Can Anyone Tell Me Anything About This Unsigned Sword? 400 Years Old?

[brechindave]

Hello, I purchased this sword 20 years ago from a knowledgeable friend. He said that he thought it was at least 400 years old (I think because of the style and very rusted tang). I wondered what others thought of it, as I've just had it polished. The hamon is almost a straight line on one side but is large and cloudy on the other. Is this common? Thanks in advance for replies. The blade measures 22 1/2 inches. Another friend suggested it might be a boy's katana.

 

 

[Fuuten]

Technically a wakizashi or middle size sword. From the shape it looks like a typical uchigatana (one handed blade), which became a much used form for close quarter combat in the Muromachi era. ±400 years seems about right.

 

Sorry can't be of more help.

[Gordon Sanders]

where did you have it polished/ who did the polishing?

[raaay]

 

Dave

 

 

 

I would say your sword is pretty tired looking, and it looks more like an acid polish I am afraid to say.

[brechindave]

Hello Ray, it's good to see a fellow Scot on here. You might have noticed the expert tsuka wrap, Alex's excellent work. (I'm assuming you're the Ray Alex mentions.)

 

I did wonder about the hamon on one side of the blade. I'm very much a novice, but it looks strange to me. Having done 5 minutes research - looking up acid polishing - it does look a bit like that. Are there any other possible explanations? 

[Red Sun]

It is a little bit hard to tell due to the reflection on the photos (not being critical - I am having a nightmare trying to take decent blade pictures!), but no it is not uncommon to have differing hamons on each side, but the "true" hamon and the currently visible hamon are not necessarily the same thing. Bringing out the hamon as the maker intended is part of the reason you hear of professional polishers having to study for a number of years. Look for the crystallization as the harder steel merges into the softer steel to give to give yourself an idea - acid polishing will ruin much of this finer detail unfortunately.

Plus some of the hamon may have been lost altogether due to the removal of steel over the years - hence the observation above that the blade is "tired".

With the nakago cleaned and these photos it is hard to be absolute - but overall i like it - when you take into account the standard of nihonto in the UK its not that bad. 

Red

Neil M

[Shugyosha]

Hi Dave,

 

I think Neil summed it up pretty neatly. A couple of other observations: it looks like the kissaki has had quite a bit of reworking as it seems that the boshi runs very close to the edge and there is no turn back.

 

Also, I think I can see yakidashi which, if I'm correct would put the sword into the shinto period but, as Neil pointed out, it's difficult to see the true crystaline structure of the nioi guchi in the photographs and it's necessary to differentiate between this what has been put there by the polisher. 

 

Best,

John

[BenVK]

 

Plus some of the hamon may have been lost altogether due to the removal of steel over the years

 

And if more steel has been removed on one side than the other...

[raaay]

Hi Dave

 

Yes that would be me, seen Alex at the weekend at the antique fair in Edinburgh where there we some lovely fake swords

for sale ! sorry I digress.

 

I do not want to say to much but I could tell from the pics who cleaned up your sword for the want of a better word and amateur polishing works is not a good subject to push on this forum I know lots of collectors have done it in the past,

but please if you have anything worth a polish think twice before you go down the acid / lemon juice road, it will

almost certainly ruin and devalue your collection, you just need to look at some UK based commercial sites to see what I mean, probably said to much already.

[Darcy]

No turnback is OK (yakitsume, found a lot on Yamato blades).

 

Super tiny turnback is OK (so says Rai Kunitoshi).

 

What's not good is the long and large openings. But yes what's visible does not argue against Muromachi.