Just Arrived Navy Dirk W/ Decent Looking Blade

[ggil]

eBay again, this time seller has 35 as a feedback number, but there was absolutely no feedback to view; pos, neg, or neutral. Probably got a decent deal because this fact. There are 2 stamps on the guard: toyokawa naval arsenal and possibly nakano shoten (koshirae?). Matching number 23 on seppa and guard. The nakago looks to have been stripped badly, but oh well. Nakago not too well shaped, and huge (forging opening?) is evident, along with loose laminations at the very end. I've seen worse dirk nakago so I went for it. Seller says nakago has "seki" in kanji. Much smaller a knife than I was expecting. For your enjoyment, and if anyone has anything they would like to add, that would be appreciated.

[John A Stuart]

Something decidedly odd here, and the Seki kanji, ?? I'll let this stay here for a bit and move to Militaria where those that are into that can comment. John

[Rich S]

Looks to me like the nakago has been reforged and folded or something.

 

Rich

[ggil]

Only odd after the handle comes off. Till then odd in the fact that most of the factory made ones don't really even try to make a hamon that looks real, while this one may be oil quenched. I read that toyokawa arsenal had subcontractors, and some in China. Who knows about the blade but it does look better than 95% of the examples I see for sale (edit: at my low price range). The handmade ones are rare and obviously nicer than this one. Believe me, the blade is pretty nice looking in hand. The kanji looks licks chicken scratch though???? Cost: $355

[Kai-Gunto]

I dont like the kanji, looks odd.

I think the blade was newly polished and its a cosmetic hamon.

[ggil]

Thomas, to assume cosmetic hamon is wise, I agree. I am keeping an open mind for now, but safer to assume purely cosmetic as this would be the norm. I can always count on you to sober me up! Thanks.

[lonely panet]

looks like a chrome nickel replating with applies hamon, due the photos.

 

maybe better light and new photos with help

[ggil]

Ok, I will get wife's canon g12 and try and photo elements of the egde. I see a faint thin line above at least one of the hills, that has no hadori directly above or below it. Chrome would explain the good condition of finish, but there must be an explaination for the terrible nakago state, which maybe the photos will help inspire more answers. My thought was western person stripping the patina, but anything is possible. There is also some rough patches where it looks like original foundation work that was hastily done and not bothered to be refined in latter stages of polish, that would have likely been covered with chrome plating. Not buying that it's plated, this is carbon steel.

[Bruce Pennington]

Grant, I've got a real nice, signed, kai-gunto but the end of the nakago was never vinished. I find these things interesting because it puts the "human" in the discussion! With thousands of these things being made, the human element is going to show up now and then, with a missed sharpenning here, a missed nakago-jiri finish there. Makes it all the more real, if you ask me.

[ggil]

Thanks Bruce for the insight. You know we now need to see the whole thing to put the post into proper perspective (just kidding, sort of) ????

[Bruce Pennington]

LOL! Sorry Grant, I wasn't thinking! It's a Yoshishige, 1943 blade with a "Seki" stamp!

[ggil]

here are some close ups from the camera.  you can see near the habaki and around a couple hills the hadori doesn't completely cover what looks like a weakly hardened edge.  you can see the color changes as the grey hadori transitions to a darker area, before transitioning to the color of the unhardened part.  since the line is so faint it is hard to photo.

 

sorry: no idea when oil tempering started.  got hot water and oil confused; my bad!  the author of this old book said tempering in hot water [to avoid hagire] is a shameful trick 

[ggil]

The folks at the NCJSC meeting Sunday agree that this is a better example than most they've seen and that I should be happy to have it, as I am. One person pointed out that along the back edge of the nakago you can see evidence of kobuse or hosanmai construction.