Katana for comment

AJ1356 · 8th January 2012, 05:16 PM

I had bought this sword about 10 years ago when I was in Japan. I expressed interest in a katana and one of the guys I knew back then took me to an antique dealer and I ended up buy this(the only one I could offord and was nice). It does come with a piece of old paper that the dealer said was the certificate for it. He also said the sword was made by the second best swordsmith and an emperial swordsmith which I think he meant of the Mieji era. Other than that I know nothing about it, have never gotten around to taken it to be appraised or properly cleaned/sharpened. Still very sharp and well balanced, no I don't know how many body balde this is .
comments/info is welcomed

thinreadline · 8th January 2012, 05:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AJ1356

I had bought this sword about 10 years ago when I was in Japan. I expressed interest in a katana and one of the guys I knew back then took me to an antique dealer and I ended up buy this(the only one I could offord and was nice). It does come with a piece of old paper that the dealer said was the certificate for it. He also said the sword was made by the second best swordsmith and an emperial swordsmith which I think he meant of the Mieji era. Other than that I know nothing about it, have never gotten around to taken it to be appraised or properly cleaned/sharpened. Still very sharp and well balanced, no I don't know how many body balde this is .
comments/info is welcomed

Any pics ?

AJ1356 · 8th January 2012, 05:41 PM

internet is slow , took awhile to upload

AJ1356 · 10th January 2012, 02:29 PM

No comments?? I did not know no one was into Katanas here...

koto · 10th January 2012, 04:05 PM

WWII Seki smith Yoshiomi 武山数雄

Rick · 10th January 2012, 05:45 PM

Rich stops by now and then ..

http://home.earthlink.net/~steinrl/nihonto.htm

laEspadaAncha · 10th January 2012, 06:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AJ1356

No comments?? I did not know no one was into Katanas here...

I have several nihonto, but am functionally useless when it comes to translating kanji.

Koto on the other hand has translated the mei... the osujikai file marks through me a little, though my hands-on exposure is limited enough that it means relatively little when a feature on a nihonto catches my eye as "odd"...

Nice blade either way. I'm guessing the shirasaya is contemporary... or at least not original to the katana.

AJ1356 · 11th January 2012, 08:59 AM

Kono thanks for the translation, Yoshiomi does sound familiar, I think that is what I was told the maker was.
The shirisaya is much newer than the sword, maybe at most 15 years old. Mybe next time I am home I'll take some pictures of the certificate and then we'll know more.
A quastion to anyone who'd know this. Does any one know of a person who'd be able to properly clean the resharpen this baby? In southern United States??

laEspadaAncha · 11th January 2012, 06:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AJ1356

Kono thanks for the translation, Yoshiomi does sound familiar, I think that is what I was told the maker was.
The shirisaya is much newer than the sword, maybe at most 15 years old. Mybe next time I am home I'll take some pictures of the certificate and then we'll know more.
A quastion to anyone who'd know this. Does any one know of a person who'd be able to properly clean the resharpen this baby? In southern United States??

Are you willing to wait the better part of a year? Anyway, given the cost of polishing, I would suggest first researching the value of this smith's work to make sure it would be worth the investment of a professional polish... Here's one that sold in December, signed Yoshiomi and in koshirae:

http://militariawwii.com/ww2-japanes...-signed-beauty

This singular example could be a statistical outlier, but from my own (albeit limited) experience, for each nihonto I have owned that is worth the cost of a polish, I have owned at least one that was not.

FWIW, I have had success with Noxon 7. It is a polishing agent, but an individual known to me - who has bought and sold more nihonto than I will ever see - swears by the stuff as the only metal polish that he considers to be safe for nihonto. Gentle-to-moderate pressure* with a soft cloth... I've been able to remove a fair amount of oxidation similar to what appears on your example, and it will enhance the visibility of the hamon assuming there is one.

Either way, a nice gendaito...

sirupate · 18th January 2012, 09:57 AM

Nice bit of info on here, about the Noxon 7, do you have pics with the results?

laEspadaAncha · 19th January 2012, 05:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sirupate

Nice bit of info on here, about the Noxon 7, do you have pics with the results?

As luck would have it, I just happened to post a "before" pic of a Shinshinto katana here in the forum:

http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showthread.php?t=11616

I'll make it a point to take an "after" pic of the reverse over the week when time permits and post it.

AJ1356 · 19th January 2012, 05:43 PM

I've been searching around the net, trying to find more information about the Seki smith Yoshiomi. All of the ones I have found resemble more to the pic in this post, and none to what I have. Plus all other Seki swords have the stamp which mine does not. Just wondering, what is the deal, could it be that there was another Yoshiomi, or someone else with a similar name who made this, or is it common that the same maker marks different swords differently?

Rich · 19th January 2012, 06:15 PM

I have three oshigata of Yoshiomi, all Seki smiths, but the signatures look somewhat different. Many Seki factories employed mei carvers, so a blade by a particular smith could have very different looking signatures depending on which mei carver signed it.

http://home.earthlink.net/~ttstein/index.htm

Rich S

8th January 2012, 05:16 PM	#1
AJ1356 Member Join Date: Jul 2011 Location: Nashville Posts: 314	Katana for comment I had bought this sword about 10 years ago when I was in Japan. I expressed interest in a katana and one of the guys I knew back then took me to an antique dealer and I ended up buy this(the only one I could offord and was nice). It does come with a piece of old paper that the dealer said was the certificate for it. He also said the sword was made by the second best swordsmith and an emperial swordsmith which I think he meant of the Mieji era. Other than that I know nothing about it, have never gotten around to taken it to be appraised or properly cleaned/sharpened. Still very sharp and well balanced, no I don't know how many body balde this is . comments/info is welcomed Attached Images Last edited by AJ1356; 8th January 2012 at 05:39 PM.

19th January 2012, 05:43 PM	#12
AJ1356 Member Join Date: Jul 2011 Location: Nashville Posts: 314	I've been searching around the net, trying to find more information about the Seki smith Yoshiomi. All of the ones I have found resemble more to the pic in this post, and none to what I have. Plus all other Seki swords have the stamp which mine does not. Just wondering, what is the deal, could it be that there was another Yoshiomi, or someone else with a similar name who made this, or is it common that the same maker marks different swords differently? Attached Images

8th January 2012, 05:41 PM	#3
AJ1356 Member Join Date: Jul 2011 Location: Nashville Posts: 314	internet is slow , took awhile to upload

10th January 2012, 02:29 PM	#4
AJ1356 Member Join Date: Jul 2011 Location: Nashville Posts: 314	No comments?? I did not know no one was into Katanas here...

10th January 2012, 04:05 PM	#5
koto Member Join Date: Feb 2011 Posts: 27	WWII Seki smith Yoshiomi 武山数雄

10th January 2012, 05:45 PM	#6
Rick Vikingsword Staff Join Date: Nov 2004 Posts: 6,291	Rich stops by now and then .. http://home.earthlink.net/~steinrl/nihonto.htm

11th January 2012, 08:59 AM	#8
AJ1356 Member Join Date: Jul 2011 Location: Nashville Posts: 314	Kono thanks for the translation, Yoshiomi does sound familiar, I think that is what I was told the maker was. The shirisaya is much newer than the sword, maybe at most 15 years old. Mybe next time I am home I'll take some pictures of the certificate and then we'll know more. A quastion to anyone who'd know this. Does any one know of a person who'd be able to properly clean the resharpen this baby? In southern United States??

18th January 2012, 09:57 AM	#10
sirupate Member Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: England Posts: 373	Nice bit of info on here, about the Noxon 7, do you have pics with the results?

19th January 2012, 06:15 PM	#13
Rich Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: comfortably at home, USA Posts: 432	I have three oshigata of Yoshiomi, all Seki smiths, but the signatures look somewhat different. Many Seki factories employed mei carvers, so a blade by a particular smith could have very different looking signatures depending on which mei carver signed it. http://home.earthlink.net/~ttstein/index.htm Rich S