Looking For Opinions And Advice On Japanese Sword

[craigoaus]

Hello, I'm a newbie to Japanese Swords so please be gentle. I recently acquired this sword and I would like to learn as much about it as possible and how to best look after it.

 

All opinions and advice (good or bad) will be appreciated.

 

Thank you in anticipation.

[Grey Doffin]

Sword care and etiquette:

http://www.nbthk-ab.org/Etiquette.htm

Grey

[craigoaus]

Thanks Grey, can anyone tell me where I can get a 'cleaning kit' preferably from within Australia but otherwise from overseas is fine.

[Bruce Pennington]

Craig,

I got mine on Amazon for about $11 USD.

Got yourself a gorgeous gunto there my boy! Do yourself a favor and take some pics of the blade, without the fittings and repost. Looks like an older blade than WWII to me - 2 mekugi holes, worn or reshaped blade tip, squared-off nakago (tang end).

The tsuba (hand guard) is a more expensive upgrade, and the fact that it came with the rank tassel is a bonus!

[Stephen]

Do yourself favor, dont buy a cheap kit esp with the red ball, notorious for having corse grain that may scratch your blade, id get a kit from Fred Lohmam, Bill Rannow may still have some for sale, Bob Bensons uchiko balls are top of the line, some better from Japan but i dont have that info ready at hand.

 

http://www.Japanese-swords.com/pages/maint.htm

http://www.artswords.com/supplies.htm

Our Oz members may have contact

or check with John G http://www.nihonto.com.au/ http://www.nihonto.com.au/html/sword_accessories.html

[Toryu2020]

nihonto.com.au

[Baka Gaijin]

To echo wise old Stephen:

 

RED BALL BAD!!!  

 

WHITE BALL OK ish

 

Agree with Thomas et al :  nihonto.co.au

 

Pip Pip Cheerio!!

[Stefan]

Uchiko is always bad. I use cleaning alcohol. It does not scratch the blade, nor does it harm the  polish in terms  of weakening the hadori. After using  uchiko over the years  any hadori is gone an one ends up with an ugly form of pseudo sashikomi..

[Shugyosha]

Do you have any close-up pictures of the blade? The activity might give a clue as to its age.

 

As regards the tang, I'm suspicious of the colour of the patina (too red for me) which doesn't look quite right and also the metal of the tang seems too smooth. This makes me wonder whether this isn't a more modern blade with the tang adjusted to give an older look.

 

Best,

John

[craigoaus]

the colour of the tang might not be 100% accurate my camera seems to freak out with a black background and picks up a reddish colour cast. I'll try to get better colour accuracy.

[Stefan]

Unfortunatly, I  must agree. There  is something wrong with the nakago. The Sabi partially peels of. This  is not a good sign. In most  cases it is a sign  of repatination or  forgery.

I do hope that  i am wrong.

Stefan

[paulb]

Before we get too carried away about the nakago can you give us some dimensions?

the blade looks to have a very deep sori, however the colour and texture of the nakago suggests the blade is O-suriage and what you are seeing in the nakago is repatinated blade steel. These are not necessarily indicative of a problem but it does make trying to assess age difficult. If it is shortened then the original sori must have been substantial.

My initial reaction is that it looks to be a good piece, probably quite late, shin-shinto rather than later but I would like some dimensions and an image of the whole naked blade if possible.

best regards

Paul

[Stephen]

red rust is bad rust, a old rag that you have oiled something with needs to wipe the tang, id take a shot next to a window for natural light so we can see what you have nakago wise.

 

 

PS  also whats under the habaki.

Edited November 23, 2016 by Stephen

[Stephen]

I see you have been told on MSoIJ(shingunto) that you have a good blade, id follow Chris B. and Tom C.H. advice, and Dave R.

[Shamsy]

As Thomas said Craig, nihonto.com.au is our best aussie supplier. And welcome to the board.

[David Flynn]

Poor mans cleaning kit, Isopropyl Alcohol ( 99% min)  and machine grade general purpoise oil.  There is a definative move away from uchiko, except on dirty blades.  Don't forget, uchiko is abrasive.

[The_ozzy_samurai]

Uchiko i believe is ground down Uchigimori stone what grade or density who knows most likely Hato or Jito grade stone?, i can tell you right now it will scuff or scratch the blade very nicely if that is the look your after? and from what i see you have a nice old blade there i wouldnt touch it or any blade of mine or anyones im working on with Uchiko after a polish,

 

Trust me Hadori polish takes so long to achieve as i have done it on several blades most blades take me 3-4 weeks of hadori work on a normal 25-26" blade,to think of somone using Uchiko on a blade i had polished makes me want to kick them in the nuts! after spending so long to make it nice as possible,

 

This will sound totally wrong to some and i will get some back lash from this but who cares im offering advice based on my experience with maintaining blades maybe in 40 years i may have a change of heart but for now it works fine for me,during the process of polishing a blade the blade is wet each night after finishing my work on any blade i would spray WD-40 all over blade and wipe down and use simple good quality fresh engine oil on a nice clean soft piece of T-shirt material rag,i used motor oil on all my swords for many years no issues at all thats on some very high end swords too, if there is anything left on blade after a wipe with WD-40 like black stains or slight rust spots then its safe to say its staying there,you cant grind it off with uchiko,dont believe everything the sword god's say there are simple options out there, thats my 2 cents worth mate,Cheer's

 

Julian