Bruno

I have a RJT star stamp gendaiti By a Seki smith, and it does have a small Seki stamp. It is comon on Seki gendaito to have the tiny Seki stamp. I think there is a difference in meaning between the standard Seki stamp and the tiny one.

Stephen, It is strange because Woodie has now in hands my RJT gendaito and when I asked him to polish only the bad rust patches on the monouchi, he told me it would be better to polish the entire blade. Of course it was obvious to him it is a WW2 blade. It is me who refuse the full polish as this particular gendaito is medium grade. As for my Mantetsuto, he recently told me again that he would be happy to do a full polish on it with a keisho finish. In both cases, I clearly mentionned the 2 blades were WW2 and that the Mantetsu-to was oil quenched and non tamahagane. I guess I am lucky. BTW, Woodie is such a NICE person.

Hi Stephen, At first he was not really encline to polish a non traditionall sword but when he saw the photos of the Mantetsu-to, he replied OK I will do it I think he was expecting a poor WW2 finished blade. As for the RJT blade, he was OK to polish it but I was the one who hesitated and only asked he straithen it plus get rid of very bad rust patches on the monuchi. So to answer your question, I appears he is open minded, maybe that also depends on how you ask etc.

Very fine Marc, no worry. I will have a blade polished by Woodie asap, . It is a Mantetsu-to (high end showa-to, not tamahagane). Plus, presently Woodie is repairing a bad monuchi and straighten a bent star stamped gendaito of mine. I trust in Woodie. I do know Woody and Bob won't do anything bad to a sword and do good work. It is just that while having the choice, I prefer to use a togishi who did all the apprenticeship for a a traditionally made sword. Nothing disrespectfull to anyone really. Personally, I do think decent to high end showa-to deserve to be polished as well. Talented self trained polishers are great for the job as togishi won't do it.

Marco, Bob Benson did not complete the entire apprenteceship in Japan when he was studying over there. He is not a togishi stricto sensu. Plus, I don't think he is polishing for customers anymore, he is not so young now. The only togishi in the USA is Shigekazu Jimmy Hayashi. Sorry but this old tired debate togishi versus amateur polishers has been discussed a countless times (just search on the forum).

Marc, Massimo may have had some (part time) kind of training by a togishi. But a full traditional training is 12 hours per day during 8 years at togishi's home, and that makes a HUGE difference at the end in term of qualification. If you use a good agent to have your sword polished in Japan, you won't have an average polish but top end polish. In Europe you will at best have an average if you are the lucky.

Massimo can probably provide average polish at best on nihonto but why taking the risk to pay close to what a toghisi will charge for a poor to average polish when a togishi will provide you a top end polish.

No mistake François. Massimo told me himself he did not do his apprenticeship in Japan. He is probably a talented, passionate nice person but not qualified to polish any nihonto. Long story short. One or two years ago, a french owner of an obvious gimei famous shinshinto smith known for his great horimono, contatected me. He had his gimei sword polished by Massimo and was looking for some kind of approval from me I guess. I told him his sword was gimei and that as a supposed togishi Massimo should have been able to spot the false mei and warned the owner. I did not warn the owner the sword was gimei and thus should not be polished. Was it because Massimo was not capable of recognized the gimei? I don't know. The owner never admitted his sword was gimei no matter what I told him. It was too hard for to admit he had been fooled both by the seller and the polisher. This cannot happen with a togishi. As for the NBTHK awards for amateur. Yes they exist but are more given as "relational" papers to keep good relations between Japan an Western swords societies. (not sur if I am clear here).

Massimo Rossi is absolutely not a togishi, not matter he is polishing for many years, travelled to Japan, met Japanese swordsmiths etc... He did not do the full apprenticeship in Japan. Outside Japan, there is one in the USA, one in Canada and one in Australia, unless things have changed. For non- traditionally showa-to heirloom or high end showa-to, there are a few good self trained polishers in the USA who can probably do the job.

Peter, you must ask a fully traditionally trained togishi for your sword, not a self trained one. ASAIK, Martin Hornak is not a togishi and there is no togishi in Europe. Togishi are in Japan, USA, Canada and Australia. There are several self trained polishers in Europe, but no one is qualified to polish traditionnal swords. You will find many threads on the subject here on the NMB. Please don't have your sword polished by a self trained polisher.

You are motivated Stephen. I also try to find a gunto scabbard that fits one of my 2 Type 3 blades (I have all the other Type 3 fittigs), if the last scabbard I bought won't fit, I will give up and go for a shirasaya.

George, you might contact Chris Bowen if needed, he knows well these smiths.

I remember this lucky member who bought what at first glance, on the poor photos appeared to be a chinese repro sword in civilian mounts. He paied it maybe $100. It turned out it was a shinsakuto mounted in cheap iai mounts, hence the chinese repro look. To me the member who did the best buy of all time here.

Thanks Tom. Indeed the hamon looks well controlled. To me, the Kanenobu, Sukenobu, Mitsunobu trio made good blades. A bit sad the nakago has been cleaned and the blade acid enhanced though.

Tom, Do you mind posting photos of the hamon please? Also nagasa (length)? Thanks

Hi guys, While looking at the Ohuma's page on Army civilian employee koshirea, I noticed most if not all were showa-to or older blades. http://ohmura-study.net/728.html?fbclid=IwAR03l1D607Euzo6WW72rK4SSOnMobYs6kFNNKpAOD1TTASbBYqP2oV2KvGY I don't recall having found any gendai-to in this kind of mounts, no star stamped ones or private order ones. I would interested if some of you do/did own one with a gendai blade or at least if you have photos. My second question is wether they ALL were issued with leather cover combat or not? I have seen some with and some without, but they could just have lost the cover during or after the war. Thank you

Was it common or even allowed to wear kogatana with the katana for civilian under army contract? I have seen several civilian gunto monts but never really paid attention if they had or not the emplacement to put a kogatana.

something doesn't look right- feels chinese

Yes best Nagamitsu i have seen in a while. I hope it will end in good hands.

Not fake. There is a great deal of variations in the Nagamitsu signatures. It's well done. I wouldn't be concerned.

A togishi can do miracles with pitted blades, you could be very surprised. You could sent it to one of them at least to know for good if it can be restored, or not.

Any photos of the nakago?

Gendai-to or showa-to?

Well, I have a SEKI RJT smith sword with several paint marks on the nakago too (which is a good antirust btw).

Thanks, was training my eyes, yasurime and nakago shape ressemble to the usual Seki syle. Really like RJT blades, many fun to study.