Old Katana, or is it?

[IanS]

I recently bought a rough katana at auction, it was badly in need of restoration, just what I wanted to practice blade polishing on, it seemingly had an old blade. I had polished a shin gunto blade previously and wanted to go a step further.

I'm not sure about the blade now, I can't see a hamon, maybe something will appear during polishing. The tsuka seems pretty old as does the tsuba. The tsuba looks Edo period to me but I'm certainly not experienced enough to judge its age.

I've added some photos and would appreciate hearing some of your thoughts on this.

Taking the images from left to right, 1 is the tsuba end of the tsuka. 2 & 3 is one side of the tsuba. 4, 5 & 6 is the other side. 7 is the blade and 8 is two unfolded hishigami from under the ito wrap.

Thanks,
Ian

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