stevel48

many thanks guys.

good to know. I know nothing about the fakes or the manufactured stuff during ww2. The seller doesn't know much at all other than "it's a cut down sword and from Burma". the nakago looks really light in color for a tachi.....right.

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From a local seller but all I have right now are these photos sent to me. Gunto mounts. or or ikubi kisaki and it looks like a complete kijimomo nakago but appears to be sloppy/uneven. Looks to be mumei. What do you guys think? Ill probably go look at it. thanks

so all this matches with a nagahiro with the same kanji from yamato 1440ish as well as a yamato senjuin 1330

here is the note from Bob. Yes, the blade is signed Nagahiro. The temper looks like many Mino and has a feel of Yamato so I would think it is late Senjuin sword. It is from the Murormachi era and probably from the Kakichi period 1440. The hamon is a gunome with a little midare. The boshi is not jizo.

well its off to Bob Benson for an evaluation and attribution.

Thanks so much!

Can you define sa group for me Dan? Thanks, Steve

If anyone has the book. I'm curious too see if there is any info listed. Aki province 1500 i think but I don't know what tradition.

Here is the example. Seems more fashion related. http://cgi.ebay.com/TOP-STINGRAY-PELT-S ... 5ad60fae7c Is tanned stuff flexible vs dried samegawa?

I contacted the poloshers with an open mind and willing to follow their advice. The 4 polishers I spoke to gave me the option of a full polish to remove some of the deeper scratches ( I sent them all photos of the blade) but if i just wanted to bring out the details in the hamon and hada that a finish polish would suffice. So I chose to keep the remaining metal on the sword and just do a finish polish. I'm not sure the sword is worth investing the $ in a full polish just yet.

No, just a good polisher with a long list of customers in line. I spoke to a few well known reputable polishers and felt comfortable withe the one I chose.

Uh? what are we missing in the pix that needs a polish? just wondering. Clearing up the details in the hamon and hada ----nie and nioi.

I should on Dec 25th. It was on my xmas list. I'm on a 20 month waiting list for polish as well.

I did but i would wager that im wrong since i'm so new to nihonto. It was my best guess but there are many more people here that know much more than I do. it sounds to me like you've convinced yourself of what this sword is and isn't already, so, why bother asking. I will be the first to agree that participating in these online picture kantei is somewhat foolish and probably doubly so when the owner of the blade in question is working backwards by attempting to match the sword to the mei. In kantei the sword confirms the mei and not the other way around!!!! If you learn nothing else about kantei, at least try to remember that if you get the first step wrong, time period, you will become completely lost in trying to solve the puzzle. The best thing you could do at this point is to forget that it has a mei and start over. Comments like that kind of discourage me from posting here. I'm posting here to start over, learn and see if members can try and help me work this out and get it right. Advice and help is what i'm looking for. How else can i learn? We have a shape, a name, and some blade charachteristics to go on. my thought process: I have a suriage blade...so i ask myself why would it be that way?...what period in Japanese hoistory did blades shorten? The nakago looks pretty black, pitted and old. Would a sword from the 17-1800's look like that... maybe. yes. But why would a sword from that period be shortened? So is it older?...how do the smiths with that name sign their mei...a handful..some in the 1300's...some into the 15,1600s. So where does the shape of the blade fit...? What school does a gunome midare hamom with tight grain? Is it in fact gunome midare.. Well let me ask the guys on the boards becasue they;re the esperts.

Here is the mei on an old nakago. The Mei matches older smiths signatues.

If you're up for a little research and giving an opinion have at it. Mei Is Nagahiro 2 character signature. Suriage blade and the original nagasa was appx 28.5 inches and is now 25 inches. Slightly more koshi sori than torii. Boshi-midare kome Mune-Iori hada--not in great polish so hard to tell...nie and nioi arent photographing well. Hamon looks to be midare gunome To me it looks like middle to late muromachi which would fit with a Bizen Kozori Nagahiro smith. http://wiki.samurai-archives.com/images ... story2.gif The Mei and Info found here http://nihontoclub.com/view/smiths?page=109 I matched up my blade in the image below with blade shapes throughout time. Does shape always dictate period or are there exceptions to the rule?

I reached out to Fred and got a great quote for a new unfinished saya. Thanks!

I did a lot of google searches and found a reasonable price below. Anyone know of them? Can they be trusted with my sword? http://www.nihonzashi.com/sword_customization_saya.aspx Who else is a good and trustworthy?

I want to add samegawa to my saya when i refinish it and I was wondering if anyone knew the correct process.

i'll take a look. send a photo to steveL48@hotmail.com

I would love to have fuchi kashira set made to match my current tsuba if anyone knows of an artist? Thanks.

I do like this one http://www.swordsofjapan.com/Tsuba5.htm