Signed Koto Wakazashi Hefty Armor Piercing Blade

Signature:  Heianjo (no) Ju Nobuyoshi.
Year Made: Around 1532 
Forging Pattern: Itame, 
Tempering Pattern: Large midare, almost to shinogi.
Dimensions:  Blade Length:  22.5 inchesNakago: 6.75 inches 7 mm thick and 35 mm wide at Hamachi
Mountings:  1934 pattern shin-gunto saya with ishizuke and shibabiki missing. Nice copper habaki two piece soldered together, in good condition
Overall Condition:  Fair, A very hefty wakizashi with a large hamon and the kissaki almost in full temper. The kind of blade used to be driven through armor. It has a shallow (1/16 inch) but long (3/16) nick as well as several smaller nicks but there is plenty of temper left to polish them out. The blade is covered with scratches, especially one side but they are not deep. We believe this sword would polish up nicely and the place where we polished a crude window to insure there was temper above the large nick revealed nice activity in nie as well. There is a polisher's mei on the shinogi-ji, indicating this sword was polished by a professional polisher before being mounted for combat and it was fitted with a higher quality habaki as well. Although there is a mekugi near the end of the mei which would normally indicate a gimei blade, this hole was drilled and is still shiny steel so it appears to have been done recently, part of a failed restoration project. In any case it leads us to believe that the nakago is ubu (original shape) and the signature most likely genuine. Signed Koto blades are getting scarce and this would make a nice example with a polish and an attractive one as well.