In need of help to identify what this very old blade is.

[willy wonka]

Wondering if anybody might be able to shed some light on what this might be?????

[Eric H]

It looks like a butchers knife (in Switzerland) that has been used and sharpened numerous times. Sorry, it is not worth to be discussed...but I leave it open to others who think differently on this subject.

 

Eric

[Bugyotsuji]

Larger than a kozuka but smaller than a tanto, = a Kogatana?

[willy wonka]

Cheers Eric for you guess

May well be a butchers knife, but it is without a doubt Japanese, it was brought back in the 40s along with a few very nice wakizashi, tanto and yari. Another notable thing is that its width is over .5cm at its widest, also the fact that its mune is ihori is of note.

[runagmc]

Larger than a kozuka but smaller than a tanto, = a Kogatana?

 

Kozuka is the metal handle that a kogatana is usually mounted in... ko=small, zuka=tsuka... right?

[nagamaki - Franco]

Wondering if anybody might be able to shed some light on what this might be?????

 

A candidate for metal analysis.

[Bugyotsuji]

Kozuka is the metal handle that a kogatana is usually mounted in... ko=small, zuka=tsuka... right?

 

Yes. The kozuka is the handle, but the word 'kozuka' also generally includes the small blade that is inserted into it.

 

I was looking at a Japanese book the other day by a Shokunin that went through photos of Katana, Wakizashi and Tanto.

 

The last part of the book was entitled Komono. In these pages they started off with small-looking Tanto, which they called Chiisagatana, 小さ刀and then the smaller blades of Bashin, and small naked unhandled blades, Kogatana 小刀. Next there was a section on Kozuka, which showed the Kogatana blades inserted into the Kozuka handles, and these were labelled Tomo/Kyo Kozuka, 共小柄 I think.

[Brian]

I think it is/was a small tanto that was used and abused so often, that it became a general purpose knife and was sharpened mechanically over the years until it got to this.

 

Brian

[runagmc]

Piers, that's interesting. I've read chiisagatana described as tanto length blades with sori that are mounted like katana or wakizashi in bukezukuri koshirae. Some of these labels are hard to ever get an absolute definition on... probably because they were used interchangeably and incorrectly since early times.