I took some better pictures of my sword, any advice on what it is would be appreciated

[Jon]

Lots of pictures I’m going to group them

 

The first are of the blade showing the temper line.

 

 

[Jon]

The next are close ups of the blade.

 

 

[Jon]

Now for pictures showing some measurements of the blade.

[Jon]

The first picture is the size of the curve at its deepest point mid blade.

[Jon]

This is a hagire  at very high magnification x12 to x20. Its not visible to the eye at all and is only 1.2 mm long, the temper line at that point is about 6 mm, so if it’s not even a quarter of the temper line, therefore can it be polished out ?. It really only is that long as I’ve magnified so much.

[ChrisW]

Chances are, if there is a hagire, it runs deeper than you can see. However, this is a question best left to be answered by a togishi. If it is not all the way through, I've heard hagire can be polished out.... but it requires a lot of metal to be removed. Sometimes, more than what is economical or practical for the blade.

The blade also has quite a few bites already taken out of the cutting edge, so this one might be very expensive to have polished and polish may yet reveal more hagire.

[Jon]

Some interesting flaws and damage at high magnification for interest.

[Jon]

A nice bit of damage on the back ridge

[Jon]

The swords fittings 

 

 

[ChrisW]

The first one looks to be a fukure (carbon blister/opening), the others are ware (separations in the metal), and that last one appears to be a kirikomi (where another blade has bit into the spine -- a contact mark).

This site is wonderful for study of terminology: http://www.japaneseswordindex.com/kizu.htm

[Jon]

[Jon]

Last are what remains of the tang file marks.

[ChrisW]

The blade appears to be machi-okure (the habaki has been moved up on the blade) and honestly it looks like someone's grandkids got ahold of the poor thing and treated it like a toy as it has all the characteristic signs of that kind of abuse.

[Jon]

Hi Chris 

 

it came for a aunt who’s dad was an American soldier in WW11, she spent a lot of time in the states and all over the place, bringing it back with her. It’s been in that condition since and been hanging on a wall, since I inherited it 6 months ago I’ve regularly oiled the blade and will see if one of the better U.K. polishers can give it some love.  I know it’s unlikely to be economic but the blade was free so I don’t mind spending a reasonable amount to bring back a bit of its glory and make it a better study piece ( at the moment it’s a study in how not to treat a Japanese sword).