of the Mei on both examples does look relatively similar, as well as the shape of the tang, including the profile of the Nakago-jiri. I do recall it having a nice Hamon. It sold quite some time ago, back when I was just starting to be able to read Nengo, due to a year of Japanese in college. Sadly we didn't get any pictures of the full blade, and with flash photography getting the hamon is difficult. We did get this picture however:

I recall it looking to have been oiled top to bottom. Unfortunately I can find no other examples from this smith to compare it to.

AH!!!! I was going by this chart from Japanese sword index, which has a totally different looking character. That may explain why I was so confused. Thank you so much.

Going to have to do some experimentation, that's for sure.

Oh man. I completely missed that. At least I got the practice! I guess they are referencing this page on the Japanese sword index: http://www.japaneseswordindex.com/yoshmich.htm That is, unfortunately don't know nearly enough to make any assessment of the directly the "dot" is pointing.

Another one from the vaults I suppose. Going back and translating past swords I've seen for translation practice. Back then I figured I would never be able to translate Japanese on tangs. Anyway, this wakizashi is signed 備州 長船 秀景 - BISHU OSAFUNE HIDEKAGE. I'm fairly confident on that. The other side, as far as I can tell, reads 享 徳 二 年 二 月 for the Kyou-toku era. However that first character doesn't look quite how it should. I also looked at all the other era names with 徳 as the second character, and it doesn't quite match those either. I have even considered it might be the "Northern Court" nengo 至徳 SHI-TOKU - 1384.

守 吉 道 - KAMI YOSHI MICHI is the last three characters. Still working on the earlier kanji. The first two look like 州 SHU or 川 GAWA, and then 良 YOSHI. Not sure on either of those.

Nice! Any idea what they used to fill in the mei like that? Chalk dust? Our photographer has been tearing her hair out trying to get good mei pictures with flash photography on some tangs.

It does definitely look interesting! I just wish it was in better polish. The kissaki is 3 / 7.6cm inches long. Without the yokote, I wouldn't be able to tell where it started at all. The transition is seamless.

Definitely have handled a few, and often they still have a full length scabbard.

Wow. That's definitely interesting. Is it opaque or translucent? There are some U.S. knives that came with a protective coating, that over time turned yellow, making the blade look gold. Mainly saw it on Collins Machetes. See something new every day here!