Brian

Yeah...more likely it was up for public sale somewhere. Which means there are hundreds of eyes on it, not 2 or 3. I doubt it was from a seller who didn't advertise anywhere. In which case it was likely advertised somewhere. I love the people who think they have seen something for sale that no-one else knows about. Usually it's on eBay or local advert or Craigslist or Gunbroker...and there are plenty of collectors who know what they are looking at. If the seller knew about the forum, he would have asked about it here. Don't kid yourself...there are very very few true sleepers that slip under the radar, although they do happen. Usually in estate sales or through work of mouth.

Swords are held in place entirely by the wooden (bamboo) mekugi peg. The hole is usually slightly angled and the alignment slightly off so that it pulls everything together tightly when inserted. The menuki are purely decorative.

Fittings/koshirae were like clothes. They were routinely changed. When worn out, or when fashions or tastes changed. It is not deemed critical when the fittings have been replaced, as long as they antique and the quality is judged on their own merits. It's safe to say few very old swords have their original fittings.

This is unlikely to be Japanese and is either a fake or a tribal made sword. But I lean towards outright fake.

Ok folks....calm down. Enough said. Let's get back to doing what we do best, helping people who need it. Steve, one thing I wanted to ask. That Yasukuni sword that you posted about a while ago. Did you buy it? If so...do you know exactly what you have there? Yasukuni is sort of the peak of many Gandaito, and if you did get it...then that would be a time I would stop for a bit buying other swords and focus on that one, and getting it into good condition and researching that one. Not sure if you realize that is like striking gold when collecting WW2 swords. As far as supporting the forum goes. If you do want to, there are multiple ways. Either a Gold membership from https://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/subscriptions/ Or look at the top of the forum for the donate link. You can use Paypal, credit card or even Wise bank transfer. In case you are so inclined. Brian

Hosts say it has been renewed, and any errors, try refreshing your browser. (Ctrl + F5) Checked and certificate is valid.

Yip...working on it. Says it was extended till end Nov, but some still giving errors. Site is safe, but will get it sorted shortly.

Hate to say it, but when it comes to those with a lot of questions and few answers (nothing wrong with that btw, we welcome everyone) but I do wish more would consider helping with the logistics of this place. We are down several hundred $'s lately, seems fewer and fewer feel that a free sales section or instant and accurate translations is worth it. Oh well.

Nice sword, and of course the RJT star stamp confirms it is handmade and a Gendaito. Get a little oil on that blade and maybe a drop or 2 on your fingertips and then wipe the nakago, don't want to see active red rust there.

SHOT is one of the largest industry firearm shows....anyone in that industry tries to go to meet with suppliers and plan agencies and orders etc. Many, many km of every major firearms, ammo and accessory distributor. No retail there, only for industry people. Have been quite a few times. It's also where people go to steal agencies away from others It's lucky because it ends around the same day the Antique Arms show starts in Vegas, so going to SHOT allows one to take a few extra days and do that show and the sword show.

There very much can be. I know it's said tanto didn't use kawagane and shingane, but there is no doubt that some tanto were made that way, and I have a late koto/early Shinto tanto showing shingtetsu after many polishes. I have zero doubt some smiths did make tanto the same way they made wakizashi and katana. We already had this debate way back: https://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/49145-shintetsu-good-bad-or-acceptable/ http://www.ksky.ne.jp/~sumie99/shingane.html

I'm still waiting (as usual) to find out if work will send me to SHOT this year. I really hope so, as I'd love to attend the sword show again. Let's hold thumbs.

No. Ch-sheep

Eric is a straight up no-nonsense dealer. I don't think he's the type to look at offers. He has a captive market and deals in higher end stuff. Not someone desperate for a sale and I don't think offers are his sort of thing. I'd happily deal with him, you just have to know and understand him and his market.

Steve, on the main page, there is a kanji assistance chart. Have a bit of a go, I am pretty sure you can get at least half of that, it's not a difficult one. Starts with province, last 2 are smith name. It's always worthwhile as you start to learn a few of them without even realizing.

If by appraised you mean a written evaluation, I am not sure. But as stated above, you can take the market value to be around $750 or so imho. That is what you would get on a private sale. These still sell as wartime swords, and I think $450 is waaay low. This would likely fetch around the $800 mark on eBay etc.

Don't think so. These are "out of a collection" and haven't been listed anywhere. Not going to make this a for sale post, but they were imported from Japan years ago. And have upgraded koshirae with some papered fittings ranging from H to TH. Izumi no Kami Rai Kinmichi TH? Mutsu no Kami Fujiwara Toshinaga TH Tango no Kami Kanemichi (stunning sudare-ba) TH They range from about GBP4000 to GBP8000...so probably above your budget. Will see if the seller wants me to do a for sale listing, he wants to ship only within UK.

@Marcus Devonport I know of 3 fairly decent swords in the UK for sale currently (katana, TH Hozon, with koshirae, in polish) at fair prices if you are interested. Someone retiring from collecting and reached out to me for advice.

Good looking sword! And I'm a sucker for well cut hi. Very nice koshirae.

Very fake unfortunately.

This doesn't feel right. Possible fake?

Plenty of boshi left, well worth saving.

Mauro, Clearly the Japanese were very embarrassed about doing it. Because they managed to hide all the old writings on it, pattern books, instruction manuals, pretty much all the documentation that they did routinely for all the other methods. I mean look at all those Edo school pattern books and patina formula writings etc that they left behind for all the other methods. So they must have taken great care to make sure that any family history and instructions were rolled up and smoked to make sure they didn't make it to modern museums and book stores.

Sorry, I should have clarified. I was asking if you agree with Ian's comment on your article :-) Btw, is Ian still ok? Haven't heard from him in ages. I hope all is well.

Another excellent article submitted by Mal Cox @mecox and the renowned Gunto researcher and collector Chris Bowen, just uploaded in the downloads section. As always, a very worthwhile research paper. This one on the Kato family of swordsmiths of Tokyo from the Taisho to Showa periods. Our thanks go out to Mal. and Chris.