for your viewing pleasure

[Darcy]

Easy kantei time. This is very high level work. The first two shots are basically the same part of the blade, just angled slightly differently. The effect is very three dimensional in hand.

 

http://www.nihonto.ca/2792-l.jpg

 

http://www.nihonto.ca/2790-l.jpg

 

This last photo is like looking at a kaleidoscope if you click on the high res. Sometimes it's written about "nie of many colors" and this documents this feature quite nicely.

 

http://www.nihonto.ca/2934-l.jpg

 

Done for my books. I am chugging away.

[Alex A]

Novice guess..Soshu... Nanbokucho...Hiromitsu

[Brian]

Soshu Yukimitsu.

 

Brian

[1tallsword]

Soshu - Hirotsugu ,,,, Jeremy

[Guido]

Hard to see from the partial photos, but it looks like a Hirazukuri Tantô (or, if classified by length, Wakizashi), so it's middle Sôshû, Nambokuchô period. Hiromitsu or Akihiro.

[Darcy]

it wasn't really an official kantei just more to share pics of a beautiful sword... and Guido is right with the sugata not available it is one hand tied behind your back.

 

In spite of that, the vibrant nie in layers and obvious hitatsura done in a natural and non-artificial way leads you to only four swordsmiths and three of them have been mentioned here.

 

Hiromitsu is generally the best guess as he is the one most likely to be encountered in hitatsura. I couldn't give you a lot of information in this photo or in general to say without the sugata, whether you should go to Hiromitsu or Akihiro, they are very close but Akihiro's work is more rare. Hiromitsu has some longer works than Akihiro in general, and his choji show more of a head on them. They kind of look like beach balls that are popping out of a stormy ocean but not entirely broken free yet. These you can see are a bit more like flame.

 

 

The other to strongly consider is Hasebe Kunishige but his hamon is not similar to the first two though the hitatsura style is shared. The last is Yukimitsu which is an outside guess. He's not known for hitatsura but it's listed as one of his forms and I have seen pieces with strong yubashiri that look like they are a half pace from being all over tempered.

 

Sadamune is supposed to make these two but I never saw them like this.

 

This one is Soshu Akihiro and Tokubetsu Juyo, and is considered as his finest work. There is another Tokuju that can challenge this one and a Juyo Bunkazai one.

 

It's the first signed Soshu Akihiro I've had a chance to handle or shoot so it was a real pleasure.

[Darcy]

One more... it looks like a galaxy.

 

http://www.nihonto.ca/2925.jpg

 

[cabowen]

The one in Tampa was quite similar and simply stellar....