loiner1965

many happy returns brian

Henry, might be better to open a new topic on this question. Might get better exposure than buried in another thread with a dog turd. :D think we better separate you and guido ted as lately you two have been on top form with these quirky comments lol

if its in reasonable polish he can see if the blade as grain / hada. likewise if the hamon is oil or water quenched.....that sword on ebay is in poor polish but looks to be of poor quality by the pictures

just a province thats all.....you can still get a showato which is handmade but i do not want to open that old chestnut again lol

stephen do you have a picture of the blade to show us why you are getting exited about this smith.....love to see it

yep its showa / gifu stamp

stephen you may be getting mixed up with my kanemune sword as i thought it was the north china railway stamp as kanemune did do a few of those but you rightly told me it was his kao of the flaming ball..........viewtopic.php?f=9&t=4917 kanemune does seem to cause a few headaches :D

pm you about pics

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=5982 just missed one

guido and ted are getting like the evil twins lately lol.....they are ofcourse perfectly correct in what they say and you rich are correct also in fitting up a valuable sword.....unfortunately they are no short cuts in this game and always expensive......best only make one mistake and learn from it

http://www.h4.dion.ne.jp/~t-ohmura/gunto_002.htm look on here mate as it will tell you everything you need to know about gunto

stefan, the quest of learning continues endlessly in nihonto as our learned friends have said....enjoy your blade for what it is as and learn as much as you can from it then move on towards your next piece knowing that you will be better prepared....my first piece was an old kamakura wakizashi with thrown together koshirae which i thought was the dogs danglies, admittedly i only paid £100 for back in 1981 and sold a few years back in the same guise but 15x its price....so every cloud as a silver lining but knowledge is the deciding factor. guildo and ted and many others on this forum have spent many years of hard work studying and learning to finally achieve where they are today and they advice is paramount, so next time you are in a position to purchase another blade ask for their advice it costs nothing but the answer you will receive is invaluable.

no flies on guido ted..........

interesting question but i am afraid i do not know the answer but in comparison in europe in the middle ages a fully suited knight would be like purchasing a house in todays standards, so lets say a full suit of armour would be in the region of £100,000 plus in todays terms

as per my pm and what grey said you need to dry out the water thats under the rust..you could spray with wd which would disperce the water but i would gently use a heat source such as a ladies hair dryer from a safe distance.........once dry we need to stop the rust from being active so oil the blade after you taken the pictures of the tang and blade....but do not oil the tang everytime as we need only stop the rust and not to alter the patina etc....

as my friend stephen says we need to see the tang and please be careful in removing the tsuka....if you do not know then leave it or take it to someone who can help you. best to oil the blade until we can proceed further . first inpressions i would say its a cut down wakizashi remounted but i will wait to the jury returns

collectors will avoid swords with hagire unless they are by the top historical smiths as they can easily break due to the stress fracture but in all fairness are you going to use the sword in battle or bamboo cutting......no it will be wall mounted and used for display porposes only

south china railway sword i believe and i think the little stamp indicates it was made in the 1930s.....if so then it is quite rare

post a pic please of your kanemune mei and i will compare it with mine....can you also list its measurements and possibly weight....as george as rightly said kanemune is a tricky smith to determine which steel he used or which mei he signed his swords......i have a kanetoshi which i believe kanemune signed

the sword should be saved if at all possible.....it may be a showato but non the less to me its still a work of art.........and my hobby :D

maybe kanenami

humbug.......i was the first to post on here explaining to the poster that it was 100% chinese but i must have not pressed enter.....anyway sorry to say but agree with the other guys

sorry to be the bearer of bad news but the forging pattern on the blade looks to me like a chinese copy.....the fittings are deffinately copies....sorry

peter is a really good man like many on here and you will have no worries whats so ever in buying from them.....please dont buy anything chinese but buy from here where you know it will be nihonto

it will be interesting to watch this on ebay james...please post item number so we can all watch.....many of the china railway swords were made by fukumoto kanemune of whom i have 2 swords by....also no winged wheel but they do have kao / kokuin on.