Prospector Paydirt?

[tokashikibob]

Gentlemen,

  Just  enjoyed with great interest the Kamakura tanto thread.   I too have been prospecting for worked Kamakura era tamahagane.     This out of the woodwork wakazashi may be older than most of the blades I have pulled out of the paydirt the last few years.   Very light and thin,  very thin suguha with thin nioi line.  If you have the blade in hand in the sun there is midare utsuri present.   The bo-hi terminate in the kissaki but are off a few millimeters of each other.  It must have been a real rapier in original form.  Possible Kamakura Touchdown or  Sacked for a Showto loss?

 

Best Regards,

   Bob

 

P.S.  Anybody have a extra kogiri?

[cabowen]

My feeling is Muromachi. Just doesn't look Kamakura old to me...Lots of Muromachi period blades still around, not so many from the Kamakura era.

[Ken-Hawaii]

Yeah, Bob, probably Muromachi, & it's interesting how the nioiguchi takes a nose-dive almost out of the ha in the fourth photo. Not exactly sure what I'm looking at there.... I don't see any sign of utsuri, but that's notoriously hard to see in photos.

 

How long is the hacho?

 

Ken

[tokashikibob]

  Fellas,

       Thanks for the input on this blade,  Muromachi from a basement junkroom isn't so bad.   I was reading some reference books a bit after I cleaned this one up as I was intrigued by the oddities of it from the standard fare which lead me to hopefully think Kamakura. 

 

    The hacho measures 20 inches to the yokote.   midare utsuri is there, kind of a ghostlike haze floating over the hamon correct?

 

  Made a few washers and cleaned the menuki which may be tomatoes on vine? Plums?   Looks decent now.  It deserves a finger stone cleanup someday at least.

 

Thanks for looking,

   Bob

[Ken-Hawaii]

Nothing wrong with a Muromachi wakizashi, Bob. I still can't see utsuri, & if it was Bizen (99% of utsuri is on Bizen blades), I'd expect to see at least some sign of choji in the hamon, as well as nioideki. Might be worth a polish to see what pops out when you can see under the scratches & rust. Looks like a decent mokume hada in the fifth photo.

 

Ken

[Darcy]

I agree that Bizen is not a place I'd automatically think on this one, but be careful as a lot of Bizen is nie deki. Nioi is a Kamakura period development in Bizen and starting from the Nanbokucho you see both. It's a little bit like wanting masame in Yamato, it's in the books but the actual blades, the minority is pure masame. 

[cabowen]

What you are seeing as utsuri may in fact be "tsukare utsuri"....

[tokashikibob]

Gentlemen,

      What do you think?  Tomatoes... whoops Tomatos?   Also, tried out the new modern camera to try and pull some midare utsuri out of this antique, but I don't know I must have rubbed most of it off when I put the chrome polish to it.     Whoa, just kidding!

Best Regards,

   Bob