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My Kyu with a grooved blade. A papered (Shodai) YOSHICHIKA.

Thanks Steve much appreciated . Interestingly there is an habaki with the same gift inscription illustrated in one of Shibata's handbooks . The blade was originally very long but is now suriage and the horimono is now on the nakago. You will enjoy seeing it when you get down here John . A gunto handle but with a hamidashi tsuba on it . All original as I got it off a vet who bought it back from Balikpapan . Ian

I'll just leave this totally authentic "Emura" mei here....

I haven't made any sales, but advice received since joining has saved me from buying "unwisely", so I've sent a couple of quid out of the money I would have wasted!

All, This update has been a long time coming. I wanted to be able to give things time in order to provide an accurate and comprehensive review. 1. After years of display the only thing I have had to do is give the wax a quick swipe with the microdear to enhance the shine. There has been no clumping. There have been times when the wax has ever so slightly hazed, but those were only on blades in areas without dedicated climate controlled cases. 2. I recently removed and reapplied the wax. I do not think this was even necessary, but I was curious about how hard it would be to remove after sitting. The process I used was to wipe the blades with denatured alcohol. I then used a heat gun set to 140 to quickly pass over the blade followed by another wipe down. It removed 100% of the wax. 3. As to protection, I had tools rust in the same area I had some of the treated blades displayed. There was absolutely no corrosion on the treated blades at all. If I receive enough requests, I will make a video on the application and removal. Best, James

Heard and donation happily sent. Thank you for providing the platform for this amazing service

If faithfully reproduced to the same level of quality, small items like this are invaluable to collectors. Items like these Type 95 screws, the special Type 3 pins and the small screws used for Saya parts on standard officer swords are difficult and expensive to obtain now.

Forgot this one.

That is fair John, I will temper my response. Thank you.

Easy does it. Don't get your halyards twisted guys. Different time and place. John

Not going to defend how it was handled. But from the photos available of it today, it appears to be in fine shape. So someone made sure it was kept carefully or its been restored. May I ask what you are trying to infer? It was a gift to Krueger. He then gave it to his commanding officer at the end of the war. Presentations like this were commonplace and considered a sign of respect. This has been a practice for centuries. If you think that giving a memento to a higher ranked individual after a hard-fought war or battle is kissing ass, then what is appropriate? Gift-giving to higher rank individuals is also VERY common and even expected in Japan. It was common for lords of any status to give other lords a gift of a Japanese blade or fittings when visiting. Sometimes the practice dictated a VERY nice blade with a very big name. Many times high-end Soshu pieces were given as gifts (who is to say how many?). Edit: response tempered!

I think that by that time this forum has been archived and will (still), be regarded as thé number one source of information regarding real and fake swords and a statue of Brian made in memorial.

兼守 - Kanemori

But of course! With eBay I expect it to sit for a long time and price it accordingly. NMB should always get the best prices. :-)

I would be grateful for any opinions on the characters on this habaki . The date side I am confident reads Meiji four ( 1871 )(year ? ) Kanotohitsuji hachi gatsu . The other side I am less sure about . I think the right hand column reads Giri Ko , which possibly means a Lords debt of gratitude. The left hand column I am even less sure about but think it reads Kore shitama , which possibly means this permits to commit suicide . Ian Brooks

this is totally real, its just a island version of a emura

Dear Members, Since Microsoft introduced CHROME, ( which I did not want as it is not as good as Windows 10 ), I must get my Computer Guru to come over and help me get started with LISTING ITEMS FOR SALE. I had promised to get this done 2 days ago ( or more ), but since he has come down with a VERY SERIOUS THROAT INFECTION ( I seen him today, and he is VERY ill ), ... I must beg your indulgence. I will list a Sword and a grouping of Sagemono ( pipe & tobacco cases ) as soon as possible. Thank you, ... Ron Watson

Well, I had given my post my thought as I did not want to be the killer of somebodys dream ... and I may be missing something here but could not understand the excitement.

My thought was a matsudaira clan blade in a late edo koshirae. But too many unknowns to go that high

Yes it is, small piece of bamboo wrapped in ray skin. The yanone is pretty well stuck in there.

I know the messenger gets killed .... but does not anybody of you have the feeling that we are looking at a bettter quality tourist KOshirae from Meiji area made for export .... I am vey doubtfull about this. Better save your money

Duhhh, Silly me. There was two sets of Habaki as well. A double habaki that only goes with the quality koshirae and a solid silver one that only goes with the Iai fittings. (I thought I'd put the silver one with the quality fittings.) Duhh

Here is mine from Showato smith Yoshichika Type 98 : Rgds, Corry

Different Yoshichika.

Got a collection going, now, of unknown stamps at the end of nakago. No idea of their meaning, or why they are there - forge/shop logo? smith kao? polisher logo? etc. Thought I would post the ones I have with the smith, when known. If you see one you own, or know where to find it, I'm trying to get the smith name of the blade they were found on. With that, I can do a search for each smith's blades to see if the mark recurs, or if they are one-off oddities. Thanks to anyone who can help ID these: on Kuniyasu on Masahiro Unknown smith Unknown smith unknown smith unknown smith unknown smith on Yoshinao blade on 1943 Yoshichika blade

The other side:

No worries Chris, one in every crowd. Some were not brought up with honor and respect. Thank you for your service.

Yo are right with the date Rob! ”昭和十八年….” (Shōwa juuhachi nen… = 1943)

Michael , that groove and habaki tell me that this is almost certainly a mass produced late blade that is not even tempered . I would give it a big miss . Something better is sure to turn up . Ian Brooks

500 years from now, they'll look at this and still be shocked at how awful the forger was

LOLOL!! I have seen some dealer prices at 2 times value or more etc CrAzY. These folks (unethical dealers/not all dealers) like to prey on ignorant newbies. I get it, they need to make a profit, but big diff between a good profit and gauging. IMHO

https://terebess.hu/gabor/Pitelka-Tea-Taste.pdf

Interesting, Peter. Thanks!

This Japanese site notes that same custom, but it says the smith (and the kanji) are different to the one above. Above = 兼升 Link below = 兼増 Both names are read identically as "Kanemasu", but the meaning of the "masu" below means to increase, so it seems slightly more plausible for the one on the Japanese site. https://www.touken-world.jp/search/22352/

I’ve got a baby on the way, so I’m saving my pennies little by little for a hopeful late spring 2022 purchase. I’ve always loved Kyu Gunto given Meiji history and the East meets West quality. I ran into this one at a military antiques store for $1950. I didn’t notice until later that my photos of the sword itself are bad (can’t see hada or hamon), but it’s a Shinshinto mumei (allegedly, I didn’t ask to disassemble). Thoughts on the price of the package? Saya looks good and the d-guard appears frosty to me, plus there’s a mon. Sword is probably nothing amazing but was Nihonto. At $2k though, it’s where I want to be able to resell and not lose money if necessary in order to fund a bigger purchase down the line. Edit -I apologize for the photos being the wrong way; I’ve never had that problem and can’t seem to fix it. Third from the bottom. Also, look at the MASSIVE type 19. I’m 6’2” and it was so awkward to hold; I wondered if it was only a display piece.

I think you mean "Kick ass." He rose from private all the way to general by his own doing.

Two people really wanted it. The lucky one did not win the auction.

Item No. 120 - Copper tsuba with copper , shibuichi and gold inlays 7.93 cm x 7.18 cm x 0.46 cm Subject of falling Ginko leaves by Ford Hallam 16 years ago. On the carved copper tsuba there are inlays of three different copper alloys and two alloys of shibuichi - the gold highlights applied by fire gilding.

How are you coming to this extreme conclusion? You need some proof before claiming a trusted expert organization is full of clueless dolts.

Item No. 75 - Fuchi Kashira in Shibuichi with gold , copper , silver and shakudo Subject of ancient flowering cherry tree - Tsuji school mid edo , 18th cent. Provenence - G.H.Naunton Collection W.L.Behrens Collection Lundgren Collection , no.282 Published in - W.L.Behrens Collection by Henri L Joly , Volume 3 , plate LXIII , no.2394 All the above is quite impressive , especially for a F/K set that appears to be an associated pairing by different schools. The style of the blossoms differ , as does the colour of the base shibuici. To me , the design does not ' flow together ' between the pieces and there is also the matter of a signature appearing in the underside of the kashira ( unless it was just a fitting instruction , like ' this side down ' ). As usual , any comments please ?

At my sword club, I ran a kantei for quality. The five swords presented were of different quality. Some had kizu others had no flaws but were not particularly well made, others had no flaws and were better, leading to the best sword. People were asked to rank each sword. The group discussed the least favoured sword , then the next least favoured up to the most favoured. At each stage the purpose was to determine what makes a great sword and what detracts from a blade. Every sword had a suguha hamon so that a flashy hamon would not affect the outcome and become the focus of the discussion. To me, first is to get the jidai ( period of manufacture) and second the quality. Once you have the level of quality you can eliminate a huge number of smiths and then go on to School.

Well, in the early hours I look like a serial killer with a bad mood. Nah. There was just no sign. And another example at Kitano Tenmangu shrine with a lot of oil. Two bunkazai. Kunitsuna and Horikawa Kunihiro. Uwe G.

Trystan, you're killin' me! You're determined to make me learn Japanese aren't you?! Ha! So: 大正 Taisho 1912 So could be a date? Could we see a broader photo of the nakaga where it sits? It would give more perspective as to it's possible purpose/meaning.