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I was looking at various katana and wakizashi yesterday and was confused by one particular wakizashi that was hira-zukuri(flat sided) on one face and shinogi-zukuri on the opposite face. I've not seen this before and initially thought it must have been 'over polished' and lost its shinogi line on the flat side. But it looks so purposeful and I wondered if the swordsmith used the blade as a kind of experiment, possibly because of overall dissatisfaction with the blade, or maybe it was an apprentice piece or...??

Hi all,

Thank you for accepting me into this community. I recently acquired a nihonto style blade and I'm trying to find some info on it. It is made from Damascus so I'm expecting it be a modern blade. Picked it up at a garage sale for $25 and want to sharpen it up to use for cutting practice, however I want to make sure my assumptions are correct before i break out the stones. Thank you for any assistance you can provide

Nathan

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Hi, I've spent many hours researching the marking on the tang
with no success. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Hi all. My friend showed me a sword he bought from an estate sale some years ago in Vermont. He showed it to me the other day and I snapped these photos. I know a bit about Katana smithing, all I could ascertain was that the hamon is real, beyond that, I need some help.

I am having trouble translating the characters on this nakago. It is the reverse of the nakago so I assume its the details of date etc, rather than the smith.
Also, is it relevant that the characters seem to be 'hanging off the edge' - ie, seem very close to the edge? Visually this seems odd to me?

Just received the Kokan Nagayama hardback - Connoisseur's Book of Japanese Swords - a very steep learning curve obviously. Unbelievably detailed - I don't know where to start.
Thanks for the recommendation.

Cheers

Andy

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Dear All,

Can anyone assist me with this Mei?

I have bought this Wakisashi and the Mei looks to be well cut...

Any assistance would be very much appreciated.

Kind regards,

Neil

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Dear Sirs,

I'm from a fencer's family, we always like sword and now, I practice martial arts and have a budo shop in Paris.

My request is about a old wakisashi Meï (signature).
Please see pictures.

This wakisashi is about 52,8cm lenght, in a Satsuma's Koshirae. The nakago looks like old sword with red rust. The sword was in bad state but i'm making a cleaning with shirasaya koshirae. Just waiting the result to be able to see the original work.

The Mei seems made with 3 kanji (maybe 4) the 2 last are 'Hisakuni' 久國.

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Hi there,

Could anyone give me some information on this mei, the translation i was given is 'Gas of Life -By Amasaku'
I have no idea if the translation is accurate. The sword could be a fake or original, I just cannot gather and history on it.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you guys...

Ciaran.

Hello,
A local shop where I live has a WWII officers gunto, the blade seems a bit different from most of the information I have researched on them. It is 26.5", has a diamond shaped mine down by the kisakki, and a single mekugi hole with 5 characters. Natural hamon. The ha is good and sharp but the blade is black and oxidized in some places. No pitting that I can tell though. There are about four nicks on the ha big enought to put your thumbnail into. He I is asking $750 for it. That seems like a lot so I am trying to find translation to see if the blade is anything special.