This has nothing at all to do with fishing, unless ya use it to clean fish, (just kidding) but figured someone might find it interesting… Me friend just bought an OLD house… Cleaning out the basement he found a japanese sword among a lot of junk & was piling it up gonna take it to the dump… Anyhow he gave me the sword. The say a (scabbard) was sepperated in half the whole length, the blade rusted. The restoration started as soon as i found out, while examining the tsuba (hand guard) shape & markings, that peice was made around 1396 - 1568… makes it at least 441 - 613 years old, that dont say the blade is that old, a rubbing of the tang & inscriptions has been sent off for translation to determine the maker, age & what other information it might tell me about the blade… I have allready restored the saya using the traditional rice glue and now starting on the blade itself, removing the rust slow & east so the blade doesnt get scratched or dammeged… The ito (braid handle wraps) show that the sword was used or handled quite a bit but will be left alone cause its still in tact & in sound shape… Heres a few pictures… ill post more pictures & information about the sword as i go along…
on those swords, are they like a damascus steel? i use japanese woodworking chisels and they are. the nicest ,sharpest tools ive owned. anyway thats a great looking sword!
Starting on the blade removing rust by polishing… Polishing & sharpening a japanese sword is 1 and the same using diferent grades & hardnesses of polishing stones… If not done correctly, a blade can be destroyed forever & thats bad for an old sword like this one… The nakago (tang), tsuba (hand guard) & fittings cannot be cleaned as far as removing patina or rust or ya decrease the swords value by half… Ya can however gently wipe oil on those parts… Japanese swords are not demascus… They are layered, folded many times… A mixture of a special clay, paper & straw is used durring the forging process to add the correct carbon content to the steel… The inner layer of steel is softer than the outer layers… After the blade has its final shape, a layer of special clay is coated on the blade, thicker along the back & sides & thinner as it gets nearer the cutting edge… The blade is then heated & cooled in the tempering process and sent off to a polisher…
the blade has been sent to a certified togashi polisher just outside kyoto japan… arta have it back in a few weeks… this will be the 2nd one i had done…
Did you get it appraised to find out if it’s really as old as you think? If it is i’m sure it’s prob worth a lot of money. A least enough for a new Z-axis.
25000$ as of now… still havent gotten the translation yet but aint sposta have it till around the end ofthis week… that will tell me who the maker was & hopefully even what part of japan it was from… no telling what scrap heap it woulda ended up on if i hadnt wanted it cause it is a little rusted… the blade will look a lot different when i get it back from the togashi…
That is too crazy cool.
Just in looking at the pics, I have to wonder at the hands that have held it, whether in anger or admiration. Given the estimated age of the sword, and the slim knowledge I have of Japanese history, What battles has it seen, who’s life has it saved. Did it, in some small way, change the history of a nation.
OK, I’m thru wigging out now. :roll:
Please keep us posted on whatever history you find out. This stuff is fascinating.
hopefully i can find a bit of history on the sword after getting the translations back this week by looking for info about the maker & place of origon… perhaps i can even track of where it might have been along its travels, battles or who owned it & who it was passed down to through its life… now that sounds really interesting…
ok here goes… got the translation this morning so heres the bit of information taken from it… hopefully with further research on the information listed bellow, ill be able to follow the sword through its travels along the way… The blade is muromachi koto from 1396 to 1568… His blades resemble Hizen swords, and examples such as this one show the similarities… Tight Ko Mokume hada with a very well done suguha hamon carry the characteristics of the Hizen School, but are slightly different in the pattern of the hada, as well as the boshi… Hamon is a straight temper with small activity with ko nie deki… Hada has many chikei that are fine with ji nie… Tang was shortened at one time… heres the kicker… was offered $14,000… it turns out that its worth $25,000…
Finnished allmost… have to straighten up a couple of places on the ito (handle wraping)… relaqured the saya & build the peice that holds the siago… heres 4 more pictures…
what all of that was in the translation. I understood the dates and that the tang got toungled.
That’s a fantastic job of restoration. I can hardly believe the difference a little TLC makes.
Good Job.
the translation is not just the inscription on the tang itself even though sometimes it tells the date, place, smith, owner and sometimes other information… this as well as the blade as a whole… the blades curvature, thickness, hammon, activity above the hammon, shape and even the grain patern in the steel or the way it is polished tells something about the era, school and other information that sometimes the tang doesnt tell…