Cutting Edge

[BIG]

A well known man and his thoughts about collecting...

 

http://www.nihonto.ca/ha/

 

Best Regards

[ROKUJURO]

Valuable readings!

Thanks Peter for pointing this out!

[singlechange]

Peter,

  Thanks for pointing me in the direction of Darcy's Blog...from following his posts here on this forum I liked the way he conveys his thoughts and his writing style. On the Blog itself Darcy's writing and style is on another level and even better...as if with more time and greater effort his writing really shines.

   Robert

[Pete Klein]

This is what people with genius level IQ's do to add something else into their already full schedules. I am truly humbled.

[Steve Waszak]

Just one sparkling gem after another.  Highly recommended reading. 

[Vermithrax16]

It's wonderful, on my top bar for everyday stop in. Tried to sign up to comment, does not seem to be working.

[Darcy]

Thanks for the kind words. It's just a week old, some stuff may not work right. Maybe comments not working is a feature lol. 

 

Probably you will have heard a lot of it here on stuff I posted as the first few posts were mostly developed themes from things that came up here in the past. But as I go forward I am going to start dipping more into original research and back it up with photos and charts and so forth. Every day there are chats with friends which are seed ground for nice articles. 

[Vermithrax16]

Thanks for the kind words. It's just a week old, some stuff may not work right. Maybe comments not working is a feature lol. 

 

Probably you will have heard a lot of it here on stuff I posted as the first few posts were mostly developed themes from things that came up here in the past. But as I go forward I am going to start dipping more into original research and back it up with photos and charts and so forth. Every day there are chats with friends which are seed ground for nice articles. 

I will be looking Dracy. I learn so much for your posts here and already devoured the blog, LOVE it!

[Valric]

I concur. THANK YOU! I just devoured everything and now I want more... 

[Shogun8]

Brilliant writer and thinker.

[Darcy]

I don't know about brilliant, and I make mistakes, and I am usually banging this stuff out at 3am. Same as NMB posts. 

 

I want to pop some bubbles with the blog, it's all, and try to get people to apply more critical thinking to what they are doing. One of the strongest skills we have available is common sense.

 

I just had an obvious mistake pointed out on my website that came from me not looking into something with enough detail and assuming I got something right that was above my limited expertise in that area. Keep it in mind, it's not worthy of this level of praise just yet and it is fallible advice.

 

I am no more than an advanced student. 

 

Keep that in mind whenever you read what I write and disagree with me when appropriate. Keep your critical thinking hat on, whether it is me writing or anyone else, keep it firmly on. 

 

When you put people on pedestals it gives them extra height to fall.

 

Disclaimer bomb dropped. 

[Jussi Ekholm]

Some great thoughts in there as usual Darcy. I agree that top stuff is top stuff but I do think you might sometimes be bit too harsh towards mediocre stuff (as that is what many of us [me included] collect). Of course it is understandable as you are continuously among the top stuff it is easy to understand how mediocre stuff will not be of interest. But this might be my two cents of constructive criticism.

 

I particulary enjoyed the collection tells a story post. It is always interesting to hear what fellow collectors are collecting and what is the story of their collection.

[nagamaki - Franco]

Darcy,

 

Sharing your experiences is much appreciated, thank you.

[Ken-Hawaii]

Are you intending to add a page for us to register, log in, & make comments, Darcy? Good reading - thanks!

 

Ken

 

[Ken-Hawaii]

Never mind, Darcy. I just hadn't clicked in the right spot! Gomen! 

 

Ken

 

[Vermithrax16]

Never mind, Darcy. I just hadn't clicked in the right spot! Gomen! 

 

Ken

I tried to sign up but it does not seem to be working.

[Ken-Hawaii]

I haven't received my authentication e-mail yet, but the process seemed to work, Jeremiah. I clicked on the words "Logged In" under Leave a Reply at the bottom of one of the articles, & it brought me to a page where I could enter my e-mail address & Username. Pretty straightforward, & likely an intelligence test! If you can't figure out how to register, you're probably not someone he wants to talk with! I do suggest that he change the color for the link, though.

 

Ken

 

[Vermithrax16]

I haven't received my authentication e-mail yet, but the process seemed to work, Jeremiah. I clicked on the words "Logged In" under Leave a Reply at the bottom of one of the articles, & it brought me to a page where I could enter my e-mail address & Username. Pretty straightforward, & likely an intelligence test! If you can't figure out how to register, you're probably not someone he wants to talk with! I do suggest that he change the color for the link, though.

 

Ken

Haha Ken, yes I did that and was notified an email was sent to authenticate my log in and it's not in my email or SPAM folder.

[Ken-Hawaii]

I have to assume that means Darcy hasn't set up an automatic response, & that he wants to look at the potential site users. I'm surprised when I get something back instantly, to be honest.

 

Ken

 

[Vermithrax16]

Yes, good point. I used to run a popular blog and yes, the bots and crap need to be excluded.

[Vermithrax16]

As Darcy's work is seen it's not going to need any promotion, but I really want to have a discussion about this post, which I think is fascinating, wildly important to all collectors, and very open for debate:

 

Low and Wide or High and Narrow

https://www.nihonto.ca/ha/?p=132

 

Read the whole thing but this is a concept I am thinking about very much as a newer collector. Could I buy one wildly expensive sword? Yes. Would that satisfy my nihonto love and craving to collect swords? Maybe, maybe not. Medium and Wedge shaped is what I am working out as a plan.

[b.hennick]

I started collecting low and wide. A collection was for sale and I bought 7 blades, a friend bought one. I now own none of the 7 but I do own the one the friend bought. I needed to learn from the 7 and to later realise that owning the one was better after I understood blades better. I'm trying to reduce quantity and increase quality.

[Vermithrax16]

I started collecting low and wide. A collection was for sale and I bought 7 blades, a friend bought one. I now own none of the 7 but I do own the one the friend bought. I needed to learn from the 7 and to later realise that owning the one was better after I understood blades better. I'm trying to reduce quantity and increase quality.

Great point Barry, for sure.

 

I will start another thread about this. Think it's important or if it's been covered someone post that thread here.

[Darcy]

It's sending me emails from you guys signing up. 

 

Wordpress... has its own issues... and I am not an experienced user. One of the options was in conflict with one of the others, something like "User needs to be authenticated to post [x]" being turned on while "Send user authentication email [ ]" was turned off by default. 

 

So the first few are in some kind of hell. From which I don't know if it can be resolved... I'd say try again. 

[Darcy]

The thrust of the low and wide and high and narrow is not that someone should go buy the most expensive blade ever by the way... it's that there is a danger of getting a certain amount of money in your pocket and then blowing it, and forever moving sideways.

 

That builds the infinitely wide and very low collection. 

 

If your total budget is $1500 and you want 3 blades you can find that. In which case you are better with 3 blades than 10 blades at $150 each. Because quality increases rapidly you allocate funds poorly when you go too wide.

 

A side effect I didn't talk about is the base cost of the side materials (papers, polish, shirasaya, etc). If you go wide and say buy from dealers at around $7k you are mostly paying for a lot of shirasaya and habaki and polish and very little is going directly into the sword.  It can make sense if you are finding swords on your own and then your cost is not factored in because you probably paid far less than market value by discovering it yourself. In that case though you can't control what you get.

 

Someone here I think wrote or told me that they had a rule, anything they bought had to be better than what they already had or they wouldn't get it. That kind of rule of thumb stops the infinite sideways expansion of a collection. 

 

I am writing the posts for a larger audience than the people on this board, many of whom may never have seen this board and are thinking about a first blade, many of them are not going to be also the self-helpers from this board who can go to a gun show and find something and know what to do. They just want one or a few blades and want to buy vs. find stuff from first principles. So I'm trying to at least seed the thought that planning is essential. Even if it is just ever only one item to own. Especially if it is one item to own. 

[BIG]

One Koto item, I presume...

 

Best Regards from a still shin shinto guy

[Greg F]

Thank you for sharing this Peter.

 

Darcy thank you for all the knowledge,time and experience ayou share with us less advanced students. Also I think its very honorable to have gimei signatures removed instead of passing the buck to the next guy. Much appreciated.

 

Greg

[Curran]

This is what people with genius level IQ's do to add something else into their already full schedules. I am truly humbled.

 

Ditto.

I loved You Will Fall. 7am and that is one worth reading many a morning before starting out.