Japanese Sword Help

[Gary Cain]

No question about that! I have a Daito made by Sukesada that I have been offered 100K for (which I grant you is not in the league of swords it has been my pleasure to view at the Tokyo Sword Museum) so I do know the difference between good and bad blades. I take mass production to be 'factory' production with all of its attendant manufacturing shortcuts. My point was that just because there is no signature does not necessarily mean it is not hand made. The photo's are not clear enough to make out the file marks to the degree needed, however examining the hamon, I do see in both blades the lack of a 'simple' hamon which is indiciative of a machine made blade. As I am sure you are aware based on your responses, there is no hard and fast rule (well that's not entirely true, there are a couple but they are not germain to the discussion at hand) when appraising a blade. One must look at all the elements to arrive at an accurate appraisal.

Gary

A thin, unrefined blade tang is a sign of a mass produced, poorly made sword, be it 500 years old or 65 years old. Except for the aluminum handle NCO swords, arsenal made blades all have hand filed nakago. One must remember that an old blade does not mean it is a good blade. Over the 1300 years of making the modern Japanese sword, many periods of mass production and poor quality occured. The better quality gendaito have strong, firm tangs that are well filed and do not resemble the poor quality of the military issue blades.

Bob