Kazu-Uchi Mono Swords

[Aethel_berht 2-0]

I'm still new to the hobby of collecting swords, and I've been wondering, are there any signs I should look out for to identify Mono Swords? I've also been wondering who are the top sword appraisers in the US? Thanks in advance!

[PNSSHOGUN]

Rough Jigane, usually quite a few fukure & flaws and often signed with "Sukesada". They are an interesting historical piece but not particularly exciting for most collectors.

[DoTanuki yokai]

I have seen  too many nice blades singned "Bichu osafune sukesada" and thinking about genbei, hikobei and yosozaemon (or shishibei) are also "Sukesada" and are some of the top smiths of that time, i cant belive that they are the lower end of sengoku blades.

Nagayama count the sukesada smiths as leading swordsmiths in sue-bizen not only the 4 i mentioned. 

Also nagayama wrote that the kazu uchi mono have a irregular size in the midare hamon and many yaki-kuzure, shingane appears and they are generally from 65 to 70 cm nagasa.

[Jacques]

First it's indispensable to know what really is a kazu-uchi-mono. Mino produced a huge amount of them and indistinguishable by their mei.

 

Worth reading : 

 

http://www.nihontonorth.com/blog/the-kazu-uchi-mono

[Surfson]

Thanks Jacques - according to that article, the use of oroshigane, i.e. steel made by the sword maker himself, is common with these swords.  Markus also has an interesting article about oroshigane and shinto smiths, in which the meaning is can refer to sourced tamahagane that was further refined.  

 

https://markussesko.com/2018/09/30/oroshigane-mentioned-in-signatures/