itsoverthere

Thanks for the link Franco and, Donald, I'll bear that in mind next time I do battle in the living room. But seriously what I was actually referring to is the fact that I believed the nakago should be longer. I've actually owned a shorter Wak than this (around 37cm) but the nakago was quite a lot longer. I always thought that nakago length was directly related to the balance of the blade and how much power the user would be able to exert in cutting (like leverage I suppose). Thus, my point was that although it has quite a deep sori, I thought the short nakago would mean that it was far from being optimised for use as a weapon. I realise these blades are now regarded solely as art but we can all appreciate that this wasn't always so.

Erm.... I'm not sure if people like to comment on the prices of other peoples' sales but I think (although please bare in mind that I'm a novice myself) you'll find that if you look around you can do better for your money. Many people would - wisely - advise you to wait and either save for something that can be properly appreciated or at least shop around and be patient. Even if your money's burning a hole you should still look around. A quick scan of flEabay reveals a papered blade, with not too much time left, at little more than your man's asking for his rusty thing and while I am NOT specifically saying you should go for that instead, you should know that there are and will continue to be better alternatives (if you just want to get your hands on something) than a "fixer-upper". You should also bear in mind that you won't be able to do it up yourself and to get something in that condition restored would cost you a lot more than you'll pay for the blade so my advice would be to forget about re-doing yourself. It's also worth being aware that there aren't a lot of sleeping bargains to be had. In my experience (which is very limited) sellers generally know what they're selling (even or especially when they pretend not to) and there are many eyes watching the things that are worth watching. Still. There are nice things to be had and whatever does it for you is OK I guess. Just steer clear of the fixer uppers til you really know what you're doing (which I admit, I still don't). Hope that's useful.

Hi Grey, Fair enough, don't I feel stupid. I've gotta be honest and say that I haven't had many in my hands but all those I have seen had longer nakagos, and having read somewhere about a boy's day sword I started imagining. Is this not rather short though? and would that not make it quite impracticle? Cheers

Ok, I'm just putting a few more on. Hopefully they're relevant to my question.

OK, here's one with the measurements on it.

Hello all, I have a sword which I have often wondered about due to its dimensions. To clarify: the Nagasa is 44cm exactly; it is 2.4cm across between the machi and 1.6cm at the yokote; it is 0.6cm wide at the mune machi and widens from 0.4 to 0.5cm towards the tip; the sori is almost 1.8cm; but the thing that makes me wonder the most is the fact that from the mune machi to the very tip of the nakago is only 10.9cm which is not much with the habaki on (8.7cm). I was originally led to believe that the blade was suriage but over the course of many close inspections I have come to believe that this cannot be the case and am therefore left with the conclusion that it must have originally been made with this rather short nakago. At first I wondered if this might be explained by it being a mass produced blade as it appears (to me, but that doesn't really mean much to be honest) to be, possibly, from very late Koto or early Shinto (most probably the latter) but the quality seems to be ok at least (not that I would really know though) and I was then left questioning if it was simply made for someone with small hands? I wondered also if the fairly strong sori might support this idea? I, personally, have never seen a boy's day sword but I am now wondering if this might be the answer. Might anyone have any idea whether or not these blades have certain tell-tale dimensions or aspects that might explain my blade? Or, if not, might there be anything else that does explain the rather peculiar (and probably quite impractical) dimensions of my blade? I'd be extremely interested in any thoughts or suggestions. Cheers

Hi, Here's a couple of hada pics for people to look at. It looks quite good to me. It may be worth mentioning that an attempt has also been made to write a date, in the same messy style as the signature. As Jean has pointed out, such a thing is unlikely to have added any value to the piece which once again raises the question of why.

Hi Mark, Yeah, that's kinda what I thought. I've seen papered Sukesada's and I gotta say the signatures didn't look like the one I posted above. The blade itself looks fairly nice (see below) but I would describe the mei as a little sketchy.

Hi guys, Sorry, I should have seen that coming. Here's a better pic.

Hi all, I hope I'm not confused by something that should be obvious here but I'm wondering about this mei. I'm told it says Sukesada but it doesn't look so good to me - am I missing something? Can anyone tell more definately what it says? If so might it offer any indication of age? I would have thought that the yasurime and the nakago edges would rule out great age but again I could be wrong.

Oh ok, Fair enough.

Hi all, I was watching this piece on Ebay but didn't bid as I didn't really think I had enough spare cash. http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... 0336019917 I was rather surprised (and rather annoyed at myself for not bidding) when i saw what it went for. Am I right in thinking that someone just got themselves a damn good deal or is there something I missed? Regards,

Hmmm, I don't know. What little can be seen of the yasurime appears to be katte-sagari. Would that really be problematic for a Mino-den attribution?

That may actually be better if I'm going to have to wait a while. Thanks.

Here's a better pic of the nakago taken with more light. There are more pics of the blade in the post "New acquisition. Thoughts or comments please" and maybe now it may actually make sense if the two seperate posts were brought together but I didn't really want to post the set of pics twice. Anyway, my camera is something less than spectacular but hopefully this picture is more revealing.

Guido, That's interesting because when I was considering the mei itself there did seem to be a possiblity that it could be the Kanenori who worked in Echigo during the Keicho period (kan1883). How likely this is I don't know but keicho-suraige might perhaps support such a theory? Regards, Adam

Hi Grey, Thanks, that's a good suggestion. I was aware of the danger but until now wasn't sure what to do about it. I'll get on that now. Regards,

and some more

Hi all, I recently acquired this wakizashi and thought I'd post some pics for comment. I actually posted elsewhere (translation assistance) regarding the nicely written sayagaki but thought that this is more general discussion. It is a Mino-den blade with a length of 43.9 cm and a sori of 1.6 cm. As mentioned elsewhere the sayagaki has it as suriage which is certainly not obvious. As for the mei I think it could be smith Kan1883 but I'm sure someone else will know better. Thus, any thoughts or comments are welcome. I'm not in danger of becoming a professional photographer in the near future but I think these pics are fairly clear. Also the shirasaya tsuka has disappeared which is not good news and I was hoping someone may be able to suggest a place where I could have another made, bearing in mind that I am in Germany. Regards, Adam

Hi Guido, Here's a pic of the nakago. Of course others may see more in this than I but from what I can tell (mei aside) the blade appears to be a Mino-den piece in fairly good polish. Please, anyone, share any thoughts you may have. I will actually post some pics of the blade a bit later. Regards, Adam

Morita san, Many thanks. I suppose this information is what I should expect to be there however it is interesting as to my (albeit untrained) eye, the nakago appears in no way suriage. The shape/size/patina do not suggest it (I don't think). Regards, Adam

Hello all, I'm hoping that again I may be able to ask the assistance of the knowledgeable members of the forum in figuring out what some of this sayagaki text says. I believe that the alleged smith name reads Kanenori but there are some other parts that are, to me, unintelligible. Any thoughts or suggestions would therefore be very greatly appreciated. Regards, Adam

Is this 2 hamon situation that Grey has described a common forging flaw? How is it possible that it exists on one side but not the other? Does anyone know?

The area between has an almost mirror-like reflection (like the cutting edge in the kissaki), and - although not so visible in the picture - is quite distinct from the two areas highlighted. What's particularly strange/interesting, for me, is that there is no such pattern on the other side, which only exhibits a turn-back at the same point as the black line is drawn on this side.

Hi Grey, I find this almost fascinating. I am aware that whatever it is I'm looking at is most probably highly undesirable but still I find it interesting. There was certainly no visible opening and yet there appeared to be 2 hamons. I have attached another pic where, in the style of a child's drawing, I have attempted to highlight what it was that aroused this question. Regards, Adam