Curgan

Excellent piece! Spot on for my taste. Could you please post a close up of the birds?

+1000 Chris both for what you said and for the way you said it...

The reason we do not have that many mass-producted (and not that well made) swords from older eras is that they were used (and ruined) in battle. In WWII they carried swords just to make an impression as they are useless in a modern war. This means many of them survived. just my uneducated 2 cents... PS I would be glad with any sword, even one with hagire, because I have to travel abroad in order to see Japanese swords and fittings...

Nice! I find the trunk of the First tsuba very appealing. Thanks for sharing!

Bernard, you are lucky enough to have a great collection for study, clever enough to appreciate it and fortunate enough to have found the NMB I envy you and thank you for sharing! :D

Still a nice tsuba though (although I am a bit positively biased with soft metal )... BTW how would you repatinate a kinko tsuba?

Sorry John, I missed it totally (although I enjoyed very much the rest of your posts). Indeed I am looking for large shakudo plate with gold peony, or "panels" with a floral theme (a plum tree maybe)... Once again you have my sincerest thanks for your patience and I reserve the right to return the favour when you visit Greece...

Hi John, did you by any chance notice any large kingo botan tsuba?

Thanks for the pictures! Eating with friends among all those nihonto... priceless

Hopefully there will be a pictorial tour of the DTI sometime later, wont it? I am sure there will be one, otherwise this post is a sadistic torture for the rest (and less fortunate) of us who can't attend... :D

Thanks for the link!

Could you please Chris post this last picture at higher resolution? The blade seems fantastic

Thanks a lot John. The larger pic is at this link viewtopic.php?f=2&t=7183 You where the first to help me with the kantei on this one. Maybe you 'll be the one to spot it's mate?

Just in case someone spots a katana sized tsuba that would make a matching pair with the one in my profile picture viewtopic.php?f=2&t=7183 I 'd appreciate a PM and seller's contact info. Have fun at DTI and please don't forget to take pictures for the rest of us!

Excellent thread and advice Jean (especially the ask before you buy advice). Join a nihonto club and visit nihonto fairs is the second most important advice to me (can't appreciate them as you should, if you have one at a 1000km radius).

That explains the other "bargains" he has for sale...

As a kinko lover and novice in nihonto and tosogu, I must express my jealousy and my admiration (especially for the wood grain carving). Please do continue on your quest as you must do it three times in order to prove him wrong!

I wholeheartedly agree that saya making is very close to rocket science. I couldn't even imagine the trouble of making one before considering to do so. I imagine that IF I try I will meet even more trouble. Even the Craft of the Japanese Swords covers the subject in about 10 pages with brief texts and dramatically few pictures. the thing gets even harder, if nobody has tried that before. The difficulties mr Paul Martin posted at his post are just the tip of the iceberg. There are just too many points to consider. The 3 more improtant to me (for the point being) are how to mask the blade in order to avoid scratches, the habaki fit and the margin between the blade and saya). When starting the thread I was hoping for such pointers and a more experienced opinion on the risks. Naturally, experiencing on an iaito will be the first thing to do before ruining even the cheapest blade of my (mediocre anyway) collection. I started this thread in order to make sure that it is indeed a good idea to try to do something like this at home, figure out the risks (learning the hard way is not an option with nihonto) and get some basic guidelines in order to understand the difficulties better. For more detailed questions, I think that the Japanese Sword Forum Sayashi subsection would be more appropriate as this is not a how-to forum. I really have learned a lot so far and I am sure I will learn even more until the topic dies and can't hold my self from sending my thanks to all those who shared (and will share hopefully) their mind with posts and messages.

Thanks to all for your posts. I have ordered Japanese honoki for this project and I do not intend to use glue. As soon as I will carve the blade shape I will send the wood to a sayashi abroad in order to have the shirasaya finished properly. I have already the "Craft of the Japanese Sword" (will need to check it out) and the videos I was talking about were these from Pavel Bolf.

I would like to have shirasaya made for some of my blades. Due to very strict custom regulations I wouldn't like to ship them outside Greece. So, my only option is to make them domestically. Unfortunately, this will be my first project and I have no firther experience. Luckily, however, I have a friend of mine who is a wood carver and will do the dirth work for me (under my instructions ofcourse). I am still not sure if this is a good idea or not and I would like some advice from more experienced members. I have read online instructions (some with pictures and some without) and found the video tutorials from jswords at youtube, but still any further assistance would be more than welcome. My thanks in advance for your good advice!

Thanks for the excellent photos!

Exactly what I expected to read. I have in mind a "tourist" design with leather covered saya, and "ivory" tsuka with samurai theme design and black fuchigashira. Manufactured between 50's and mid 90's. P.S. I know it is a long shot and now it doesn't make much sense, but it will all be explained in a few days

Based on a local urban legend I 'd like to ask whether there were common to have ivory tsuka carved for nihonto and if the material has seen any practical use. Thanks for any info. Afterwards, I 'll post more details at the izkaya...

Hi John. Thanks for the correction!

In fact the best way to define the difference between a tachi and a katana is the mei. Other than that there are no rules set on stone based on the sugata, type of koshirae or other...