Xander Chia

Looks like 以群水鋼. http://ohmura-study.net/208.html

Hi Mark, welcome to the board! Before I attempt to answer your questions, I would like to preface that these are my own opinions (that of a beginner) and you should wait for others to chime in. Answer 1: You will find differing opinions on this matter. I will let the more experienced members of the board answer this one. Answer 2: The WW2 mounts/koshirae can be referred to as gunto koshirae and there are several variants. It is fine to mount gunto in traditional koshirae. For long term storage it would be best to leave them in shirasaya. The latter provides better protection from the elements. Where do you usually look for nihonto? You should be able to find gunto in their original mountings within the USD3k-5k range with no issues. This forum has quite a number of links to commercial sites. Under the drop down menu, go to Nihonto Info > Links.

But why would rust only start to form after 180 days?

I would assume that the acid would have been wiped away or at least neutralised by this point no? “Wipe off old oil using tissues and .99 isopropyl, then use tissues and Kurobara oil to coat the blade.”, “Did not change anything to my maintenance schedule.”

Appears to be 義明, Yoshiaki. Possibly Mishina Yoshiaki? Would wait for someone more experienced and reliable to confirm this. Showa era. Are there any other stamps?

Looks like it.

Possibly 九行?

Is this the page you’re looking for? https://www.sho-shin.com/tokai8.htm

Thanks Collin. While I do like the ones I currently have I sometimes find others I’m more interested in.

I’m not gonna lie I have no idea if they’re mass produced or unique items. Neither do I know when they were made. At which point in time does an item become ‘second hand’ rather than ‘vintage’? Here’s a bowl I got last year.

Hello, I would like to ask if being second hand/used affects the value of contemporary items like bowls, cups and pots. And by how much. I purchased a few items and am wondering if the lower prices of second hand items were worth it. Thanks.

Well considering how that was their main(only?) form of producing steel viable for swords, I guess there just was.

I’m not sure if Osafune had a centralised tatara furnace for its smiths or they had to each make their own oroshigane. I don’t know what qualifies as good but here’s a thread I started a couple years back on the topic of tanahagane: I want to clarify that the analysed tamahagane in the thread are from NBTHK’s Nittoho Tatara. The composition of tamahagane from the koto period would most likely be different. As to whether they used recycled metals? That I’m unsure of.

Oops, “吉” seems to be correct, not “亥”. The diagonal line representing a vertical really threw me off.

I think “東野秀亥” is someone’s name. “Higashino” should be the surname, don’t know the rest. “別府市”should be Beppu, a city in Kyushu. That’s all I got, sorry.