Brian

Blade length is measured in a straight line along the back, from the tip to the notch where the habaki sits, the mune-machi.

The kogatata you can usually ignore the signature anyways. They were mostly honorific or a homage to smiths, and mostly not made by the person in the signature. The few that are, you'd need to be able to see the workmanship, hamon etc to know if it is, and it doesn't really affect much either way. Focus on the sword.

No such thing as tsuka being too difficult to remove unless it was glued in and that is unlikely. Have a search of the forum for remove tsuka, he should be able to do it without damaging anything. They were made to be taken apart. It's vital to see the blade complete and without fittings. Looks like a nice sword.

Why? Brazil has the largest population of Japanese people outside of Japan.

The kirikomi is at the top right of the pic. That may be the one he's referring to. The one you are concerned about is not fatal. Quite shallow. But can understand your concern. Have however edited the title to be less controversial.

Homemade. Shinogi zukuri tanto are just....wrong...in most cases. At best it's the front part of a broken wakizashi or katana, at worst, a homemade project.

Kudos to you Colin, and to them for actually listening. A small victory, but a victory none the less.

But you're forgetting this "fact".... "In over 100 years we can recollect only owning three before, and we have likely handled in that time more original Japanese swords than any other still remaining antique sword dealers in the world today." Umm. Suuuuure! Good luck with that. Also... "As of this time we know of no other original length Nagamaki available on the worldwide collectors market today" Does anyone with decent Google-fu want to see if we can smash that claim?

Received, many thanks.

Oh good grief. Someone please tell them. Some moron is going to pay thousands for trash

Should be fine here, guys like Piers etc with a background in these items have a good chance of working out the mei based on their knowledge of the makers and styles.

2 Amazing replies. Alex, thank you for the update and that wonderful story, and to Ted who may not realize he is one of those pillars of the community like the great names he mentioned that came before him.

Huge thanks guys, to you all, and especially Marius. You guys are the reason we can do what we do. Payment received from all the above. Marcin, I keep all the Paypal in $'s in a balance. Withdrawing in SA is complicated and expensive, so I keep it in $'s and make sure all the hosting etc I take accept Paypal, and I just use it to pay bills. Never withdrawn any, it pays all the bills directly and in $'s. Paypal would screw me bigtime if I withdrew, they make money on everything including their fees they take to withdraw. Bad enough I lose fees accepting all donations. Thanks guys!

Well done, looks awesome.