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Im New and need Help


RyanW

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I am not familiar with most of the terms used here, I have been holding onto a Sword that my grandfather recieved from a relative of his that was in the War. It has damage and the RaySkin? has been covered with what appears to be red nail polish. After a little reasearch it appears to be a 2 piece Habaki. The blade is Tamahagane? The Kasira is missing and the Saya is splitting and currently being held together with Duct Tape.

 

I understand that the blade is the most critical part of restoration (not that the rest is not important) I have been tempted to attempt a restoration project on my own, I dabble in knife making. But I thought better of it. I would rather have someone qualified do the restoration. I am looking for general info, as well as referrals to someone qualified to possibly restore it. I will include photos I took today. I am open to questions and will answer them as best I can. Thank you.

... Ryan

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Hello,

 

It has damage and the RaySkin? has been covered with what appears to be red nail polish. After a little reasearch it appears to be a 2 piece Habaki. The blade is Tamahagane? The Kasira is missing and the Saya is splitting and currently being held together with Duct Tape.

Yes, it is RaySkin "samegawa",and I woulbet it is red lacquer.

I confirm you habaki is 2 pieces, and blade must be Tamahagane

 

I understand that the blade is the most critical part of restoration (not that the rest is not important) I have been tempted to attempt a restoration project on my own.

 

I confirm you the blade is the most critical part of restoration and should be restore by a qualified professional.

Please abandon the idea to restore it by ourself, to polish a japonese blade you need specifics stones, technics,...

I unfortunatly saw too much blade restored in "do it by ourself" that are now dead and can't be restored anymore.

 

hope it can help you :D

 

sebastien

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Hello Ryan!

 

I am not one of the top experts in here, but I'd like to give a couple of comments anyway:

 

First of all, your decision of not restoring the blade yourself was a very wise one! The blade may be valuable, or may be of little value, but now you still have the option to have it properly restored!

 

The blade shape (shobu-zukuri) is not the most usual one, and many collectors (including myself) prefer it over the usual shinogi-zukuri shape. The blade is out of polish, and might also be be slightly tired, i.e. seen many polishes (see the slight curvature of the cutting edge above the habaki). Due to bad polish, it is difficult to say anything else.

 

What remains of the fittings looks decent to me! Not the worst, not the very best. If the duct tape has been assembled lately (during the last few weeks), please try to remove it very carefully. Stop if the lacquer starts to come off. The tape should not be applied directly to the saya, because removing it after it sticks to the surface damages the lacquer. The correct method is to put a clean piece of paper under the tape wrapped around the saya, so that the tape glue does not come in contact with the saya.

 

Please give us blade dimensions (length, width, thickness) and if possible, remove the tsuka (hilt) and take photographs of the nakago (tang). It is important to see whether the blade is o-suriage (cut shortened, signature lost), or ubu (unshortened) or even signed... Instructions about tsuka removal: http://www.aoi-art.com/hanbaikousaku/treatment.html

 

 

BR, Veli

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Thank you for the reply Gunome and Veli.

 

I will go through you posts tonight and study a bit, I will also try to remove the tsuka tonight and get some photos. as well as measurements. The Duct tape has been there for years. I will have a look at it and see how "Stuck" on it is.

 

in looking at the blade closely it does not appear to have ever been touched / sharpened by anyone else. it is still VERY sharp. I cannot decipher any Hamon in its condition.

 

Thanks again for the helpful information! any tips on a qualified person to do some restoration work?

Ryan

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Hello Ryan!

 

So your sword was signed. Very good. The signature looks like Masasada 正定 (others will correct if I read wrong). Not many smiths signed this way.

 

BR, Veli

 

Thanks again Veli! I think you nailed the Mei, that is what it looks like to me...

 

My head is spinning after doing some research. I have a few more questions after reading through many threads on this forum. It would seem that complete restoration of this Blade would be very expensive and probably not worth it investment wise, but if sentimental reasons exist or if I have money to burn go for it... I am considering contacting Fred Lohman to discuss polishing to see what is under the rust/patina, and move forward based on what is found.

 

I am getting the impression that this is in fact a genuine Japanese sword made by Masasada (School?) in the late 1800 early 1900's possibly? how do the Hawk/Falcon feathers relate to the Masasada connection. If I understand correctly it is a family crest, that were Land owners (Daimyo).

 

I greatly appreciate the input I have received from very helpful members of this community.

Ryan

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Just my humble opinion, but let us for the moment discount the assorted tosogu. The fuchi is oversize for the tsuka and is of a later date. the kozuka is a misfit and may or may not have been original to the sword. The saya is most likely a later replacement. Now what are we left with? a Soshu nagamaki naoshi style blade, which was popular in the Momoyama period. It has received at least one full polish and the boshi appears to be slightly reduced by polishing. The mei is well cut and the nakago patinated in such a fashion as to indicate that it is apparently earlier than the Edo period. It has an apparently good quality habaki from the late Momoyama period and a tsuka which if it is original, also seems to be of a type common during the Momoyama period.

 

Without being familiar with this particular swordsmith, my guess none of which is based on the assorted bits other than partly on the habaki, would be mid to late Momoyama (sengoku jidai), and it would not surprise me to learn that it is quite a decent blade under all that crud and scratching.

 

I am open to criticism, correction and all forms of verbal castigation concerning this opinion. :D

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Ryan,

Pretty much every new collector to come here wants to get his first sword polished and or remounted. My advice is to slow down. There is no reason to hurry with a polish; it will not protect the blade. Actually, a new polish combined with a new collector often does damage to the blade. New collectors don't have the experience necessary to keep a polish pristine; before long the blade is scratched or even rust spotted. The polish, which has removed precious steel from the blade, was for nought.

Take some time, study, go to a sword show if possible and look at a lot of swords. If you get to a show you can ask Bob Benson, a classically trained polisher, to look at you sword and suggest whether it warrants a polish and who he would recommend do the polish. At the moment you don't know how good your sword is; you could be making a big mistake if you ship it off for a low cost polish.

Grey

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Wow, thank you everyone for the info and advice.

 

Vali - I appreciate you jumping on this thread and getting me on the right track. Thanks

 

Sanjuro - I will take some time and research your reply, there is a lot of helpful info there I am sure, I just need to decode it. Thank you (Side note: If I had a choice to live anywhere in the world it would be Margaret River, W.A.)

 

Grey - I think this is very sound advice, I am in no hurry I have had it for 6 years since my grandfathers passing, He had it for 60+ before that. I will be picking up a few books and searching these forums. The Shows you are referring to, can you point me in the right direction to which shows and a schedule?

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San Francisco, August 5 to 7 this year. http://www.ncjsc.org/SF_token_kai.htm

Minneapolis, October 7 to 9 http://www.ejapaneseswords.com/Arts_and_Arms_of_the_Samurai.html

Tampa, FL February 10 to 12 2012 http://www.tampajapaneseswordshow.com/

and Chicago is the last weekend of April, usually.

 

Grey

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Ryan.

 

Why Margaret River? Apart from the fact that there is enough wine down there to keep this entire board happy for a couple of lifetimes, theres nothing but great weather, great food, good surf and clean air. I really cant understand why anyone would want to go there......... :D Its a couple of hours drive from my front door...... Eat your heart out!

 

Look after that blade and give it a concentrated clean with good uchiko. You may want to investigate the process known as 'power uchiko'...... Theres a couple of topics that discuss it on this board. Theres a hint of hamon under all those scratches that looks quite promising. Happy research. :)

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Hmmm... Wine huh? :D I went rappelling / abseiling into a large cave system in your neighborhood. I spent 4 days exploring, Beautiful area! Consider my heart Eaten!

 

It's comments like "Theres a hint of hamon under all those scratches that looks quite promising" that make me want to hurry and get it polished! I will look into the power uchiko and take care of the blade until I am ready to move forward.

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Hawley lists only four smiths signing with 正定:

Mihara ju Masasada saku (1504),

Bishu Mihara ju Masasada (saku) (1573),

Masasada (Musashi, 1789)

Yamato Kuni Fujiwara Masasada (1573)

 

Now the Musashi province smith seems to be the only one who primarily signed niji mei. (This is just what is written in Hawley's) But I agree with Keith that the nakago looks significantly older than 18th-19th c.

 

BR, Veli

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  • 1 month later...

One thing to point out is that this is not a very long blade so the cost of a polish will be more reasonable. Keeping that in mind, from what I can see this blade could possibly be worth restoration, but I agree with Grey that you should not get it restored until your sure you have the knowledge to properly maintain a newly polished sword (and it takes some practice). I'm glad you had the good sense to seek some knowledge before doing anything with it.

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