Nazar

Kuchigne turned out to be stamped with "179" on the inside. The gaps between saya and ishizuki:

The glue left me no choice. It was everywhere: on surfaces and in crevices. This annoyed me greatly. I had to clean it. I made some wooden scrapers to remove glue. I used all kinds of soft brushes to work on brass parts. I used small brushes from the set for paint gun cleaning to clean dust from inside of saya. It looked similar to this "special tool" I made to clean the insides of tsuke, but I used some piece of wire instead of a wooden stick. I couldn't say that I was satisfied with the results of cleaning, but I believe it had to be done.

Couple of things that I noticed about this saya. First, the finish on brass parts differs. Kuchigane and semegane have identical dark copper coating. Ishizuki copper coating has a rather lighter brownish-red tint to it. Both ashi have identical copper finish but it looks rather worn and thinner than on other components. Second, ashi and ishizuki seem to have rather large gaps between them and saya. So it may be that they do not belong to this saya.

Not much of a story left to tell. At the moment when the situation with hamon developed, I already finished cleaning saya. Yet, I was busy with my main tasks and barely had time for photos or writing. As I already mentioned, there is no way this saya belonged to the blade. Here is how habaki sits in it: However, the main issue of saya was epoxy glue. Kuchigane, ashi, semegane, ishizuki - they all were fixed to the saya with what I believe is 5min epoxy glue. Kuchigane and the ashi next to it were also covered in the same glue. It seemed that glue polymerized faster than the person who was using it expected.

Well, I decided to figure out how with all my small expertises I landed in a situation with hamon and how this "hamon" was imitated. I conducted a little test on a part of "hamon" that is usually hidden by habaki. And I believe I figured out how it was made. My first mistake was taking for granted that the blade is buffed. It was not so. My second mistake was about media blasting. Some time ago, after regular application of microfiber and oil to the blade, I started to notice that the blade may have some fine dotty structure. It was present all over the blade and was most noticeable when only the thinnest layer of oil remained on the blade and mostly when artificial light was set at a certain angle. It was mostly impossible to catch in photos, since the main texture of "polish" hid it well. So I started to think it may have something to do with the structure of metal. Pretty silly thought, but very human, since every person tries to see the silver lining even if there is none. So, I believe this 'hamon' was made in the next way: first, the whole blade was media blasted. and it was very fine media. Then two masks were applied. In what order they were applied it is hard to say. When one of them was applied the part of the blade that became hamon was buffed. Yet a thin strip was left mostly untouched. At this stage what I considered as nioi-guchi was "formed". When another, inverted mask was applied it covered the zone of "hamon" and all other areas of blade were put into semi polish. Thus the effect of a blade that was buffed overall was created, with a "hardened" hamon zone more shiny and other "softer" areas more blurry. It is possible that the very same person who created this "hamon" also tampered with nakago artificially aging it. In this way a picture of a more "interesting" sword was created. Not good enough to fool experts, but good enough to fool me. Nice lesson though. After such an eye opener I started rethinking the whole picture of the sword I assembled in my mind. Still it seemed to me that the sword is genuine, even as not all its components are from one set. Yet I had to be sure. Thanks to Jean for his expertise and valuable advice! Also thanks to all who participated in this topic! As I already said, I am more than satisfied to have this blade for my first real Japanese sword. It provided great experience and my luggage of knowledge became slightly less empty.

Thank you for your kind words and advices, Franco! I am not discouraged. Slightly worried are the right words. See, my opinion on this sword was as follows: I have genuine kai-gunto, however assembled from parts of different swords: blade, habaki and tsuka (which I like greatly) from one sword, while tsuba and seppa from another, since their nakago-ana are too large for this nakago. And because saya mouth is too big for habaki of this blade it may belong to the sword from which tsuba and seppa come or may be from yet one sword. I believe that blade is made of "western" steel, however it has interesting hamon. I liked that hamon. When I received the sword its blade was stained with fresh fingerprints. It had some older imprints on it as well as a lot of scratches and dots of rust. I started to treat the blade with microfibre and oil. I used Ballistol Gunnex oil as I prefer it for my guns and have it at hand. And gradually the blade started to look better, especially hamon. Hamon manifested itself more clearly, gleaming, when light was put at sharp angles. In other cases hamon looked clearly different to ji, with a thin wispy and slightly darker line between them. Then Jean dropped in and started questioning. Thanks to him yet one time for that, by the way. Some of his questions (like ones about nakago tapering and tsuka fitment) confirmed my opinion on my sword. Yet, the situation with hamon made me doubtful about my general opinion on the sword. Sure, I pondered different ideas but never seriously thought that I have some fancy blade. Having genuine kai-gunto (even an assembled one) is sufficient to make me happy. As for training my eyes on the question of hamon, nioi, nie and other such delicate things, I believe the only way is to get the real thing in one's hands and have some time to study it and to take some photos. Alas, this is not an option for me at the moment. My greatest ambition in Japanese swords so far is to get gendaito in kai-gunto mounts. As a serviceman I could apply for vacation and get permission to cross the border of Ukraine (there is a restriction for men of draft age on leaving the country). My wife and son live in Germany and I haven't seen them for more than three years. So this silly idea popped in my mind one day: what if I could combine travel to my family with buying a sword? There are a lot of members from Germany here and from what I see some of them sell swords on a regular basis. So maybe one day the sword in question poppes here in the sale section of the board. Then I could study it and leave it for my son as some kind of heritage. Yet, so far it's just a dream. The kitten's name is Mavka. It could be translated as dryad in English. She likes when I stay at home and keeps me company. We have yet one cat. His name is Cat since at that time he was the only one cat. He is rather small and of black colour. He is more shy when it comes to photos. Also he likes to spend days exploring neighborhoods and fighting other cats. He gets his share of scratches and bites, but being a true samurai he continues to carve his place in the local hierarchy of cats.

Thank you Franco for your participation in the question of my sword! I have to admit it's slightly frustrating to apply a significant amount of effort just to find out that what I see is not what I think. But I'll survive that. I prefer open eyes over daydreaming anyway. What is your general opinion on this sword though?

I believe I see nioiguchi and nioi-deki. Only today I figured out how to take photos of it. Found suitable light and had to wait till nightfall. Experimented a bit with angle of light and angle of shooting. Background is not the best. Later on I'll find something more suitable and continue experimenting. Also, the blade has to be properly polished to visualise all hamon activities. In my case polish is far from even acceptable. I oil the blade regularly, but oil and microfibre could only get me so far. I am considering using uchiko powder on it, as I found a local shop that sells it, but I believe it is the best I could do to this blade. Meanwhile, would you be so kind and point out what other signs you miss?

Jean, I have never even pretended to be an expert on Japanese blades. However, being expert on other subjects gives me some advantage as a noob in blades. The main advantage is that being noob in a new field isn't that uncomfortable after you have mastered some other subjects. The recent example: I not only survived three years of war in which we kept and at some point repelled a full scale invasion planned and carried on by a country that is much bigger than ours and which has much more resources, I became an expert on some certain subjects. Many men that tried to master the same things are dead. I didn't come unscathed , but I still keep things going with great success. After such an experience, mastering the subject of Japanese swords is a pure pleasure and a kind of safety valve for me. Blades don't kill you until you point a sharp point or edge on yourself and do some stupid thing. So I am grateful to you and other nice patient people that participate in this very topic of mine. I understand how many blades you guys have seen here. And I understand that another blade like mine and another noob like me is quite boring for you. However, I am trying my best: - I try to figure things out - I try to memorize correct names for things - I search for information - I ask questions - I work out the theories that were articulated here Couple of examples: I noticed that mune-machi is too deep and disproportionate to ha-machi. I ran a search through this very board and through websites that sell Japanese swords. I found some examples when ha-machi is cut deeper than mune-machi and I found one case similar to mine. This led me to believe that a situation like this is uncommon, but it happens. So not a red flag. When you, Jean, pointed out to me that nakago has to taper from mune to nakago-jiri, I took a caliper and measured nakago at nakago-shinogi and at edges that run from mune-machi to nakago-jiri. Turned out that nakago tapers all right. When you told me about a test with tsuka holding the weight of a blade without mekugi and I performed it. To my delight, it worked. So thank you again! As you pointed to the possibility of hamon being media blasted, I checked the thing and in my humble opinion it's not. I am grateful for your participation in the subject of my sword. I appreciate your inputs since they make me think and research further and further.

If you mean that hamon is media blasted (glass beads blasted or sandblasted), here is my opinion. In my "previous" life I subcontracted a lot of glass beads blasting and sandblasting. I used glass beads blasting on aluminum and steel. I used to oversee and control the blasting process to achieve the best possible result. I polished some parts after. So I believe I have some expertise in this sphere. And as a person that holds blade in hands and studies it through magnifying glass, I believe that hamon wasn't the result of media blasting. The blade though has a lot of history imprinted in scratches, corrosion and "polishing". The blade was buffed and likely some polish compound for metals was involved. After this buffing hamon area is more shiny than other areas of the blade, which still maintain some blurity. And again, I have some experience in polishing metals, so to me the fact that hamon is shining brighter means that steel is harder in its area. Which is exactly what hamon is, the area of blade where steel was hardened.

And here are some addition closeupd. Mune-machi side of nakago might be of interest because it has not ony file marks but also marks of what I believe was some kind of rotary tool.

And here is right side:

Thank you Barry for your good words and information! On my own I guesed (and you confirmed that my guess is right) it is result of polishingm, however I decided that it is other way round: upper line is a true line of hamon and lower caused by polisher. I inspected blade and found another place with same occurrence. I posted some photos of nakago earlier: https://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/52488-my-kai-gunto-some-photos-questions/#findComment-547852 I dared only to remove most superficial rust. I went through some topics here earlier and my impression was that nakago shouldn't be oiled. So I stopped after I removed most pr red powdery layer of rust. I found no markings on nakago except "2" stamped on the right side. Requesting photos is dangarouse in my case, because I am trigger happy photo-shooter :-)). So I shot some additional photos of nakago under different light. Here is left side:

Thank you Jeff! Jean, thank you for your input! To me this hamon looks like it's genuine and (from what I learned on this very board) may be water quenched. It may look strange because the blade was buffed to look shiny. However, I have not much of experience with hamon. Yes, corrosion of nakago is a kind of mystery to me too. The only thing I could say about it: at some stage something was leaking from nakago down on seppas and tsuba, gradually corroding zinc from copper-zinc alloy.. Maybe it was condensation that was formed under the tsuka. There is some corrosion ob front part of nagasa too. May be some improper storage was involved. Tsuba had only insignificant "axial" freeplay but a lot of "lateral" freeplay. I fabricated a wedge because to me it was the most obvious way to solve the issue of "lateral" freeplay while keeping all parts of kai-gunto untouched. Partly it was inspired by the disproportion between mune-machi and ha-machi.

Just for your information. This local internet auction where this blade appeared works not like ebay. It's ruther lice ordinary auction. The main lifespan of an auction is rather advertising time. The main battle usually begins in the last minutes and after every bid timer is reset for another five minutes. The more people are interested the longer the auction lasts, because usually everyone tries to outbid others but pay the lowest price possible. This auction lasted for three additional hours. Won by some guy who constantly continued to outbid every other contestant. 180 bids were made. Price went as high as USD600.

Thank you! My first thought was the same. The whole thing is strange, not mentioning non-typically made writings. But since Kwantung was mentioned I decided to check as it may be some local product from that part of the world.

Thank you, Brian!

This knife popped up at a local auction. The writing on saya says: 一万年の人王 ( The King of Ten Thousand Years according to Google Translate) The writing on one side of nakago says 2航空軍 (Second Air Army), which did existed and belonged to Kwantung army corps. Couldn' make anything plousible from the writing on another side of nakago.

But at some angles it looks different. Like there is a secondary line. So I wonder what I see here? Is this effect caused by polishing?

If take into account that I shoot photos in RAW format, this setup gives me the opportunity to get some real close looks at things. I found the light of setting sun to be the best for catching photos of hamon. Also such a light in combination with closeup photos remind me that I still have a lot of oiling ahead. Those spots of rust don't look that active to the naked eye. And there is this one particular fragment of hamon that looked peculiar to me. With a magnifier I managed to catch in photos what I mean. At most angled it looks mostly like all other parts of the hamon line.

With this setup I could shoot some nice closeups of the sword. Here are some photos I took just for sake of the aesthetic of things.