waljamada

Thank you Jake, got my two orange and love them! You've helped me upgrade my nihonto accoutrements.

I recognize that sword actually. I thought the blade had a great choji style hamon with some other cool features and looked a meaty blade. Fittings are mostly newer with some edo menuki/tsuba and I do like leather ito tsukas so overall its still a sleek koshirae in my opinion. Like others mentioned the mei was likely removed because it had a gimei signature and then was attributed with the white papers to the different smith. Would possibly (probably?) paper now as a different smith, but one would hope even with white papers it was a solid educated guess. A member here told me they didn't think it was the smith (i cant remember who it was atteibuted to) in the kicho papers.

A "provenance" blade really is another level of cool. Have one type 98 with a name carved on the tsuba but I don't think ill ever be able to attribute it to any individual.

Tom, this story reminded me of a collector I met who I know found some great swords that has been collecting since the 70's. I visited him and saw so...so....soooo very many swords. I call him sometimes just to talk and next time I ring him I'll ask him for some greatest finds compilation and share it here with his permission. Always wanted to film an interview with him....I'll see if he'd be interested.

This line from that article was pure gold: "That friend offered him $300. The new owner figured it was worth far more than that. So he lost a friend and took it to a sword show." I wonder what problems it caused the new Japanese owner... Also found this compilation of Jim's articles on Ray's site: https://swordsofjapan.com/nihonto-library/jim-kurrasch-articles/

Thank you, I appreciate the attempt! My search goes on!

DickH, no need to feel you have to defend yourself personally. Like I said it's not personal and this discussion has been done a hundred times over on these forums. The stance is to protect blades from people attempting polishes that destroy a blades potential future preservation. The guys who have been around long enough have seen many blades ruined by such attempts, and that hurts the nihonto heart. Furthermore, in the theme of the post topic, if a true treasure is found on ebay it's critical they go into the right hands for polishing/preservation. If im being open, I personally feel If you know people who can bring that specific sword back to life with a solid degree of quality and go through the effort/expense then I can understand that. I agree it would otherwise most likely be in a sad state for the rest of its life. But like I wrote, it's not personal and posts on amateur/hobbyists polishing nihonto will get resistance for good reasons. It was just a heads up.

DickH, found a nice little article that briefly mentions becoming a togishi (up to 10 years training, its a serious endeavor) and goes into traditional Japanese blade polishing. https://www.japanaccents.com/swords/Japanese-sword-polishing Will give you a bit of info on how it is done which is very intricate. It's not about economics but simply very specific knowledge, skills, techniques and hard earned experience in traditional nihonto passed down from generations of dedicated artisans. It really is very different than polishing a mill steel blade and the nihonto community wishes to see the blades handled the best way possible. It's also not personal towards your friends abilities or a professional/hobby bias; but an important protective goal in the nihonto field/community for these historical/art nihonto pieces.

DickH, this is just a general heads up and explanation for resistance you will feel about a project like yours. This is the wrong place for discussing such a project because the consensus here amongst scholars and collectors is that any nihonto should not be addressed/polished by non-professionals and this is held for a huge variety of reasons. There is an art to polishing hence using formally trained togishi (which takes years and years) and this art of polishing would never include grinding for example. Nihonto are not the same as working on mill steel swords which I'm sure you know and this standard is one to preserve and give utmost respect to the art, craft, culture of nihonto and health of the history in each blade. It is not personal towards you but actions against those specific notions in nihonto.

Here is the blade for the nakago at the top with description. Seems the square mekugi ana did make some appearances for a semi-wide period of time.

Here's a few of my ebay blade finds, two hozons (A Koto Fuyuhiro and Sue Tegai) and a toku hozon (super long mei: Bitchu no Kuni Matsuyama ju Akamatsu Kotobuki Minamoto Ujisada Saku Feb 1864) included. Also not pictured is a hozon Kashu Iehira, a Koa Isshin Mantetsu and some others. No national treasures, just personal ones. Wish I could add to the great discoveries list, perhaps one day.

Little did I know the reveal would show the kind of Katana I'm hunting! A naginata-hi! Nice my friend, love the blade and congratulations on acquiring a blade with some cool features.

Bump. Still able to purchase one more blade currently so maybe this old thread can spark something? Still questing for odd in a good way, can be horimono, bohi, sori, naganata-hi and even better with an o-kissaki. Katana length, shinshinto and earlier.

That last picture makes me want to see the rest of thr blade

Interesting, thank you for the education everyone. It was my first time running into it and glad to hear the historical contexts of it. Anyone with some unique mekugi-ana please post. That tanto's history has give it a pattern and design of its own.

Ever seen a square mekugi ana? Wondering if this was done for any specific reason? Perhaps a thing done during a certain period...for....reasons? Just a custom mekugi ana for a customer that wanted a square mekugi? Either way, below is the example I came across:

Yes, Brandon and I worked out a deal. Interesting that both the kanemoto and Akihisa only have the one mekugi ana. Maybe that's common for that specific make of the type 3? Both those do seem to have a koshirae made from the same outfit.

I bought my sword from a user on this site so its been seen before but it's a 1943 Hiromasa Star Stamped blade. I'll attach the photos the seller originally took.

I really like the photos, fo a great job putting the entire blade in a strong focus, the colors look both strong yet natural and the details really come through. I've casually tried and have good cameras but left frustrated. Have no idea what lense to use, but I feel like I need something under 15mm and maybe a macro type, think I need actual lights. Basically I learned in my casual go that I'm missing some pieces somewhere. Either way, very well done!

Would love to hear about the great finds too...hope more stories/examples come out of the woodwork. I bought the vast majority of my blades off ebay and I consider myself to have done well with the blades and what I paid. So I had some "great to me" finds but nothing that would make a dent in the Nihonto world at large which is the kinds of stories I believe you're looking for. I'd even love to hear some garage sale great finds. I would wager most of those tales would come from the 60's, 70's and 80's with a substantial taper down throughout the 90's and finally into the near nothings in the 2000's. Always described ebay as the world's largest garage sale and I actually would find those stories even more intriguing as it'sso very public, open to so many other knowledgeable buyers; if you got one that way, even more power to you!

Not sure what i think about the prototype designations though but yours is a real match to this one.

Thats a beautiful blade and the koshirae is in great shape! Love the hamon. I just got one of these Type 3s with the brass fittings as well. Star stamped blade but the tsuka ito is different as it's cloth and the saya has a kind of laquered wrap around it. These set ups really do the utilitarian job of being a solid robust set up with a very much simplified design.

Charles, just called to buy the Ategi-Zuchi kit. Exactly what I needed. Also just learned Tim Pepin the man behind samuraisword.com lives in my state. So double thank you!

I'm also dealing with this where my Toku Hozon blade is almost impossible to get out of the shirasaya handle. I was hoping to figure out some kind of technique to help with this but haven't yet. Right now I have to put on gloves, wrap a microfiber towel around the blade and pull...hard....with the pointy and sharp bits kind of under my arm...makes me worried ill hurt it everytime I have to clean it. Mind sharing that video you found? I feel like I need a little wedge thingy to use as a fulcrum under the habaki but it's pure silver and I don't want to hurt that either...

I passed on the blade. Positive it's showato even with no other stamps or date but still was a cool blade with wonderful condition matching number mounts and 27 5" nagasa (seller's measurement). If anyone wants it the store name is Military Connections in South Milwaukee, WI.