Nihonto Club

Yes, it reads "Sadatsugu".

Pete

From my research Sadatsugu spans from 1100ad to current how do I know which Sadatsugu made this sword?

Figuring out "which" Sadatsugu is part of the "kantei" process. It is often quite difficult. It involves studying the detailed features to determine the time period, school (which general group of smiths), and perhaps the exact smith. Typically the blade needs to be in a good state of professional polish (do NOT attempt any cleaning/polishing yourself!!) so that the details can be seen clearly. The pros will NOT look at the signature, and then try to find features that match the name. Rather, they look at the blade with the tang hidden, make a determination, and THEN look at the signature to see if it fits.
One of the "easy" kantei clues to get a rough time period is to look at the condition of the nakago (tang). The condition of the yasuri-me (filemarks), and the color of the rust (how dark it is). In general, the older blades have little yasuri-me left, and the color is quite dark.

I'm going to "guess" that yours is about 1500's vintage. As a new collector, you may think "Wow! That's really old!". Yes, it is old, but note that the 1500's is NOT a very good time period. It includes the Sengoku era, where there was big demand for blades, and the quality was often not so good.
Also, in your pictures, it appears that the tip is broken off. To a serious collector, it is a fairly serious problem, because it cannot be restored without removing a LOT of metal (don't even think about trying it yourself!).

Pete

Pete do you have any suggestions for whom to send this blade to? I am in Arkansas and don't know of anyone local that could do this. Also how much does this normally cost.

Thanks

Hi, I guess you're asking about polishing? From what I can see in the pictures, I doubt that polishing is worth considering. Frankly, it's probably too far gone (but I could be wrong). In the first picture, I see a line running down the side, about 1cm from the edge - that may be the boundary between the hard edge steel, and the softer body steel. Anyway, the fact that it is visible is not a good sign. The blade has probably been polished a number of times in the last 400 years or so, and there just isn't much left. Combine that with the broken tip (which would need to be reshaped), and I don't think it's worth it. Even if it was polished/restored, the results might be disappointing.
A real polish is very expensive - in the area of $2000 for a blade of that size. Unless your blade can be verified to be an "important" smith, $2000 is much more than the blade is worth.
Nearly all of the qualified polishers are in Japan.
If you were to send it to Japan for polish, you would not get it back for at least several months, perhaps a year.

Can you remove the habaki (collar) from the blade? If you can, post a picture of that area, including the first couple of inches of the blade. Also post a picture that shows the entire tang, including the tip.

Also: In your picture of the signature, it appears that someone did some "filing" and exposed bare metal. If that was you, don't do that again :-) .

Pete

I assume the person that sold it to the pawn shop also is the person that put glue all over it, the habaki is glued on tight. Several of the other pieces if you look close have glue of some sort all over them. I tried a small amount of nail polish remover in a few places and it did not have any effect. I noticed the area of the tang that has a bright spot on it i'm not sure how/why the rust was removed once again it's in the condition that I acquired it, it might have been a spot of glue over that area. I was told by the pawn shop broker that the person that sold it to him found it in a wall while remolding a house. I will post more pictures tomorrow after work.

Troy

Pete here are the photos you asked for, as far as whom to send the blade to was in reference to identifying which Sadatsugu made the blade. Once I know when then I can decide if I wish to invest the money for a professional polish. If you have any suggestions to whom i could send the blade to for proper identification I would appreciate it.

Thanks Troy

Hi Troy,
The area under the habaki, specifically the "ha-machi" looks better than I expected.
The bad news is that the closeups of the tip look pretty bad. The tip would have to be completely reshaped. Also, the line between the "shinogi" and the "ji" is rounded off (look at a pictures of a proper polish, and see that it's a crisp line/angle).
I think there's little hope that polishing would be a good idea.
I don't have a specific suggestion for who to send it to for a "more professional kantei". Your best bet is to make contact with a collector's club ("To-Ken Kai") in a major city. Or, you could try contacting the JSSUS ( http://www.jssus.org/ ).

Even if you knew for sure which smith it is, why would you want to polish it anyway?
If the goal is "to make it more valuable", or "to make it look better for display" then you would do better to sell it as-is, and use the money to buy something in better condition.
Just my opinion :-) .

Pete