Brian

If F&G is thicker, then you need to get the other Dawson

Similar to this? http://www.japaneseswordindex.com/glossary.htm

Someone asked me if there was a way to backup private messages so you can clear old messages. I noticed this wasn't a feature of this software, so I found a small and cheap plugin and just installed it. If you go into your message inbox, you should be able to check the right hand side and download either a single chat, or your entire message history to an easy to read html file. Hope this helps and works for everyone. Brian

More pics please. Closer pics of the nakago and kissaki. Close up of the tsuka. This one is one of those borderline ones. Genuine and messed with....or fake. I can't tell 100% yet. Nakago looks altered and machi moved up. If it didn't have that wavy shinogi line in the nakago I'd be much more confident.

Second from the left may be cut down from a larger tsuba? Interesting and odd...

Awesome, thanks Marc!

Polishing is done by professionals...at like $150 per inch. There is NO way you should ever polish it with anything abrasive. Just oil it or use isopropyl alcohol to clean it. Don't polish it. Adam, once blood stains and is stabilized, it looks exactly like this. I've seen enough of it in the firearms industry over 30 years. Could be many things.

@Bruce Pennington I have uploaded the stamps article to the downloads section. Updates can easily be added by me when they occur. Much more accessible there. And people can comment and review. Great work!

https://www.warrelics.eu/forum/japanese-militaria/takayama-masakichi-man-who-responsible-takayama-ta-768582/ Nice kai-gunto. Looks like you did well there. Nothing to do with Emura though.

Looks like blood staining to me...not trying to be dramatic. It would be contemporary if it was. Naginata looks ok...the shape reminds me of older ones.

Andrey, Possibly your Paypal account doesn't allow for this kind of subscription payment. If you go into STORE --> DONATIONS and do a single payment of the $30 for 6 months or $60 for a year, I'll manually upgrade your membership. Or you can use the link in my signature and do the same. Applies to anyone too. Best to add a note that it is for Gold Membership if you can. Thanks very much!

Just a friendly bump. The gold member thing is just about covering hosting. But we didn't cover the recent upgrade costs, and neither the other occasional costs like software license renewal, domains etc. So if you are so inclined, the store section above has a donation process that is easy, or the donate link under Nihonto Links has a credit card method. Or sign up as a gold member using subscriptions in the store. Lots of useful small benefits to that. No pressure, just a reminder if people are inclined. Huge thanks to those that do support us.

You are not typing your posts directly. You are cutting and pasting from somewhere, right? And pasting as rich text, which keeps the font colour....black. On the dark theme, they can't read it. If you type directly, or paste as plain text (you'll see the option when you paste) then the forum software will automatically adjust font colour.

Historically, many swords used as a symbol of rank or importance are not true working swords, but meant as indicators or symbols of power or importance. I can easily see something like this being a symbol of high class, and not something to be used. In that case, the decoration would be more important than the contents. There is no way this is junk or low class. It has to be something intended to convey a person of importance. As such, it has value far in excess of it's value as Nihonto.

Should have led with those pics Wow.