Thank you for sending my mind to reality, I had forgotten the Meiji reform of the calendar in which Western style calendar became the official one when the Japanese one was maintained for" spiritual" reasons but was made to comply.
In disorder:
. There is no stamp nor credible marks which would lead to believe one as been removed.
. Sori is 17/18 mm, Tori sori.
. photos attached, I should have sand blasted glass to diffuse the light and work on my lighting.
. Temper line crisper than my photos taken with macro, hand held camera.
. Yes the tang has been tempered with, initially I thought it was a very badly finished one and after your comments, I rubbed it wit a soft cotton cloth and got some kind of graphite grease ( I used that type of grease in the 1980's).
Warm regards
Michel
Real :-)
Ok, the sugata & geometry, hamon, kissaki shape, nakago, etc. are all way too good and correct for this to be anything except a real gunto. Anyone who could make swords that look like this would either make real swords and sell them for a lot more money, or make fakes of really valuable swords, not half-destroyed gunto. I am now 100% confident on this.
On the other hand it's definitely been through the wringer. Badly restored, chip in kissaki, obscured hamon, crazy-uneven-machi, etc., with the nakago suffering the worst.
I suppose how happy you should be depends on a few things:
1) How much you paid (not too much I trust, especially since you operated on the basis that it was a copy)
2) Exactly what kind of gunto this is - oil quenched? Water quenched? Folded? Mill steel? Traditional? Seki production? It's very late war as we know, and the mei quality is not great, both of which are points against. On the other hand we just don't know based on the current condition.
3) If you can find someone to polish it and fix the machi/kissaki despite all the damage and point #2 above. Perhaps one of the western polishers would take it on as a project.
I can imagine that even if the collecting value is very depressed thanks to the permanently altered nakago, it could still make a very good blade for iaido. That would be one happy ending for this sword.
One way or another though I do hope it can be salvaged!
Congrats,
—G.
unknown origin katana
Thanks for your comments, I appreciate them very much.
I was attracted to the sword because as soon I hold it I wanted to do tamegeshiri! Think of it at 69 years of age and never thought of it!
I paid 150 Euros. I have everything needed to mount it: A Taisho/Showa tsuba and a complete Showa period tsuka which fits well.
I have spoken with my mate Kam in Brisbane and he advise me to go ahead. So I will have to send him the blade.
Only a decent polish will reveal the true nature of the steel but this is secondary for me, I have enough of koto and shinto blades and at my age I have to think of their future as none of my children have much interest or time to take care of them. I will have to start seriously thinking what to do with my Soden bizen O-tanto and one of my Izumi Rai Kinmichi III (NHTK papers) and the wakizashi signed Yamashiro kuni ju Nobokuni a beautifull blade to be authentified.
Once again thank you for this good surprise.
Michel
Michel
Cool
Sounds like you have everything all lined up to turn this into a good sword for martial arts practice! I can think of no better way to resurrect this particular blade.
Cheers,
—G.