When I first got this sword, it was in a dismal condition. The horn koiguchi had been destroyed, the kojiri was missing, the saya was split, which had allowed the blade to fall out of the bottom, breaking the tip off the kissaki. The tsuka was missing a chunk of wood, the same was all but destroyed, the ito was 80% missing, and the menuki had gone. The tsuba had also been butchered and was corroded. On top of that, the seppa had been replaced with a couple of amateur night washers and the blade was notched and scratched. It wasn't too promising.

All in all, a previous owner had made a complete mess of this sword. It looked as if it had been thrown round a parking lot several times before having bits of it run over.

The first thing to do was to fix the tsuka which, apart from the chunk of missing wood, was in good condition. I therefore inlet a new piece of wood into the tsuka and shaped it. Once finished, it could not be distinguished readily from the original wood. I then applied new same panels before rebinding the tsuka. Menatime I looked out some appropriate contemporary bits and pieces, such as a tsuba, to replace the missing damaged bits.

The saya was then completely split for cleaning before being reglued and a new koiguchi and kojiri made. This required the presence of the blade and habaki to get the koiguchi dimensions right, so I had delayed sending it to the polisher. However, once the saya was fixed, the blade went for polishing. Whilst it was gone, I relaquered the entire saya, fitted the shitodome, and finally polished the lot with my almond oil mix. The job was then finished off by the addition of a kozuka.

The final stage came after the polisher returned the finished blade; he had done a spectacular job on it. The tsuka and the new seppa were fitted to the tang, and the latter handcut to accomodate the kozuka.

Anyway, it is now off in Japan at shinsa.

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