MarcoUdin

Believe that is a karabana (chinese flower), it's not based off any real flower I'm aware of. This is what was in Hawley's book

Yes I do believe it's Tokugawa. Kamo Aoi was sacred to Kamo Shrine in Kyoto. In Hawley's family crest book he talks about descendants of Tokugawa clan often did slight variations to the crest while maintaining the hollyhocks as the symbol.

Nice piece Neil, and at an excellent price.

Tried sending PM again, let me know if you got it this time. Messenger was acting a bit funny

Pm sent

Been busy lately and have no idea how I missed this update, but just purchased the 12 month and had no problems. Hopefully turnout has been good.

The value would be affected more if the blade had damage, so I wouldn't worry too much about the saya. As for Bruce I'm sure he doesn't mind me speaking on his behalf, he is only speaking for the blade. Militaria is worth as much as somebody is willing to pay and it's very hard to quantify it. Things like provenance add value when it's during an important battle or area.

Thanks Bruce!

In general, low moisture + low oxygen = black rust.

I'm not an expert, but I believe those black spots are still rust. Usually when moisture gets trapped under the layer of choji oil. Usually becomes black if there is so little moisture that it does not form red rust. Other possibility is saya gets swollen, makes contact with blade causing moisture to transfer from saya to blade. Which then forms rust and stains saya.

https://forums.gunboards.com/#/topics/1160271 No idea who the seller is but if anybody is interested there is the Japanese sword by Kazan Sato for $18 and the samurai sword: an American perspective for $20

Yeah I've been looking, but a lot of them have the tsuka messed up, with either Ito torn or same' torn. The only one I liked was in Europe was a wakizashi and would prefer +25 inches. Apart from that I see a bunch of mumei and would like it to be signed.

Proving to be a bit more difficult than I thought! Anything under 1800?

Please do correct me if I'm wrong, I'm not sure this is relevant at all, but if I recall correctly on arisaka's the 'M' is not an M but 'ro'. And was used for training, I think it was something like educational use only. Nothing to do with the long 'M' which meant military reserves. I'll check later if I can find where I read that, it's been a while.

I aware they can still put, I should've better explained myself. The nakago is completely dark, and most of the SS examples I've seen have only spotting on the nakago and not the entire surface. Apart from that the blade is magnetic and it's my understanding the SS used on navy blades is non-magnetic. I may be entirely wrong, just what I've read and seen. Your opinions/suggestions are more than welcome.