When Necessary

You are such a craven coward Brian. At first, I thought you were just swayed by wealth and had a peasant mentality. Now I realise you are actually scared of the individual in question for some bizarre reason. Your decisions are arbitrary, biased and often unfair and you always deal with criticism by deleting comments which call you out or locking threads entirely to quash dissent. All the actions of a chicken hearted bully.

That mokumegane beauty looks like a 'large income tsuba' - as in you'd need one to buy it!

Hi Lewis, Do you mind me enquiring what you decided on this sword? I'm very curious as to how it all turned out. 😀 Dee

It's a weasel, not a squirrel.

Alas, it is not made by strictly traditional methods, as is indicated by the small stamp above the signature (the character 'SHO' inside a cherry blossom). There is a whole thread on these stamps and @Bruce Pennington is the expert to ask for more info.

As well as an absolutely superb craftsman, Ford was a truly wonderful person who always willingly shared his vast knowledge.

@Kubur To explain the singular downvotes on all my comments in this thread. They are not actually a genuine assessment of the observations I have made on your sword. Unfortunately, they represent the obsessive behaviour of one rather tragic individual who is downvoting every single comment I make on the entire forum - even including photos of my pet hamster on a thread in the 'Members Only' section. 😂 I'm truly sorry that this bizarre situation has intruded upon your enquiry.

Hello Kubur, It could indeed be ivory if it was repaired some time ago. Some kurigata are sharply angled like this but, generally, they look more rounded as on your other sword. However, as long as it's not plastic, then there are no more alarm bells going off for me regarding the koshirae (apart from its obvious wear and tear). 🙂

You could be right. 🤔

That did cross my mind Lewis but I've never seen bone turn such a uniform (and frankly odd) colour. Besides, it should have at least some remains of urushi on it.

Steve, Feel free to pitch in and contribute any time. You've been buying gunto for many years now so you must have picked up a wealth of knowledge about military swords. It would be really nice for you to voice your opinions and answer open questions on these swords from newer members rather than just asking for help all the time. Please share your know-how!

Forgive me for pointing out an odd anomaly in the koshirae of the all-black sword. I like the look of both pieces and I'm certainly not trying to focus on a negative but the kurigata (the protruding part on the saya to secure the Sageo cord) looks like a plastic replacement. It is so angular and of such a strange colour, that it almost looks like something made on a 3D printer.

Me next (seriously, unfortunately).

It has a linear surface texture, similar to that found on items which have been laser printed. Also, there is distinct flash around the fine 'carving'.

The ha-machi and mune-machi are misaligned in the third photo but look normal in the first (which is a long shot of the sugata). Could you confirm which is correct?