Dan D

Thank you so much for the info. I'm in Santa Cruz, and was planning on running up to the show. I was wondering about having a window polished in the blade. Looks like the perfect opportunity. Does anyone know what day(s) Mr. Benson will be in attendance? DD

Sure, but it's been partially obliterated by the carving.

Thanks Ken--my bad. In John Yumoto's book he labels it as "rivet hole" so I thought it was an acceptable term. Another question on this piece--would I be correct in assuming that the saya is worthless and can be discarded? DD

Thank you both for the very helpful comments. A lot of information to study and digest. The knowledge on this forum is amazing. DD

Yet another tanto I turned up at our Santa Cruz flea market. This is the fifth one so far over the years. The elderly woman who was selling it told me that her father brought it home as a WWII war souvenir. The blade is 10 3/4" to the tang. 14 1/2" LOA. It's in reasonable condition, however it appears to have been lightly polished with some fine steel wool. I can just make out some fine longitudinal scratches when held just so in the light. I think this has nearly washed-out the hamon, but the some hada is still fairly visible. The hamon, if I am seeing all of it, looks to be straight and fairly thin. I suppose the blade might be getting a little tired. The tang is good and black, and has a lead-filled rivet hole. The shape of the tang is rather curved. Possibly fumo-gata? The sword came in a rather ugly scabbard, which I think was originally a shira-saya that someone decided to decorate. There are a couple of kanji written on the scabbard that the carving cuts right through, so it would seem that the carving was a later addition. The blade is signed, but the first character is mostly obliterated by the newer rivet hole. The second character looks like it might be readable. Am hoping to learn the age of the sword and/or the likely maker, if that's possible. Thanks for your help. DD

Thanks for the invitation Tom. It sounds like it would be well worth the trip up. Dan

Thanks for the comments and information. Chris, I'm an amateur photographer, but have found that photographing Japanese blades is devilishly difficult. Daved, sorry about that. Dan

Wow, thanks for the quick replies! Of course I'm pleased to hear that it appears to be correct. The NCJSC show is coming up in August. I'll try to attend and get some hands-on opinions. I haven't had this much fun with a flea market find for a long time. We have a really excellent flea market in Santa Cruz, and this will be the second nice Japanese blade I'll have found there in the past decade or so. I was once told that forged signatures are very common on Japanese swords, so I'm being cautious at this stage. The engraving on the tang is not inlaid, but appears to have some old residue of chalk or paint inside the characters. It looks like it's been in there a long time. Here's a couple close-ups of the area in both indirect and direct sunlight. Also a closeup of the muni/hamachi. Are they tired? Dan

I was at our local flea market and spotted the this tanto laying on the ground amid socket wrenches and broken vacuum cleaners. The seller quoted me a price equal to a couple of happy meals, so I bought it and brought it home to do some research. While I've collected antique knives for many years, I'm a novice when it comes to Japanese blades. But one thing I've learned about old knives is 'when in doubt, do nothing". Having seen a few of the Chinese fakes recently, I was pretty sure this one was a real Japanese blade. My question was, by whom and how old. After posting shots of the tang engraving on a couple of Asian arts boards I was told that the two characters could be translated in several possible ways, including: Masamitsu, Masako, Masateru and Seiko. After a bit of Google searching I could only find Masamitsu and Masateru as known swordsmiths. The following link turned up a tanto by Masateru that appears to my untrained eye as very similar to my sword (in much better polish), but the second kanji of Masateru blades don't match with that on my tanto. http://www.tetsugendo.com/swords/Tan_117_masateru.html I did some searching for Masamitsu, and found at least three smiths that signed with the same characters as my example, with production dates ranging from 14th century to 20th century. So I'm asking for any comments and opinions on my tanto, concerning age, authenticity and condition. The blade is missing about 1/16" off its tip. And it has miscellaneous shallow scuffs and scratches, and the hamon is rather faded. I'd like to know if the tanto is a candidate for a re-polish or if it would make more sense to leave it as-is. I'm hoping that identification will help answer that question. Of course, I know that the signature may mean nothing. (Anyone can mark any blade with any name). So I'll shut up now and post some pictures. Thanks for your help. Dan