Mumei Koto Katana

[brillone]

Im looking at this sword and will maybe buy it. The seller told me it seems to be a koto blade, maybe HOKURIKU MONO uda school. Also he thaught the tsuba was late edo and also the kasira.

So could this be right or does it seems to be anything else? Give me your thaughts.

He also told me that the blade has a sai-ha i dont know what kind of flaw that is so please tell me.

 

http://s428.photobucket.com/albums/qq1/brillone/

[jrs]

Sai-ha means that the blade was damaged in a fire and lost the original hamon. The blade has been retempered.

James

[brillone]

Thanks for the info james that i really have to concider.

[jrs]

Someone please correct me if I am wrong, but my understanding is that a sai-ha blade will not receive Hozon papers unless the nakago is uba and/or it was made by a very well known swordsmith.

James

[Grey Doffin]

Saiha is a very serious defect. The only way a sword can retain much, if any, value if it is retempered, is if it is signed with an important and unusual signature, or if it was retempered by an important smith because it was made originally by an equally or more important smith. At the National Sword Museum in Tokyo, years ago, I was shown a sword that was retempered, that had the only dated signature of an important and early smith, and that had a Juyo paper.

This is very rare. An unsigned sword that might be koto and might be Mihara school and is retempered isn't worth much: nothing anyone wants to collect.

Grey

[bluboxer]

Greetings Joakim,

Sai-ha consists of much more than just tempering.Tempering is but an element of a process.

Annealing – yaki-namashi (焼éˆã—)

Normalizing – yaki-narashi (焼準ã—)

Quenching – yaki-ire (焼入れ)

Tempering – yaki-modoshi (焼戻ã—) (Thanks to Moriyama san for the terminology)

 

Alan

[brillone]

Thank you for all the info. I will pass on this sword and continue my search.