. . .Yeah I eventually had to say something about this. I had a fun time this evening learning about my 1045 Masahiro Bamboo Katana- personally. I successfully managed to disassemble the sword. It was not as bad as I thought it would be- I got to look at the tang and it was indeed rough and dirty. Oddly enough, Longquan Forge did not add a signature to the tang- so there is no signature.
That may send an alarm off- however I did see black markings which appeared to be writing on the tang, and it formed a zig-zag, I dunno on that one. I do know that it is a production katana and it has all the features of a katana (and a meguki) so I refer to it as a katana, however it is NOT a true Nihongo (a true Nihongo is an all-Japanese sword and they range around $40,000 each, the museum pieces).
I wanted to learn how to disassemble a katana for two reasons. While I was at the MAAM 2008 Airshow (I'm working on the part 2 movie) a gentleman was selling a katana he claimed to be an officer's katana. It was indeed heavy and the fittings appeared genuine, as well as a respectable amount of wear to the saya (scabbard/shieth). What I should have done, if I had had the money was request to inspect the tang (bottom portion hidden in the handle) under the conditions that if the meguki (pin that holds the hilt to the sword blade) was bad anyways that it wasn't my fault =p. It appeared to be a Type 95 or Type 98 1935 production run. Back then they had katanas issued to soldiers which were made by machine and sharpened; many have a serial number printed on the collar of the sword.
The hidden beauty of japanese swords is that the hidden tang can tell you an entire history lesson. I cannot read Japanese, but I am fairly familiar with katakana symbols so I would know what japanese writing looks like, but would not be able to read it. Confirmation of a smith's signature and wear (a tang is always left rough and dirty- the aged look is part of the sword's value, don't clean it!) and I would pick up the sword. There was one fishy thing about it, actually two. One was that the sword had wavy lines throughout the blade- this means that it was not forged but made by a different process and folded- which does not fall into line with a machined WWII blade for Japanese soldiers.
Second, he was selling them by blades clearly made in China- they had China printed on the blade itself and the hamon (wavy line) was unoriginal on those pieces. I call 'em wall hangers, but they were sharp and I could not determine stainless steel or not. Actually I have a third- he had no problems having me touching the blade. That is a big NO NO, this adds rust and corrosion to the blade from oils on the human hand. Either he knew it wasn't genuine or he was not educated, OR he simply told me what he knew about the piece from another person or vendor. The katana in question was genuinly heavy- but the other chinese ones by them were even heavier. That is why looking at the tang is important- if I see a signature or machinist serial number then I would buy it, despite the absence or presence of a full kissaki (the way the end of the blade is shaped, I love certain shaped kissaki like my masahiro).
To my best guess, without looking at the blade I would assume it is made of damascus steel, but I have to be very careful about that and I will request to see the tang in the future. I want to get back into collecting eastern swords now that I have some money- and I am restricting myself to one sword purchase a year under $400USD. I want a shirasaya katana this time (one that has all wood fittings and no guard), I'm not sure but I am happy that production katana are at reasonable prices (just darned expensive!). It's either eastern swords or WWII militaria, and I will probably have to wait until I am out of college to begin collecting WWII militaria. Why do I want a compound for a home? hehe so I can have all of this stuff secure.
I was off work today and I am off again Tuesday, so I will think about making a how-to video- I just oiled the blade and if I touch it again I may scream profanities (because touching it will require another oiling). I dunno, I am just hooked on the beauty of japanese blades- the grain on the swords after a polish is absoloutely breathtaking- I cannot explain it any other way. The choji oil too (anti-corrosive agent), mmm it makes my room smell uniquely Japanese; I love the aroma.
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