I recently traded for a nice Wakizashi ("nice" simply meaning authentic) and am hoping someone can help me estimate a date and place/school of manufacture base on the hamon and form/style of the blade. I've posted this over at NMB but while receiving quite a few views, no one has as of yet chimed in with any input.
Length from the mune machi to the kissaki is approximately 19 5/8 inches / 49.8 cm measured in a straight line. The nakago is unsigned, though there are (remnants of) painted markings on the obverse.
What strikes me is the hamon. The character/style of the hamon is distinct and different on each side; the hamon on the obverse seems - how can I describe it? - "wispy," like the tops of clouds, while the hamon on the reverse seems to rise and fall with something (a little) more closely approaching regularity (the photographs in both this and the following 1-2 posts don't do the hamon justice). The boshi looks to be nearly the same on both sides of the blade.
One thing I noticed is that while both my Showa kai-gunto and Shinshinto katana have similar blade widths at the mune-machi (of or about 1 1/4 inches), this wakizashi measure approximately a full 1/8 of an inch smaller in width, though all three measure about 7/8 inch at the yokote. Something else that caught my eye is that the ha-machi is not nearly as well defined on this blade as it is on my other two. Could these observations possibly indicate a cut-down blade, or does the appearance of the nakago speak otherwise?
Anyway, given the number of photos I have taken of the blade, I will have to follow this up with one or more posts.
Hamon as seen on the obverse:
...and the reverse:
