NotANinja

Yes it is a shame, because it's got a very interesting hamon in my opinion. The sad bit is I don't think there's a boshi, and one on side the hamon is about a cm wide, but on the other it's down to possibly a millimeter at most in places. I don't have any sentimental attachment to the blade personally as I bought it because I liked it's koshirae, but I will probably take it along to a meet-up here in England at some point and see what people think!

I'm always sad to hear about neglected blades, it pains me to imagine them lasting for so long being cared for just to end up like that at the last. This one in particular isn't worth it I don't think for a professional polish as there's no boshi that I can see, even if it possibly does have good age to it. Ofcourse if funds were unlimited then I'd get it done but sadly they are not!

Hi All, I bought this blade recently mainly because I really liked the tsuka and thought it unusual. I've made a post on this here: This post is on the blade itself. It is sadly not in the best condition and seems to have had moss or mould of some sort growing directly on the blade as well as rust. The areas that are polished are almost mirror polished which is strange to me, I think someone must have tried to acid polish it in the past. Either way it has been polished tonnes in it's lifetime as there is almost no hamachi left and little meat, with the hamon on side running very close to the edge. Anyway, here are the specs: (I think) O-suriage, by the notch on the end of the nakago, the single mekugi-ana and the file marks seen on the munemachi. Iorimune, shinogi-zukuri nagasa: 21" / 53cm Sori: 0.5" / 1.5cm kissaki: 0.95" / 24mm Motohaba: 1" / 25mm Sakihaba: 0.7" / 18mm Motokasane: 0.2" / 5.6mm Sakikasane: 0.16" / 4mm Tori-zori with a small kissaki lightweight and thin blade. Hada is mokume in the places I can see it, with visible nie in places Hamon starts off midare in nie deki and then suguha-ish. It goes very very close to the edge on one side. The yakaba is absolutely filled with sunagashi(?) and visible nie, with dark black lines running through it. I'm thinking that it's koto based on the following reasoning: O-suriage meaning original length must have been much longer with a much deeper sori 2.5cm+, polished many times over the years, SO much activity in the hada and hamon. I believe koto blades sometimes started off midare at the bottom and then went suguha? Could be wrong on that but I think I read that in connoisseurs. Sadly, the hamon looks to run off the tip in some lights

Apologies Jean, you can see a better photo on the post Sam linked to.

The exact same nakago in fact! That was the post I made to get some info before ultimately deciding to buy it

The blade is a strange length. It's definitely been shortened in the past I think by quite a lot and polished many many times to the point it's very tired, probably beyond saving and the hamachi is about half a mil out from the nakago, really tiny. Nagas is just over 21" and there's a notch in the nakago from what I presume is the time of shortening for what purpose I don't know - perhaps to indicate that it has been shortened? The menuki seem very strange to me, almost like they've been salvaged from something else by cutting them off something with the random background shapes.

I would agree with that, looking at it up close it's definitely too random to be something man-made. some kind of laquered fish skin would be my guess.

Yes I thought it was pretty unique, nice to know no one here (so far!) has come across this style before. I would agree on the tsuba, it looks amateurish, and the mei looks like someone who doesn't know how to engrave/doesn't have the proper tools had their go at it and I would know because I am a jeweller who's not very good at hand engraving yet!

Ah thank you, wasn't sure what Jidai meant!

Strangely the mekugi looks to be laquered bone? I don't think it's wood either way

Hi all, I recently purchased this sword from an auction because the tsuka intrigued me. I've never come across anything like it before so I was hoping someone here could tell me something about it. Also why is the mei on the tsuba so... bad? Was it perhaps the owner of the sword who did that at some point in the past and that's why it's scratchy? The blade inside is genuine so I don't have any doubt for it's authenticity. Many thanks!

Also, apologies but what do you mean by Edo Jidai? I am still quite new to this, thank you.

Hi Jean, Thank you for your response! Maybe patination was the wrong word, what I meant was that the nakago is dark not including the newer red rust from it's unfortunate past storage. Hada is very difficult to see even in person but I haven't had a sunny day here yet and I only received it yet. Hopefully the weather will be kind to me tomorrow. As far as value goes that does not matter to me, I buy the swords that I like and endevour to eventually restore every single one for preservations sake alone