Surfson

Have followed this thread with a cringe. Jean-Pierre, is Robert Burawoy still in business? I had a great visit with him decades ago and saw everything he had in his shop. Very nice guy.

My reasoning in these cases is that if I don't remove the active rust, the rust will mess with the tang even more.

It looks like it has some nice old patina, but it also has a lot of severe active rust. If it were my blade, I would take some horn or ivory to the tang until I got as much of the active rust off that can be readily removed. Although some may disagree, I would then likely rub in a little choji oil on it with a soft cloth to stabilize it.

I don't see the flaw, fatal or otherwise. Can you take a couple of close ups?

Steve, it hinges a bit on the condition of the tang. Was it shortened ever? How is the patina. It looks like it may be original, since the end is not cut straight off, but rather retains what may have been the original shape. But sometimes they will cut them off and round the end, so that is not absolute. It is also helpful if one can tell the patina of the steel in the tang, but the photos are not clear enough. If you can take some better photos of the tang that allow us to see the condition of the steel, the filemarks, the holes (whether drilled or cut by chisel) etc. we might be able to make a better guess.

Not all Mino blades are sanbon sugi (three cedars) style. The gunome can be more regular.

If this sword were mine, I would try some acetone with a soft cloth on it. That dark color may be from old cosmoline or some other kind of grease that was put on it to preserve it. If so, you might find a very attractive blade underneath.

The blade is signed Yokoyama Kaga no suke fujiwara Sukenaga, I think. On the other side it says Bishu Osafune X. if you Google that name, you might find some examples to compare with. It is in the style of Yokoyama Bizen, and I can't say it's bad without study.

Yes. Back in those days, it was not uncommon to put the name of the owner, which I believe you can see on the left.

Looks to me like the type of "crab claw" shapes that you get in later Bizen blades.

As to area, I would suggest that it is Mino school based on the regular "pine tree" shapes in the hamon. If it were mine, I would probably take some ivory (like an old piano key cover - needs to be ivory that is fairly soft and doesn't have inclusions). You can gently rub off the active red rust prior to oiling it. Be very careful not to cut yourself! Nice blade by the way.

No, I have not had to pay import fees, since the swords I have bought have all been over 100 years old.

Jesse, apparently the other bidder did not pay for this sword and it is now yours to buy? As I recall, it went pretty cheaply, not much more than the tsuba is probably worth. This is the one with the Choshu tsuba that is also in the translation section, correct?

Truly horrendous. You would do yourself a service to have a look at the articles about recognizing these fakes that have been posted on NMB.

I enjoyed the video too. I wonder if they would be willing to test some of the swords in my collection? Have any of you seen the "forged in fire" show? Modern knife and swordmakers compete with eachother using cutting tests. https://play.history.com/shows/forged-in-fire/season-1/episode-1

It's clearly Choshu style work, though the patina looks off in the photo.

Just glancing at it, and without any study, it looks likely to be good to me. The tang is unaltered and the sword is of original length it appears. If the signature is good, which I expect, it is worth a few thousands of dollars, depending on the condition, state of the polish and the activity in the hamon. Here is one for sale currently at around $8000 with certification, polish and mounts: https://www.aoijapan.com/katana-tanba-kami-yoshimichi-osaka-3rd-generation/ Your grandpa brought back a good sword it appears, congratulations. It's a great entry into collecting, and probably worth restoration, if the condition requires it. You might find that these weapons are very artful, technically brilliant and very interesting!

There appears to be a fair bit of interesting activity in the hamon and hada, but I am concerned about the finishing work on the tang and would like to see better photos of the tang. You can always ask for a guarantee that it will pass shinsa. For a mumei sword, such a guarantee shouldn't be too hard for a seller to agree to if they believe it to be genuine.

I have bought a few swords from them Dan, and agree with Darrel that it is very easy. You will only have to pay the agreed upon price of the sword, as the shipping, de-registration etc. is all included in the price.

Jean, did you try a screen shot to grab a couple photos of it for our collection here?

What is the total number of tsuba Dale? I assume it is less than 1000 per book. An index of 1000 entries could probably fit on 20 pages double sided, I would think. Of course, the value is that one can look up makers of tsuba in their own collection. It's not an important criticism. In fact, I love the set and will spend many happy hours with it. Cheers, Bob

Dale, I received the two volumes of books on the Tsuba in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and am very pleased with it. I have been going through Volume 1 and will head to Volume 2 next. Even though the artist name is not included for every item, it is for most and the book would benefit from an index. If I can be disciplined enough, I will try to do that for myself.

That looks like the same book that I have, which was purchased a couple of decades ago. I think it cost me about $600-800 even back then. I have used it on occasion, but it's too big to put on the shelf in the vertical orientation.

There are plenty of US collectors and dealers with expertise enough to give you an opinion. An appraisal by one of these folks might be useful for insurance purposes, but it would not be of value to collectors that might buy the sword. Collectors only rely on the Japanese appraisal organizations or the judgement of themselves and trusted friends.

He probably took a stone and ran it along the ha, making it dull. I have seen dealers do this when there are small nail catcher chips. It is easy for a potential buyer to overlook the fact that the ha has been reduced less than one mm.