Possible Showa/ww2 Blade, Translation Help Needed

[Pika007]

Seen this blade at a blade owner/trade meeting, and it caught my eye.

Arrived in a saya with combat leather cover,

The blade is currently hevily covered in dark thick grease, and I'm working on cleaning it.

 

There is a mei as you can see, I would much appreciate help properly translating it. Thanks

 

Picture attached

[Stephen]

Look for Nagaharu

[SwordGuyJoe]

Hmmm.  Not sure I see Nagaharu - Maybe something more like Yoneji...

 

小 x 木米治

 

 Edit: Hopefully someone with a bit better idea will chime in...

[Stephen]

Yep i found no Nagaharu...been waiting for corection

[SteveM]

小野木米治

 

Onoki Yoneharu (?)

[Stephen]

by the stroke count they have a mitsu by the yone

[Stephen]

YONEHARU (米治), Keiō (慶応, 1865-1868), Tsushima – “Taishū-jū Nagatome Yoneharu kinsaku” (対州住永留???

[John A Stuart]

Not a common name. There is an RJT smith Naoji using Onoki, connection? coincidence? John

[Pika007]

Better picture of the signature+picture of the now clean blade incoming.

Can't see any hada with my room lighting, and seems like sandpaper was used at some point, so the surface details are a bit obscured.

Hamon is visible though, and looks pretty good.

 

edit, here are the pictures-

 

 

 

 

To not make the thread too heavy, the rest of the pictures are in a gallery here:

 

http://imgur.com/a/3ud1Y

[Dr Fox]

"seems like sandpaper" hits the spot.

[Pika007]

I think the correct reading of 小野木 would be onogi, no?

and 米治 can be read as either Yoneharu or Yoneji....

the net shows zero results for all possibilities, currently searching all available books for pieces of info.

 

Does this look like an actual nihonto to you guys or one of the oil-quenched half assed pieces?

on one hand i can't see any hada, but on the other, the hamon looks good, not like other wartime blades i had before. Can't make up my mind

[Stephen]

Maybe is a slogan, my post is from MS book of smiths.

[SteveM]

I chose Onoki because of the Onoki that appears in the list of RJT smiths (the same smith one that John Stuart mentions). I think probably there is some connection with Naoji, considering the same 治 kanji is used in both of their given names. 

[SwordGuyJoe]

If I were to guess - and that's all that this is - is that this is an early blade by Onoki Naoji before he took that name.

[Pika007]

That's a nice idea, I'm going to try looking at confirmed signatures and see if there's a good resemblance.

Still can't figure if this is a traditionally made blade or not, I'll have a magnifying glass and good adjustable lighting tomorrow to see if I can fish out any more details.

Other opinions welcome,and thanks for the help so far, everyone!