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Kantei Help - Koto Or Shinto Katana?


FletchSan

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Hi All,

 

I am struggling with the Kantei on this sword and after some assistance.

 

The nagasa is 64cm with a fairly shallow sori of 0.9cm.

The hada is a fairly strong mokume I think with a suguha hamon.

It is suriage and the nakago patina is a nice dark black which suggests it has some age to it as well.

The mokume hada is present in the shinogi-ji which also suggests Koto given most Shinto are masame hada in the shinogi-ji.

 

So the two points that are suggesting possibly Shinto are the shape being fairly straight with a shallow sori and also the mei which (thanks to the translation forum) reads Geishu Ju Sue ? as it is cut off. Geishu is the Aki province and apparently there were no notable smiths working there until around 1600 when Teruhiro moved there and started producing swords. If the mei is correct (gimei or not) then that would also point to early Shinto.

 

Plenty of photos to hopefully give me a hand.

 

cheers,

 

Ben

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Ben really hard to tell from pix, id like to see cut of the mei, it looks like it was done with a power tool, as always it could just be me, i think we can agree on the acid wash.

 

 

edit to add, i may have been hasty, the kissaki looks well done, i think its the mei im having a problem with tha led mr to conclusion 

Edited by Stephen
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Also thought the mei wasn't "convincing"
The blade looks like a tired blade with too much acid...but genuine. Mei is not well done though. Maybe just lighting, or maybe nakago was refinished. Think overall the sword is genuine though.

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.....It may have been acid treated as part of its polish to bring out the hada I guess...

Ben,

 

an acid treatment is based on the fact that high carbon steels acts differently with acid than low carbon steel. You can enhance the YAKIBA and produce a kind of HAMON with acid, but you cannot bring out the HADA with such a treatment.

 

I think this blade is all o.k., it is either SHINSHINTO as there were many attemps to produce old looking blades, but to me it looks more like a tired KANBUN era or late KOTO. I cannot say anything concerning the authenticity of the MEI, but indeed it looks as if made by a 'drunken master'.....

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Thanks all for your feedback. I think the photos magnify the issues with the blade significantly and in hand obviously a lot more subtle.

 

To help me better understand the issues with this blade, can you clarify what aspects represent it being tired and what aspects point to the acid treatment.

 

To confirm:

 

Tired because of some of the hada lines opening due to many polishes and also reduced hamon as the ha-machi is fairly small?

Acid wash - if this isn't exaggerating the hada so much and brings out the hamon I'm not seeing that on this sword. Hamon is fairly subtle but there.

 

Attached close up of the mei.

 

cheers.

 

Ben

 

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Thank You Ben always glad to error if favor it beginning true Nihonto ill try not to jump to conclusions, too many things in life have me on edge, and shots of the mei  show hand cut...sorry. 

 

Photos can  be deceiving ether magnify or hide issues, im sure its much better in hand. 

 

once more sorry for heart stop...lol

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