Mark Millman

Folks, Thanks to all of you who provided information about this blade's origin and history; its quality is (as you can tell from my initial post) an unexpected bonus. I greatly appreciate your kind help. Best, Mark Millman

Dear Stephen, Regrettably, there are unavoidable constraints involved. Namely, the floor is the only place in my apartment where even mediocre photography of sword-sized items can be done. Also, do not practitioners of JSA place their swords on the floors of their dojos? Clearly, there is some question of context. Best, Mark Millman

Dear PNSSHOGUN, I've tried to attach 3-MB versions of the nakago images to this post, but the site seems to automatically reduce their size to 85 kB, despite the implication of the attachment instructions (which say that a post can have a maximum of 6.75 MB of attachments, with a maximum single-file size of over 6 MB). If you'd like to see higher-resolution photos, please PM me with an e-mail address to which I can send them. Also, if you'd like to have other images, you'll have to tell me what to shoot. I was only concerned with getting clear and legible photos of the inscription in these pictures. Best, Mark

Dear Shamsy, Thank you for your concern. Does linoleum not count as a soft material? You'll note that in the other shots, the blade remains in the scabbard. Best, Mark

Folks, I have what I believe to be a gunto with factory-made blade (of the 1.200-per-year variety, rather than an elite artisan's 2-per-year or a mass-production factory's 12,000-per-year) with a marked nakago. It's been suggested that the blade may be better than I think it is; the person making this suggestion recommended I ask for opinions here. I note that he did not tell me his reasons for thinking it's a better blade than I think it is. He only said, "This has many signs to me that it might be of a higher quality . . . ". I've attached photos, in particular of the inscription on the tang. It seems to me that it's been cut with a chisel rather than engraved, which to me suggests that this blade is no better than I think; but I'll appreciate any insights you have to offer. Also, in addition to some old corrosion the blade appears to have been badly polished, so that there are fine scratches along its length and the hamon that I'd otherwise expect to see is not visible; so I'm afraid that you're not likely to get many clues there. If these images don't show enough detail, please feel free to ask for higher-resolution ones . . . though those are too big to post more than a couple here, so I'll probably have to e-mail them to you. Thanks in advance for any help you can offer. Best, Mark Millman