The Blacksmith

Certainly some mouthwatering pieces there. if only I'd won the lottery, as there are some superb okimono there. I particulary like the crabs. I can remember Mike Dean showing me an absolutely stunning Myochin Munesuke okimono crab. It was absolutely exquisite! Thankyou for posting that Colin.

Obviously Brian not preferable to the real thing admittedly (when it is the 'real thing' bought from a reputable dealer that is!). However, I used clove oil on my blades quite a bit, without any problems. I never had any problems with staining either it must be said, though the slightly thicker clove oil did seem to darken slightly the shinogi and the jigane of a Kanezane blade that I had, but that was the only one, and I always put that down to the metal that he used in that particular blade (?) The clove oil that I used was thicker than commercially bought choji oil, but when I applied it I always wiped of most of it afterwards anyway, leaving just a very thin film on the blade, so it never seemed to be a problem. For the record, I cleaned and oiled all my blades twice a year as a matter of routine. How often do other people clean and oil their blades?

That happened when the first series came out as I recall. Prior to the series coming out WWII officers swords where from about £75 upwards. After the series came out the were from about £175! Then came the Great Japan Exhibition at the Royal Academy, and things just snowballed from there....... I just love their fanciful descriptions on that site Alex. I was looking at a couple of items from the Napoleonic War, and the descriptions seemed to detail the entire history of the conflict, almost none of which had anything to do with the object in question!

Choji oil is clove oil, and whilst not quite the same as choji oil bought for the purpose, you can get clove oil from a chemist, as it is used for dental pain. I used to use it on my blades when I was collecting them. Cheap, effective, and smells great. I have heard somewhere that it was said that the weather was suppose to change when a sword was drawn in a house, as the gorgeous strong smell of the choji was thought to remind one of summer. I cannot remember where I read that, but it is a nice story. Perhaps this too gave rise to the myth of perfumed blades, as a blade once oiled with choji oil can smell of it for years afterwards, even if the oil is totally removed. I hope you like the smell of cloves! Russ

To be honest Kevin, I'd really suggest doing absolutely nothing until you have posted pictures of the fittings and the complete blade. The polish , as I am sure you are aware already, can easily be ruined by well meaning owners. There are some very knowledgeable people here who will be able and willing to guide you on the best course of action given the blades condition. Welcome to the forum by the way! Russ

Looks very professional Adam! Really nice job.

Shukichi, that is interesting. Thank you very much for that Ray, much appreciated. It is forty odd years since I learned to read any kanji, and I have forgotten much of it, so I am in the process of trying to remember them again!

@Ray Singer Ray, what is your reading of this please. Yamaguchi is easy enough, and my reading of the last kanji is Yoshi, though it may have other readings perhaps. But that third kanji is one that I am unfamiliar with. My thinking was that it was a perhaps a badly written Toshi.

For what it is worth, I think the mei is trying to say Yamaguchi Toshiyoshi, but don't take my word for it, as my kanji is deplorable these days!

Jacob, I am sorry for your disappointment, truly I am. However, if you are really interested in Nihonto, do stay around and learn, there are many very knowledgable folks here, who all have a deep love of Nihonto, and will be very happy to help guide you in this fascinating hobby. I wish this forum was around when I started collecting forty odd years ago! Regards, Russ

Unfortunately Jacob, Matsunoki is quite correct, this is a modern Chinese copy. If you have a look on ebay you will see many simliar swords. I am sorry, as this is obviously not what you wanted to hear, but unfortunately it is so. And if you look further on this forum, you will see plenty of photos of how that nakago (the tang) should look, colour, file marks and signatures.

A book that cannot be recommended highly enough........... Unfortunately, no photographs, but a superb book nevertheless! Another book that I would recommend, and one that does have many beautiful photo illustrations is...... It is a stunning book and extremely well explained. Not blades that we are likely to be able to acquire, but extremely informative.

Congratulations on acquiring your first nihonto. A far more imposing piece than my first one that is certain! Well done. As has been mentioned, if you haven't already done so, then start acquiring a good library, this is essential, and imensely rewarding.

@Matsunoki Did you know Mike when he had the shop in St. Giles Circus ? I often used to pop into Nihon Token when it was in Museum St. We'd chat over the odd glass of sakè. I bought a lot of books from Mike, and a few swords too. Amongst other gems, Mike had an exquisite Muramasa tachi blade which he showed me once. It was absolutely stunning!

I too bought many of my books from Skafte in Denmark. Many of them were later destroyed in a fire unfortunately, and are prohibitively expensive to buy again. I am however, slowly trying to re build my Japanese library again, and probably have about fifty books on the shelf now. I also bought a lot of books on European arms and armour from Skafte too. My first Japanese language book, also bought from Skafte, and one that I would very much like to get again, was Nihonto nin, Nihonto ken. My copy of Nihonto by Hakusui Inami I bought from Mike Dean in Museum St. London, back in the late 70's.

Yep, I've still got a copy on my bookshelf. I think I gave my original copy to a friend though, as this one is a 1998 edition. A great little book. My first nihonto books were John Yumoto's The Samurai Sword, and Alfred Dobrèe's Japanese Sword Blades, both of which I still have on the bookshelf. These I bought back in the early 1970's.

Apart from the $105.000.000, he also shows a couple of nice Chinese katana! Oh, and how many times does one need to fold the metal to get over a billion layers I wonder. I cannot be bothered to work that out, so I'll stick with 32.768 layers and folded fifteen times. What I do know, is that anywhere near than much heating, ie. being folded and re welded 30 plus times, will totally destroy the steel.

The thread should stay I think. Hopefully, should any other people new to collecting and studying nihonto read this, they will realise that the observations and opinions are well meant and intended to be helpful and constructive, and are based on knowledge gathered over many years from various sources, and are not intended to be critical for the sake of it. This is educational, and thus I think it should stay.

Possibly added to hide fukure perhaps?

The most beautiful blade that I have ever owned was gimei, a supposed Tsuda Echizen no Kami Sukehiro. It obviously wasn't a Sukehiro, but I couldn't have liked the blade any more if it had been shoshin ! It was still an extremely high quality blade, ex Bowden collection. Hopefully, Matt will realise that the collective opinions represented here are the result of a love of these weapons over many years, and accumulated knowledge of them, and are not merely an attempt to discredit his blade. It would be wonderful if the blade, when shown in-hand to an expert, proved to be genuine, but the facts, based on the little that we have seen so far, seem to indicate otherwise. All the opinions were well meant!

The marks on the habaki are, as mentioned by John, certainly vise marks, made by the unprotected jaws of a vise. Possibly, someone has had it in a vise and perhaps hammered the tsuba to free the tsuka at some point.

it is not a fake sword, just the signature was often faked to get a better price from unsuspection buyers. As has been said Masahide was a rather famous and important smith, so his signature was often faked, and this is called gimei. It may still be an extremely nice blade!

Two possibilities that perhaps spring to mind are Kaneryu or Kanemata, perhaps unlikely, but a possibility. Sorry that I cannot post the kanji. Russ

The mei is just Bungo ju Yukinaga.

A book that I can highly recommend is Cutting Edge, by Victor Harris. The Book deals with 99 blades from the collection of the British Museum, from the Kamakura period to the Meiji era. Apart from giving details of some absolutely beautiful blades, Victor was regarded as a leading authority on the Japanese sword, and in addition, he was also an engineer, so has a very easy way of describing the various techniques, features and traits of the blade. Not as indepth as the Connoisseur's book of Japanese Swords, but easy to read and extremely interesting and informative. Highly recommended. Cutting Edge