Lareon

No need to apologise, I love seeing the updates in our collective knowledge. 

12 hours ago, Kiipu said:

@Lareon If still at hand, I have some technical questions about your Type 95.   Looking at the pictures of the ferrule, the part that has the arsenal symbol and company logo on it, it seems it is made of a silver colored alloy.  In addition, there seems to be a copper color that has worn off.

1.  What is the ferrule made of?  Is it magnetic?

2.  The copper color seen on the ferrule, is it paint or copper plated?

 

Attention: @Stegel

Taking a look at it now,

1. The bulk of the ferrule isn't magnetic, there's some slight magnetism near the latch but i think it's from where it joins. As for material, I'm unsure, I guess aluminium with plated copper
2. I'm pretty sure it's plated .

Mine only seems to have the two layers  (the difference in colour on the bottom image is the reflection.
 

@Kiipu So I've popped off the tsuka and after close inspection it does have the m/w mark.

Very small beneath the 250.

Also every seppa fuchi even retaining clip had the 250 too

27 minutes ago, Kiipu said:

@Lareon What is the date of this Yoshiharu with the number 250?

 

Edit: Change of direction on this as I located your other post which shows the other side of the tang.  Instead, my question is are there any M inspection marks on either side of the tang?

WW2 Era Tang translation help

I'll have the blade in hand on Saturday so will check for you then. From memory I do not remember it having any other stamps though, I went through my photos of the sword and didn't see any so ill take another look saturday

1 hour ago, Unknown said:

In the condition this blade is, approximately how much is worth?

you need to post more photos of the entire blade, but from what i can see it looks in bad condition

Well, I got round to taking some photos of the sword yesterday and while the Hamon is very hard to see generally, I managed to get some good angles with some studio lights where I could see it properly. Now that I had time to sit and look over it properly I noticed some things I hadn't before. 
The Hamon is actually konote gashiwa quite distinctly.

The condition the sword is in, isn't the best. there's a fair few scratches on the blade and a little bit of spidering. 
Threw in a few pictures of the gunto mounts it's in; as they are high quality.
The habaki moves a little bit (1cm) but is slightly damaged on the inside and doesn't slide off the nakago anymore or i would of taken photos with it off.
 

Forgot to say the hada is ko-mokume but is quite hard to see.

@SteveM yes I could see that fitting. I'll take some photos as best as I can on Sunday. To add to these.

Hi All,

I picked up an interesting Gunto a while back and am just getting round to spending some time examining and studying it. The mounts are quite interesting in themselves but the Nakago is O-Suriage tachi mei and only part of the signature remains.

The date is Shōchō 1428 so early Muromachi.
so the date i've got 

Shōchō Gannen   

I can't make out the last kanji on the date maybe Roku ??  Actually it's Hachi 

The signature i've got

Bishû
Osafune

and now i can't quite make out the last kanji again 

The sword has a ko-notare hamon 
the sori is 3cm 

Nagasa is 60cm
Total length including the nakago is 76cm  (16cm nakago)
There is no yokote
I need to take some photos of the blade itself, it's out of polish and the hamon is very faint, the hada is hard to see but i will try and pick it up.

any suggestions on a potential smith? I will add pictures of the blade this weekend when i have it hand again

I meant id usually see it as a negative but in this case I didn't thus I bought it

On 8/29/2022 at 3:20 AM, Bruce Pennington said:

Tony, any idea what the item on the other end of the sakura is?  Almost looks like a kabuto or a bell?

Apologies for the late reply Bruce! 

yes it's a small adornment that looks to be shaped like a kabuto. That was how it was sold .  I've been away for about a month and when I'm back I'll take some photos of it with my camera. 
I've never seen anything like it before which usually gives me a pause (in a negative way) the whole sword actually was interesting. the blade is in poor polish and from 1428 but the signature is quite hard to read as it's partially lost (O-Suriage) the date is readable though. the Saya had been wrapped in leather cord too which is quite brittle so i haven't handled it too much.
I've included a photo. I wont be home to look at it for a couple of weeks so i'll just use this one for now

I've got this Mon here. If kanji I think it's 

Takeuchi ?

Seems to be a common surname

10 hours ago, PNSSHOGUN said:

This Koshirae was owned by Prince Asaka Yasuhiko, each of the seppa had the Imperial crest.

 

 

 

that really is mint condition

Lovely koshirae there. Really nice

On 8/4/2022 at 11:23 AM, Shugyosha said:

Hi Tony,

It may just be the angles of the photographs but to me the one of the whole blade with the tsuka off looks like a different blade to the one in the other photos. 
 

What’s the length of the kissaki? It seems like an extended chu kissaki in some photos  but not in others. 

I think it's the mixture of different camera focal lengths is making the size appear to elongate on the kissaki.

The kissaki is 3.5cm long and 1.5cm from the geometric tip of the yokote to the back of the sword.

I've taken a few more from that side just quickly with my phone as the light conditions are good to bring out the hamon

Also got the boshi here

That's really interesting I've never seen one removed with the pin behind.

I picked up a blade a while back. Mumei attributed Shinto period.

Thought I'd share and get people's opinions.

Nakago 13cm

Sori 2cm

Nagasa 48cm

Motohaba 3cm

A Wakizashi I got recently. 

Has a single bo-hi on one side and a double bo-hi on the other side.

Maybe a jizo boshi? 

Some real lovely peaks in the hamon.

35.5cm long blade

12.5cm nakago.

Sori about 1cm

Motohaba about 3.3cm

Hi Bruce. Yeah I'm in the thread you linked with a few examples from older styles I've tried before. I've been trying a new style with the dark photography. I guess it doesn't look so good if you're pointing me towards other styles!

I use a similar technique to the one you posted for the actual blade itself. Only diffuse lights and long exposure that works well and pulls out the blade details. 

The style I used in these is purposely dark but maybe it isn't doing it and looks bad.

I will experiment more!

Thought I'd share a Mantetsu I picked up earlier this year. It was one that I had some issues importing but it's in my possession now.

Thought it would be a good opportunity to get the camera out and take some photos.

The blade is almost perfect, the mounts have some scratches and a dent. Overall nice and replaces my older Mantetsu that was in poor condition .

@Bruce Pennington

Well thank you all for the comments and opinions! I will do some more reading and expanding my knowledge. I like the sword whether it is gimei or not.

Cheers all

Measurements

Nagasa 61.6cm

Nakago 15.5cm

Kissaki 3cm

Yokote 1.5cm

Sori 2.5cm

A fair few tobiyaki

struggling to see the exact boshi shape

(P.s the sword isn't resting on the rug. It's on a sword pillow)

Cheers Paul

Nagasa is 61.6cm long. I'll get it out to measure more tomorrow and update.

Hi guys,

Thought I'd share something I got fairly recently.

I picked it up in an auction with the mei mistranslated. 

I don't know if it's gimei or not. The hamon is mostly what seems to be choji gunome but starts on one side as suguha.

I know a large percentage of the Tadayoshi work is suguha but also that most of the gimei Tadayoshi are suguha too.

I don't know the generation or age.

It has very faint nie.

What are peoples opinion's on this one?

The Mon itself on this isn't anywhere strange but there is another addition to the end that is described as a representation of a kabuto.

Post war addition or something period?

53 minutes ago, Katsujinken said:

Hi Tony —

 

A kirikomi is not a fault at all, and many are preserved in high level swords with top level papers.

 

But a lost boshi can be a dealbreaker if the blade is not extremely special and important, as others noted.

yes the kirikomi is not really a fault, the boshi is very well hidden, I think I can see it sometimes but other times not at all i showed it to a polisher here in the uk and they thought it was most likely lost and would need a window made to check. 
I love the sword though and will be sending it to Japan for polish and shinsa no matter what. 

The results; who knows, but it's worthy of restoration and one I wont be parting with so I don't care about value.