2Nd Ebay Wak

[Taz575]

Got my 2nd wak yesterday. 19.75" from tip to mune machi.  More sori than the first one.  This one is signed, but looks to be gimei.  The blade is more slender than my first one and has a totally different feel to it.  This one is in a shirasaya and the shirasaya and habaki seem to fit much better and go with this blade.  Looks to be copper with Gold Foil over it.

 

 

Hamon is interesting, some crab claws and other activity:

 

Boshi has a nice turn back and extends past the yokote:

 

The finish on this one makes it much harder to get good pic of the hamon and stuff, so I will keep trying.  It has a small ware on the shinogi, but the rest of the blade is pretty nice.  Very happy with this new study blade!

[hxv]

Tim,

 

It's a very nice blade.  Can you see a boshi with a return? The angle of your picture makes it difficult to discern the boshi.

 

Hoanh

[Taz575]

Yes, but its very difficult to see, let alone photograph. There is a hazy spot on the mune that looks to be part of it that goes past the yokote. 

 

http://www.ncjsc.org/gloss_boshi-1.html Kaeri Fukai is close, but the turn back is a little lower in the kissaki and there is a little more angle to the kaeri going back to the spine area.

 

Other side, the turn back is near that dark spot and turns to the silver mune yaki:

[Brian]

Fine looking sword, nice lines.

[Taz575]

Thanks!  The camera picked up a lot of very fine Ji Nie sprinkled through a lot of the blade, which I didn't see in my first Wakizashi.  It's interesting comparing these two blades and seeing different things in each and the different polishes. I was very lucky rolling the dice on 2 Ebay wakizashi's, not sure I want to tempt a 3rd time or not!

 

The signature on this one was Bicchu no Kami Tachibana Yasuhiro and looks to be Gimei, so I will be starting my Kantei on this one soon.  I ordered Markus Sesko's Kantei books...all 4 of them and I already have the hamon/boshi E book from him as well.  This one has togari, crab claw hamon (some of the crab claws touch, forming circles, is there a name for this?) and is generally notare.  Still trying to figure out the boshi type since it is very difficult to see.  It looks close to a Jizo Boshi, Ko maru or taki no otoshi.  On the boshi pics I took, the mune has a silvery hamon look to it where the kaeri goes back past the yokote.  Kissaki on this one is a bit longer than on my other one and I like the look of it.  I may try doing an oshigata on this one like I did with the first one.

 

Am I seeing some Fumbari in this one?  I don't know if my eyes are playing tricks on me or not.  This blade feels much lighter and nimble in the hand, the other feels more powerful. 

[Taz575]

Got some better measurements today.

 

Width at Munemachi:  29.9mm

Kasane at Munemachi: 6mm

Shinogi atMunemachi: 6.9mm

 

Width at Yokote: 21.1mm

Kasane at Yokote: 4.5mm

Shinogi at Yokote: 4.9mm

 

Sori is 15.3mm

 

Kissaki is 37mm long

 

Weight of the bare blade is 527grams.

 

My attempt at an Oshigata:

 

[Taz575]

I've found a few other swords lately with similar hamon patterns where the Togari meet up above the rest of the hamon and form a circle of possibly softer steel.  One of the ones I found recently was mumei, but looked very similar to mine, but with sets of 3 in the hamon, ie 3 "circle" formations in a row where mine has them mostly on one side of the blade.  Is there a particular name for this where 2 togari form a circle?

[Taz575]

Came across this at Aoi Japan today:  http://www.aoijapan.com/wakizashi-houshu-takada-fujiwara-muneyuki

 

Some pieces in his hamon are identical to ones on this sword, in particular where the togari meet and form a sloppy circle of unhardened steel and the general unruliness of the hamon and not being a repeated, clean pattern.  So I am now checking out Takada Fujiwara Muneyuki and other related smiths.  This blade is gimei for Bicchu no kami Tachibana Yasuhiro, which I expected from the beginning and I haven't seen any of Yasuhiro's hamons looking like this!