Matsunoki

Be very careful wrapping elastic (or do you mean rubber?) around metal. If the habaki is silver it will react very badly to the rubber band and can be badly corroded and marked fairly quickly. Silver can turn black with pitting.

Hello George i think it’s worth remembering that a great many Samurai were “poor”. Being a Samurai did not equate to immediate wealth….often quite the opposite. The fine koshirae and armours that we see in films/exhibitions/books etc were in reality owned and worn by the very small minority of those that enjoyed a high rank and/or considerable wealth. It follows therefore that many koshirae, in fact the vast majority, appear to be of modest quality sometimes assembled from a variety of mis-matched pieces. Also even a nice set of fittings (especially iron) can look pretty ordinary if neglected in a shed for more than 100 years. ….and these menuki are metal, most likely copper-as others have already said.

Alex, you have far more stamina than me. I just look at the pictures……but not very often🙂

Alex, more likely black paint! Someone’s had the rattle can out I reckon. ☹️

Re the workmanship…..I think it stands a very good chance of being a shiremono ie mass produced using a cheap pressing as the face plate that is then multipatinted to mimic true mixed metal. Somehow it just doesn’t look “right” and it lacks the sharpness of detail that an inlaid piece would have. ………although that could be the image giving the wrong impression. Imo it does not look Goto and the Mei is terribly cut. You can also see the plating wearing off in several areas and very loosely applied gilding. A possible way to tell is to insert your fingernail into the kogatana opening and feel for a folded over front edge on the faceplate. A proper kozuka face plate is thick and smooth on its reverse, a shiremono will usually have the front edge curved over to look like a thicker plate. Just an opinion, could be wrong.

I think the plant depicted is Heliconia Rostrata…..looks modern Japanese to me.

You could say that about every iron tsuba, thankfully the Japanese were not put off by a lot of work….indeed they took great pride in it. Is there anything actually visible that leads you to believe it is cast?

Maybe it’s a blade where the smith has forged differential steels in layers to give this effect, similar to Sendai Kunikane?

Looks like a nice quality single case sleeve inro….does it have an inner case that slides out from the top? (Often done in silver) Looks like a sentoku type metal piece with silver and shakudo (?) inlay

How about when humidity is 70%+ eg Japan and many other locations? Also how about answering my question…..if it is to be avoided why do the Japanese continue to use it….if it is “no longer an option”? (In your opinion?)

So, please explain why the Japanese (including respected togishi) are using it freely and liberally on many extremely important blades/collections (as per a fairly recent documentary on NHK TV) Are you saying they don’t know what they are doing?

That was probably the auctioneers staff/photographer!? They looked quite fresh. Still at least I don’t have the stress of wondering whether it would ever get to me - or not.

Here is a link to the sword. It was sold today for £3380 including buyers premium. I didn’t buy it. Too much to gamble when you haven’t handled the blade. The images raised a few question marks (rust pitting? Hadaware, strange marks in the hamon, staining and the unresolved question re the Mei.) https://www.the-sale...03-9295-b1b201045a69

Just for info, the link to Facebook that you have provided does not work on my iPhone. I get a message saying it doesn’t exist.

Confused. Are you saying you’ve bought a fake Kai Gunto but want to turn it into a fake Shingunto? Why not just buy a fake Shingunto?

Interested to hear why you think that.

I’d go hako-gunome.

Long barrel but looks small bore judging from the final section. Gingal is usually on a swivel/mount of some sort because of size. Early snipers?

Hi, no I didn’t. I’m not on Facebook.

Thanks again John. So, what do we conclude from this….two totally different calligraphy styles (Slough/ricecracker vs the ones in this thread) both purporting to be the same smith? The ones John shows us above are spot on for the one I show…..and totally different to Slough/ricecracker. Confusing or what?

Thanks John. That’s an almost exact match. Where did you find that one? If the one in your image is right then the one I’m looking at is also right. But it is so different to the one on Ricecracker and Slough.

The one on Ricecracker is the actual one in Sloughs book and the Mei is very different to the one I’m showing in this thread. However the characteristics of this sword are correct for this smith …..Yamato, masame and suguha.

Hi Volker The images above are all I have at the moment. The Yasurimei are visible. Best I can do right now. C.

Hi Geraint, I was told by Ford many years ago that good quality older “real” shakudo would re-patinated itself if left alone and your tsuba proves it.

@Bruce Pennington Thanks Bruce. Kind of you. I’m going to have a cup of tea and ponder all that🙂