Brian

Gordon, Allow me to hijack this thread to wish you a warm welcome here. I think we are very priveleged to have someone of your standing in the Nihonto community on this forum. Thanks also to the guys at the Tokyo gathering who must have done their bit to "advertise" the NMB..although from the sound of things a few were assaulted by doors, floors and various objects, and some might not even remember they were at the meeting :D :lol: I look forward to your input where possible given your hectic schedule. Regards, Brian

What confuses me (and him too obviously) is the way he seems to get confused between item #190173810325 (the one you contacted him through) and the one this is all about. He says: This auction hasn't even ended yet, and he seems to be accusing you of fraud with it. Note also the following quotes: "YOUR NON PAYMENT OF HIS GOODS.." and "HE STATES YOU SENT HIM AN EMAIL..." So this is someone else corresponding for Mr Hardy. Does he have a partner who doesn't understand English well? Surely he doesn't speak about himself in the 3rd person? Funny stuff going on here. Brian

Yep, jumonji yari are very expensive and difficult to polish. I know many togishi simply refuse to work on them. I have one myself that I would love to get polished oneday. Louis Skebo in Canada also works on them. You can check the restoration section on the links page above for many other contacts. I don't think you will find one very close to you that will do a very good job. Brian

I always wondered if this Mr Hardy is illiterate or has some medical condition. Is there a free language translator on the net for "Hardy to English?" :D You did the right thing. Now you can feel better about any action that you take. I assume you contacted him to pay him, and he has sent another of his tirades? I would personally just ignore him. Or tell him to take legal action against you using the same lawyer that he just lost the case against. Even better...tell him that since the sword arrived a few days after you bought it, then there was certainly not enough time for him to legally de-register it in Japan, and he is welcome to take action againt you, as you will be sending that info to the Japanese authorities. If eBay contacts you about non-payment, tell them you suspect him of illegal export of licenced goods, and do not want to be involved in paying for his illegal activities. Ah..or just leave him alone and he'll go away. At least your conscience can rest easy that you wanted to pay. Brian

Nice find Pete! Really good article. I wonder if there are other old NCJSC articles in .pfd format floating around on the site there? Thanks for sharing. Brian

Great stuff Ford, exactly the kind of logic and discussion I was hoping for What say the other iron enthusiasts? Brian

According to this (still an amazing page with weeks worth of reading) it may be Katsumoto, or with the thicker width of the bars seen here, I think more likely to be Yamana? http://www.geocities.com/kazenaga23/crests3.htm Frequently runs out of bandwidth, so if it doesn't load, then try again in an hour. Also check out some of the other pages there. Brian

Jacques, I don't think this is necessarily so. The function of the guard is not really to prevent blade strikes, this is the job of the mune. So I don't think tsuba have to be soft. Also, we often hear about good tsuba that they "ring like a bell when tapped" This would make me think that this harmonic ring must come from good tempering and quenching? Brian

I think that even without insurance, EMS items come with a small amount of guaranteed value if it gets lost. I would expect if this was just lost, then EMS would not just say tough luck. You really need to push this issue as far as you can. I know I would not just write off $1000. Btw...having some knowledge of this issue via pm, I think with the facts presented here, it is fair to be able to say who the seller is. However this would probably negate any chance of you getting any money back from him, so I will leave it up to you whether or not you want to name him here now or not. It is not any of the sellers that any of us frequently enjoy dealing with. Brian

Moved to tosogu forum, as i would really like to see a discussion of whether tsuba are hardened and can show nie. I seem to remember a mention of this somewhere? Are some tsuba hardened after forging, and can you see nie etc occasionally? Brian

John, Never try and bid yourself at the end. Use an auction sniper like Milt does, it is the only way to go. I like http://www.justsnipe.com but there are others. Btw..I almost put in a bid on that one myself Brian

Tell him you require the EMS tracking number (which he must have from when he sent it) so that you can make your enquiries from your side. Also..if you bought it from eBay, then you have cover there (paid with paypal?) Look at that option, or open an eBay and Paypal dispute, and make life as hard for him as you can. Brian

Ok, here's my lowly 2c opinion on it, not being a tsuba guy (yet) this is just my gut feel. Hopefully some of the other tsuba guys will chime in and give their opinion, although we already have Milt and Pete not seeming too excited by it. I think the seller has a really nice tsuba there, in very nice condition. I think that the large sized tsuba fetch good money, and I seem to recall a discussion somewhere about nie on tsuba. Their being forged makes me think it is quite likely you can find nie on good pieces. That all being said, I would take a guess that this is a very nice tsuba indeed, probably well worth the money, and if I had the cash, I would grab it. Now hopefully someone can tell me how wrong or right I am Brian

Well done to Paul and Peter for a very good catch. And congrats to Jos for having the foresight to check up on a purchase before jumping into it. Nice one guys Brian

The honest thing to do if you received the item you bought, is to pay for it. It is never too late to pay. Just contact him, say you received it and never made payment, and ask if you can send the money. Otherwise there isn't much difference between what some say he did, and what you did. You can't make up for what happened to someone else. I would pay him, but that's me. Brian

Wow. That must have been an impressive display. Almost a million visitors? Looks like it is still travelling around..might be worth catching if it is in your area. Brian

Hi Goldy (Is this a first name?) That would depend I guess on what info you are looking for. If you are looking for brief info and oshigata to compare signatures, then I would recommend An Oshigata Book of Modern Japanese Swordsmiths by John Scott Slough. : http://www.afuresearch.com/Slough.htm If you are looking for info on modern smiths and manufacture with interviews and general info, then I would recommend these 2: The New Generation of Japanese Swordsmiths by Tamio Tsuchiko : http://www.amazon.com/New-Generation-Ja ... 4770028547 or Modern Japanese Swords and Swordsmiths: From 1868 to the Present by Yoshihara and Kapp : http://www.amazon.com/Modern-Japanese-S ... 4770019629 Another very worthwhile book is The Yasukuni Swords: Rare Weapons of Japan, 1933-1945 by Tom Kishida : http://www.amazon.com/Yasukuni-Swords-W ... 4770027540 Those should give you decent info on Post 1900 Gendaito. I am sure others will contribute a few more. Can't say which is best, as I enjoy them all. Regards, Brian

Folks, Just a reminder to be careful of slander here. We have discussed the seller here before, and most of the complaints were about odd replies and sometimes strange descriptions. I do not want to see accusations of fraud or money taken without delivery unless you have concrete proof that you are willing to supply. To the best of my knowledge, no-one paid and received nothing. My own deals with him a while back were satisfactory in that I received what I paid for, and besides the odd communications, I was satisfied. Let us not make other accusations without proof and names please, or I will have to remove this topic. As for shipping items without de-registering them in Japan, I believe those issues are being addressed there by the right people, and buyers can form their own opinions on that. Brian

Darcy, Amazing work as always! I will add the duties calculation here for South Africa, and if anyone would like to add their country's calculation, I will add it to this list so that we don't bog down Darcy's post above with a long list of them. That is an extremely detailed article, and I think Milt might have found his next JSSUS article if Darcy is willing :D Thanks Darcy. fantastic. Brian Duties Calculations: RSA - Duty Free. 14% vat applies.

I have split and moved the very interesting discussion on diplomatic gift armour to a new post in the General Discussion section. It is well worth its own post, and we will let this tsuba one carry on. The discussion can be found here: http://www.militaria.co.za/nihontomessa ... php?t=2346 Regards, Brian

Nothing much I can add to what has already been written. My thanks go out to all the veterans out there, who fought so that we could be here to study what even older veterans have passed on to us indirectly. You have my thanks and thoughts. Brian

Hi (Please sign posts with a name and initial as per the rules, thanks) Tadayoshi is probably one of the (if not THE) most forged signatures on Japanese swords. These gimei were done throughout the ages, so dating them is difficult. If you do a google search for Hizen Tadayoshi you will come up with plenty of examples. The ones with papers will give you a good comparrison. Regards, Brian

I was in contact with Ed recently. He is away on business for a while, and correspondence can be a bit limited. Great guy to deal with, and I'm sure the miscommunication was unintentional. Brian

Hi all, A friend recently picked up a really nice daisho set of Soten tsuba, and I remembered they are actually the ones that Thierry mentioned in a previous Soten post. I saw them briefly on the weekend. I have been asked if I can ask you folks to do a translation of the mei please. There are kanji on the other side too, but the pics did not come out, so I will have to get those later. I suspect they might be the name of the person they were made for possibly. Here are the pics I do have. Not very clear I'm afraid, but I am sure someone will be able to make it out. Both tsuba have identical mei, and the work is much nicer in person than the pics show. Also, we were wondering if anyone has any thought on the scene depicted? He is of the opinion that it reflects the battle of Dan-no-ura with Emperor Antoku, which I would tend to agree with. Thanks, Brian

Thanks Andreas, but I think we are ok for now. The webspace and bandwidth are more than ample (we have 20 gigs space and 200 gigs bandwidth thanks to the kindness of the raffle supporters each year) I don't think it is either of those causing the problem. The sql database requests, together with googlebot, are causing a bit of server peak loads. I doubt it is this site too...probably a few others hosting on the same server. The forum has some high server requirements, but I have them looking into it. I think it will be fine. Just need to know how often it is happening, especially when I am not around to see it. I am waiting for the final version of phpBB3 to be released (could be days, weeks or months) so that we can upgrade the forum and have some nice new features. If anyone does find the site doesn't load, just try refresh or come back in a few minutes. There is no way we are ever out of bandwidth Regards, Brian