Bakelite Kosirae

[ehk]

I came across this Tanto that has bakelite koshirae and was wondering if this is common to make koshirae out of bakalite? I don't know if it is a good Tanto or not I was just wondering about the bakelite koshirae.

[Rich S]

Are you sure it's really Bakelite and not just a fancy lacquer koshirae? I've seen a couple saya that looked somewhat similar.

 

Rich S

[ehk]

Thanks for your reply Rich, well I do not own this Tanto myself but the owner just wrote it was made of Bakelite.

[Brian]

I think that koshirae is home made. None of those parts look Japanese.

 

Brian

[sanjuro]

I think you may be right Brian. That habaki is way too large for the blade and looks very contrived and the saya/tsuka shape looks unjapanese. I ran across something similar to this a few years back where the koshirae had been made out of a non Japanese material such as bakelite. Quite a nice job actually, made by a serviceman during the war apparently for a tanto that would have been in plain shirasaya originally. Perhaps this is a similar specimen.

[Brian]

Shape is bad too, in fact if it wasn't for a fairly decent looking mei, I would call this a Chinese fake. Could be?

 

Brian

[Jean]

Once again, would you expect such nakago on such a blade....

 

I associate this kind of nakago with ken or moroha zukuri

[Brian]

Yep..the more I see this, the more it screams fake and bad.

 

Brian

[ehk]

The owner mentioned the tanto being made of a cut down sword, I can't say if that is true or not just wanted to add the info.

[Jean]

So, is it kiritsuke mei? In a word, uninteresting at all. So what kind of koshirae do you expect on such a blade? Maybe bakelite, it will become it.

[ehk]

Clear words Jean.

 

Thanks all!