Assistance please

[ReefTank]

Hello everyone! Thank you for all the great information in these forums. I have finally inherited my family sword collection. As a slightly younger man, was involved in a few Japanese martial arts. Needless to say, I am more motivated to learn and preserve these swords than their previous owners. I have 3. All need attention. The parade sword I intend to clean rust with alcohol and coat with Ren wax. Please let me know if I should do differently. For the 2 nihonto(?), I could use some translation help and recommendations for professional polishing. The first mei I can see, the second appears to have a rivet, presumably from a US service member, where the mekugi(?) should be. All productive help is greatly appreciated. Also, please let me know if I should continue my assistance request in this thread or use a different forum.. and hopefully I won't screw up posting pics   A day in the 8th month of.. ? 

[ReefTank]

[ReefTank]

[waljamada]

You are going to need to share more photos for people to properly assist you.  Show details on the aspects of the blades and show the third blade out of its handle/sheath etc...if you need instructions on how to take the blade out there are tutorials.  

[ReefTank]

The picture file sizes of the mei are too large to upload, working on it now 

[Stephen]

Crop crop crop 

Like all the grey sheets in first photos

 

 

[ReefTank]

[ReefTank]

And for the problematic one... thanks again for such prompt replies 

[Nobody]

武州江戸住進秀 (Bushu Edo ju Yukihide) – Yukihide living in Edo in Musashi province

文化二年八月日 – Bunka 2^nd year, 8^th month (August, 1805)

[ReefTank]

Thank you. It is greatly appreciated 

[Geraint]

Dear Mike, welcome to NMB!

 

Great to see that you have done some research on your swords and frankly I think we would all like to have such an inheritance.

 

Regarding the sword in civil mounts, you are absolutely right, that's a post war Western fix and is going to need to come out.  It should be a fairly simple matter to carefully drill that rivet out, if you know what you are doing then go for it, if not then it shouldn't be too hard to find someone who can do it for you.  Just be clear that you don't want any marks on the tang!

 

Looking forward to seeing some more of this one and the Yukihide.

 

All the best.

[Grey Doffin]

Hi Mike,

If you drill out the rivet be careful not to drill deeper than just the peened head of the rivet; you don't want to mess with the handle or, as mentioned, with the tang (nakago) of the blade. You could try also a small cold chisel on top of the washer followed by a punch to push the rivet out. However you go at it, it would help if the sword were held steady. This could be someone to hold all in place while you use the drill or chisel, or you could clamp the tsuba in a wooden jaw vise on a workbench (as long as the tsuba is plain iron without soft metal inlay). Plenty of padding between the sword parts and bench & vise are called for.

Don't be in a hurry to have your sword polished. Polish isn't necessary to preserve the sword, a light coat of oil will do that, and the more time you take to learn about the swords and polishing the happier you will be with the results.

Grey

[ReefTank]

Thankfully your suggestions matched what I was thinking. Tonight I was able to slowly dremel the rivet head and push it out with a nail punch. Full disclosure, with my excitement I've done zero research and this one is quite different. There appears to be a stamp above the mekugi. Below it is the following kanji which was difficult to get a decent picture. Lastly the other side appears painted instead of any inscription. The rust is noticeably different also.  
 

For the don't rush polishing advise, I definitely get it as there's so much to learn. I imagine I'm slightly overprotective in wanting to immediately stop any rust/degradation of the sword.  It took a long time to come into my possession..  I was fortunate however to meet another member of this community who cleaned them with alcohol and applied Choji oil. Thanks again for your assistance 

[ReefTank]

[ReefTank]

[Bruce Pennington]

Looks to me like "Seki Kanemune" but I'm quite often wrong on smith names! 

http://japaneseswordindex.com/oshigata/kanemun2.jpg

 

The small stamp at the top is the "Showa" stamp.  You find these on blades predominantly made in 1940-41, although the stamp has been found throughout the span of WWII.  The painted numbers "69" are normallyfrom the fittings shops and match numbers on the fittings, but these fittings are civil with a wooden saya made with a leather cover (which often goes missing over the years), so you might not see other numbers on these fittings.