loiner1965

i presume guns were the major user of western steel but swords were also made from it but i do not know of quantity compared to tamahagne....maybe the more experienced members can throw some more light on this subject and possibly documented western steeled swords pictures

to be honest i do not think you can tell unless you cut the sword in two but i am not an expert in this field.....personally i would say traditionally made with western steel. many shinto / koto made swords were made from inported steel and not tamahagane. Japan been inporting steel from portugal since the 16th century so i believe quick google.......Nanbantetsu or western steel was inported into Japan from portugal and holland during the late 1500s.

not necessary...i have a kanetoshi with a seki stamp and his personal kokuin and that is traditionally made...suguhu hamon with hakikaki boshi and ko-itame hada...nothing as straight forward now in nihonto

i think so too brian....he doesnt show them off right to be sure and i can only see 1 stamp on the fuchi and thats blurry....if they were cosher then i would certainly show off all the arsenal stamps clearly.

his knowledge and dedication to nihonto was second to none in my opinion..although i never him personally he has and always will have my respect.

Agreed, Oei-Bizen is moreover known for a special kind of gunome in nioi deki and also for bo-utsuri and a typical boshi. I suppose the polish was not done in Japan, as otherwise the sword would have been submitted to shinsa. Anyway thanks for the excellent pictures. Eric eric i think he sent it to mr benson as he stated in the previous thread...who ever it was he did a really nic job

nice polish job...did he suggest who the smith was as i am sure the members here thought it was yasumitsu....before pics would be great to see too

http://www.h4.dion.ne.jp/~t-ohmura/gunto_077.htm from the link at the top of the page....wealth of knowlegde to gunto collectors

oooops even this seller got it wrong as well as i....this is the tokyo arsenal stamp and not nagoya. i think they were around 13 different types of stamps that can be on these nco guntos

http://www.swordsales.eu/Japanese-WW2-N ... senal.html here is a real one with the correct stamp....yours as been stamped wrong or its a copy

its a Nagoya arsenal stamp.....machine made i believe

looks like his personel kao....if it is then welcome to a world of pain as finding out any info on kaos, kokuins etc is very frustrating and nearly fruitless

i do not think a wooden sword ( bokken ) could have cause this damage personally but anything is possible....the main problem peter as is will it be repairable and cost effective to be polished

i myself struggle too with reading kanji but i think its a great idea by letting the asker try and decipher it themselves but with a little help by guiding them to known pages etc....it can be so frustrating

joe it might polish but if the heat was fiece and hot enough then like its been said the yakiba will be lost....ask him if they is any cloudiness near the tang

its not a rifle round pete as a 150gn fmj bullet moving at 2700fps can easy penetrate 12mm of steel so i presume its a pistol round as they are only lead and only travelling around 860 to 1000 fps

i can recommend john bolton here in the uk

same mei as mine.....kiyomitsu

before you buy a sword please post a pic and the sellers description and ask members advice as too many times ive seen first time buyers spending 1000s of hard earned money on inferior or gemei blades....they advice is free as long as you appreciate it and say a nice thank you :D

i know you are not guido and all your advice is always honest and accurate and i truely respect you for that....and when i can afford that special sword we all try to buy then i will ask for your advice as your knowledge on nihonto like a few others on here is second to none etc...

here is a link to an identical sword to mine by kanetoshi http://www.japanesesword.com/Images/Swo ... nto14.html guido of course is correct that gendaito with an arsenal stamp especially a seki one is very rare indeed but never the less i am lucky that i have one. they are many members on here who are very experienced in nihonto esp guido and i am priviliged for his reply.

cheers stephen and i deleted mine to save bandwith etc....you are correct in what you are saying but i do not like seeing these work of arts even showato in poor condition and its not alot of money to polish them as it would cost to send to Japan etc....i like to bring them back to their former glory so to speak. even showato guntos are a piece of history that i am interested in and it will sit aside my 16c kiyomitsu :D

just a phone pic of the boshi which shows the hakikaki . its hard to see on the pic but you can see it more clearly with sword in hand....its polished really nicely and made it more presentable as now you can see all the activity in the hada which is very fine indeed....sure i can see chikei along the hamon too.....will do better pics when i have time as i am off camping over the weekend....the sword was polished here in the uk by john bolton who is really well known and i will send him my kanemune too now

just reading the other threads about showato swords being non gendaito apart from a few showa stamped ones....took a chance in having my kanetoshi one polished due to it being well balanced in the hand and much lighter than my kanemune katana and of course the strange kokuin on the tang. not got it back yet but spoken to the polisher who says it does have hakikaki in the boshi and a very fine ko-itame or nashiji hada. will post some pics when it arrives back . according to some sources kanetoshi made medium to high grade gendaito and this one as a seki stamp.......

if you think this kao / hotstamp / kokuin is elusive then see my other post about the one on my kanetoshi katana