RE-Post Officer's Katana Identification

[8 Ball]

Hello everyone!

 

I have recently taken some new pictures of my sword with my junk Nikon (which is the best thing I have next to a cell phone camera) and I have made an effort to be more object when I took these, so hopefully they're more helpful then the last batch.

Any and all help is much appreciated in identifying anything about this sword. Thanks!

[obiwanknabbe]

Hello Max,

 

From the pictures It looks like you may have a late war Showato. The Picture of the Nagako is kinda blurry so its hard to be sure. There appears to be a stamp or some carving. Can you get a clear pic?

 

I think the Paint reads 2, 5, 0, 9 Likely an assembly number. Late war blades were often just kinda thrown together. The 2x ashi looks like a later addition, but then again it could have been assembled that way. Kai-Gunto were mounted that way and this is not a Kai-Gunto mount. This is why i say "thrown together".

 

That tsuba is interesting and rather nice looking. I don't know much about those but I know enough to say that its definitely not war issue. Other members of the board know more that I do regarding tsuba and I am sure one will chime in and enlighten us as to what style/age it is. How well does it fit BTW? Does it look like it was made for the blade?

 

The Hamon may be water quenched. The state of the polish makes it difficult to tell. Is there hada? Is there Nioi or Ni?

The placement of the Kissaki looks a little off to me. Anyone else see what I'm seeing? My best bet is that this may be a Semi-traditionally made blade from the end of the war. Still, its an interesting and rather well preserved example.

 

Best regards,

 

Kurt.K

[8 Ball]

Well, what I do find interesting is there are little hishigami paper triangles tucked under every crease of the ito; they seem to be quite aged, so I don't think the wrap or the menuki were a 'later edition'.

The Nakago has no other marks then those numbers, but you can clearly see the file marks on the tang.

The polish is in fairly bad shape, so I can't see any large noi but in some parts I think I can see teeny-tiny nie. The polish is bad enough to the point where I can't see a hada, and I was lucky to even get clear enough pictures of the hamon with the shape it's in. The tsuba fits the blade fairly well, and I only had to fashion a very tiny bamboo wedge to slip between the tsuba and the nakago to have a snug fit. There were no seppa on the sword when I bought it, so there is a small amount of movement of the tsuba, but I figure I could get some cheap antique ones somewhere to fix that. It is not very clear in the pictures, but you can see the hamon run down underneath the habaki and up through the kissaki, but the polish is pretty bad, so it's harder to see not-in-person.

 

Thanks for the reply btw, I was almost thinking everyone forgot about me. :D

[Brian]

Guys are going to tell you that the homon looks like an oil qenched Seki type, with the "hard spots"

I'm not 100% sure..but if I had to take a guess, I would say Showato from Seki.

 

Brian

[cabowen]

I agree with Brian- oil quenched, non-traditional WWII era.