Katanas !!

some bold markings on the blade, love the sweep and the point.

You could always shira-saya mount that puppy for its own protection. Thats what the plain wood mounts are for.

Keith
 
Keith,

I am currently considering what to do with this blade. It looks and is marked like an original 16th century WAK. I can either try to carefully restore it to regain it's original appearance by dressing it in authentic period hardware, perhaps mount it as you are suggesting, or I might just leave it alone. I suspect it will cost a small morgage to do this one right, and finding someone qualified to work the restoration will not be easy. This blade might be just a few years younger than the (European) discovery of the New World. That is why these should be treated with respect.

I might have to talk Bill into making an HI version of this blade for us to play with. Perhaps the katana should have a smaller sidekick, more sutable for indoor use and modern carry. [hint, hint] :)

n2s

edited to add: Bill naming the HI version of this Wak would be easy. The rare markings on the blade seem to translate into either "Moon-Light", or "Moon-Day;" either of which should work.

(picture: close-up showing the flowing temper line)
 

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sounds cool.

"(European) discovery of the New World"--oh, you mean Colombus. Other europeans beat him here, but it'll take a generation to get that into institutionalied learning curriculums. The knowledge is already 40 years old.

leads me to another thing--the folks who thought the earth was flat were both preceeded by and followed by folks who had no such misconception. So, why this pocket of geographical stupidity in location and time? (I'm sure we coudl argue that there are plenty of stupidity pockets thru time and space---but that's another theory.
 
why this pocket of geographical stupidity in location and time?
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I suspect many of us have a pretty strong opinion on why this developed, but, that is thread we probably wouldn't want to get into.

Yes, other Europeans were here before Christopher Columbus, and perhaps it can be argued that Western Civilization had retained a tenous contact with the Americas throughout our history. I use discovery here in the popular sense, to denote when Europeans became generally aware of the two continents.

n2s
 
Interesting:

Here we see a closeup of the blade markings. The mark on the left may have been added to the blade to hide an old lamination fault (study the line within the box). The mark on the right seems to be added for it's own purpose. These repairs, if they turn out to be repairs at all, seem to be very old.

n2s
 

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Hi N2S,

The sword seems to be a decent shobu wakizashi and the mei seemed alright....it is a koto by a smith in Mino.

But the carving(horimono) of "sun and moon" will affect the value in a bad way. Nihonto either has wonderful carvings or none at all. Horimono are always deep and wonderful, depicting a certain thing.

Most probably some dealers, not Japanese nor chinese, has sratched these onto the blade( most probably this century too)hoping to increase value. Even the Kanji are wrong.... the "moon" is alright but the "sun" has been written as "eye". So the one who carved(scratched) may neither be chinese not japanese.

Get a polisher at least to have the sword appraised to at least see if it worth invest in it or not :)

Joe Leung
 
Most probably some dealers, not Japanese nor chinese, has sratched these onto the blade( most probably this century too)hoping to increase value.
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Well, I guess the good news would be that if this is the case the sword probably doesn't have a structural problem. :rolleyes:

I wonder if it was the same guy that kept chroming stuff to make it look better. :mad:

This one might get mounted, but it is not going to be polished. Unlike the individual who damaged this sword, I like doing everything I can to keep my antiques in their found condition.

n2s
 
Originally posted by not2sharp
Well, I guess the good news would be that if this is the case the sword probably doesn't have a structural problem. :rolleyes:

I wonder if it was the same guy that kept chroming stuff to make it look better. :mad:

This one might get mounted, but it is not going to be polished. Unlike the individual who damaged this sword, I like doing everything I can to keep my antiques in their found condition.

n2s
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You heard 'bout Fred Lohman? He does Nihonto Restoration.

Here's his website:

http://www.japanese-swords.com/pages/restore.htm

Full fitting and polishing costs only US$1120...
 
Hello Uncle Bill,
found that the standard katana is sold out. When will it be in stock again?

Andreas
 
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