S140. Nicely mounted tanto, suriage and signed Kane …

Nagasa: 12″ 30.5 cm.

Sori: .6 cm.

Moto haba: 3 cm.

Moto kasane: .5 cm.

Nakago nagasa: 3 13/16″ 9.8 cm.

Overall in koshirae: 17″ 43.2 cm.

Hira-zukuri, iori mune. Gunome and hako midare hamon with sunagashi and other hataraki, coming to a ko-maru boshi with a medium kaeri, all worked in a bright and consistent nioi-guchi covered in ko-nie. The hada is a tight ko-itame. The horimono are futasuji-hi on the omote and on the ura a bo-hi with a short tsure-hi. The blade is in polish with a few very faint marks, 2 or 3 pinpricks, and maybe .1 mm of the tip of the kissaki is missing (a few hair widths). There is also a ware’ at the bottom of the tsure-hi, under the habaki. The blade comes mounted with a double gold & silver foil habaki (a tiny piece of foil is gone). The Kanji used for Kane leads us to Mino Den and late Koto or earliest Shinto would be my guess for time of manufacture.

The koshirae is quite well made and all en suite. The fuchi, kashira, kurikata, and kojiri are silver of waves. The menuki are, on the omote, a gold sun behind shakudo waves and on the ura, a silver moon behind waves. The tsuka-ito (handle wrap) is perfectly intact, over good quality same’. The saya is finely lacquered with cherry blossoms and gold ten zogan droplets on waves; there is a 1 cm chip in the lacquer. The kotsuka is silver: cherry blossoms over waves and the wari-kogai (2 piece) is silver of waves and gold ten zogan. The kogatana is signed. The tsuba is solid silver. The koshirae comes with sageo that hasn’t been mounted.

The next owner might want to have that spot on the lacquer repaired (if so I can help you find the craftsperson) but otherwise there is little to be done besides sitting back and enjoying. This is nice. 1 pound, 5 ounces. $2,250.