Advice on potential purchase please.

[Paz]

Hi all I'm looking at this particular gendaito

 

 From nihonto.us. its priced around 1250.usd

 

The koshiare is in good condition. The blade seems scratched,  however what does he mean by non arsenal hamon ?. Does this imply that it was not as mass produced as other Gendaito?.

Any advice will be appreciated thanks. 

 

Also the seller seems to have some decent wakazashi at low price. 

 

Thanks all.

 

 

[Brian]

Gendaito are the fully traditionally made wartime blades, water quenched and folded etc. Handmade and can paper.
Showato was call the arsenal blades. More mass produced, but still usually finished by a smith. Oil quenched and have arsenal stamps. There are various grades, some being more hand-worked than others, some showing some hada etc. But generally they are arsenal blades, won't paper and not considered 100% traditional.
So they are saying it is a Showato, but does have some nicer features. Still not a Gendaito though, but priced accordingly and fairly reasonable.

[Shugyosha]

Hi Paz,

I'm not a fan of Gunto so this post isn't as balanced as Brian's above, so consider this accordingly, but it depends what you want. If you are looking for a traditionally made Japanese sword then I don't think this blade is for you. It has the remains of the Seki stamp which someone has tried to remove and which suggests it is non-traditionally made, whilst the hamon shape is different from Gunto, it looks to be oil-quenched, there isn't anything to see by way of hada and it looks like it has had some rust spots that have been cleaned up so the state of polish isn't ideal.

 

For me I'd steer clear - because of the stamp I think you are always going to be selling this on as a Gunto rather than a gendaito, it raises suspicion that someone has messed with the stamp and I think you'll find it dissapointing compared to what you already have in the post. Consequently, I'd hang fire for a while until you see what you get from Japan.

 

The upside and downside to collecting Japanese swords is that there is lots of stuff available and plenty of it at affordable prices and there is a lot of temptation to simply acquire stuff when you set out collecting that you may not get all of your money back on later. If you can fight the urge to acquire for a while yet you'll probably be happier with the results in the long-term.

 

 

[Paz]

2 hours ago, Shugyosha said:

Hi Paz,

I'm not a fan of Gunto so this post isn't as balanced as Brian's above, so consider this accordingly, but it depends what you want. If you are looking for a traditionally made Japanese sword then I don't think this blade is for you. It has the remains of the Seki stamp which someone has tried to remove and which suggests it is non-traditionally made, whilst the hamon shape is different from Gunto, it looks to be oil-quenched, there isn't anything to see by way of hada and it looks like it has had some rust spots that have been cleaned up so the state of polish isn't ideal.

 

For me I'd steer clear - because of the stamp I think you are always going to be selling this on as a Gunto rather than a gendaito, it raises suspicion that someone has messed with the stamp and I think you'll find it dissapointing compared to what you already have in the post. Consequently, I'd hang fire for a while until you see what you get from Japan.

 

The upside and downside to collecting Japanese swords is that there is lots of stuff available and plenty of it at affordable prices and there is a lot of temptation to simply acquire stuff when you set out collecting that you may not get all of your money back on later. If you can fight the urge to acquire for a while yet you'll probably be happier with the results in the long-term.

 

 

Just had a closer look at the stamp and you're right John. I would have never noticed that as a novice. The blade looked tempting due to its price ( I've sent you a pm ). But I was ready to forgive a few scratches, and add this to a collection.

 

Thanks 

[SteveM]

Mei is 圡岐兼正 (Toki Kanemasa). According to Markus Sesko, he was a guntō smith. Died in 1980.