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a ken blade was found in a "lackluster" state because of its lack of knowledge by the previous owner


Ankh

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Hi everybody! I need help from you guys who have a long collection experience!

Can you guys help me with comments and advice on this case?

shirasaya and habaki have been added by me so it's not original!

 is mei really smith gassan sadakatsu?
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Who ever made this mei is very good in carving 😃. As for such an important smith there is no way without shinsa and papering. I would say no from the pictures. Btw the nakago is cleaned and a no go. And the blade looks like a amateur had polished it.

 

But maybe you have some luck.

 

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Sounds like he got it in that state.
I won't comment on the mei except to say any ken are scarce, and should be carefully investigated. If it has a chance of being shoshi, then a repatination of the nakago is possible, and a polish would make it look great. It does have a well finished nakago, so even if gimei it may benefit from some professional work.

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1 hour ago, vajo said:

Who ever made this mei is very good in carving 😃. As for such an important smith there is no way without shinsa and papering. I would say no from the pictures. Btw the nakago is cleaned and a no go. And the blade looks like a amateur had polished it.

 

But maybe you have some luck.

 

Yes, thank you for the feedback! sorry can i ask "shinsa" what is it? I'm a newbie so it's very vague 😅
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1 hour ago, Ray Singer said:

Did you polish the blade and clean the nakago, in addition to your shirasaya and habaki work? 

 
Tiếng Việt
Tiếng Anh

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
I do not do it! I understand the value of that rust, but it seems its owner loves the job! I saw him remove that rust up to 3 nihonto bars and this tongue is one of them!
Note: in my country is not allowed to collect swords, it is forbidden so these blades are scrap from Japan brought back as scrap that can be used as mechanical parts!
sorry my english is very bad Please sympathize if I used the wrong words ...
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By far not an expert here but the nakago could have been preserved like this. We are talking about only 100 years and if there was not much handling and tight preservation, it is possible for it to have stayed like that. See attached examples of mostly Hozon Token Sadakatsu from various DTI catalogues. 
Regarding the mei, there are sufficient differences in execution and handwriting....... but the form is  indeed rare and not typical to counterfeit. 

 

814D2AAE-DBCB-423F-A6B3-90F8D4B8387F.jpeg

3FA21084-57B7-4F3E-B797-77382CCE26CA.jpeg

452CBEAD-3FED-4A53-92FE-05FC09DEBE82.jpeg

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Hi Michael, no argument at all that you can occasionally find older blades with pristine nakago. Have seen several shinshinto blades with nakago that could have passed for shinsakuto in terms of preservation. In this case though, patina remains visible in the crevasses of the yasurimei, while bare of patina on the surface of the nakago. The OP also said he observed the previous owner subjecting the nakago to a cleaning. 

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Gents there is evidence of polishing the Nakago as the yasureme at the highest points are rubbed flat. 

I had a late shin shinto 1870 echizen tanto signed Kanetsugu years ago and there was literally no rust or patina on the Nakago it looked new but the yasureme was not flattened out as this is. 

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Looks like a fine running masame hada with a suguha-ba hamon and a dense noi-deki. 

The polish is bad, you see that on that dark shadow of center and after a professional polish the blade would look like great.

 

image.thumb.png.3a16e3f66d453908f2d34fd4511e152b.png

 

Looks like you have a nice sword ankh. 

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