Jamie

I am still reeling from this news. 
he showed a few a large few of the very best swords I had ever seen. Still one, may be better than anything I have since seen. He sparked my love of Soshu swords. He answered tirelessly and always- all our questions. He and have emailed thousands of times. He was a mentor to me. And more even, a friend. 
I will miss him. 
im so sorry to his family. Thank you all for sharing your stories. 
 

Almost 

ichimai

Hi

i am sorry for the delay in response. 
can you please pm me?  I have removed messages from my inbox. Please pm me your PayPal and I will pay immediately. Again I apologize for my delay in response. Brian also thanks for your help. 
 

best regards 

jamie 

I’ll take it 

Please study 

Does he keep any sort of oil on them?  
some of these might be interesting if restored. This one could be old. 
 

We all want to submit one and have it pass. 
but it is hard. 
I have one , same era similar school 

utterly flawless and in fantastic condition. I’m told by three people I trust it probably won’t pass. I’m sending it to see. We’ll see. 
it’s Tokubetsu Hozon now - this year. Given directly to a very good smith. (Rare for this particular school) 
even if it fails, it’s still 

especially worthy of preservation 

mans a fantastic sword. 
also it’s 27.5 inches. 
osuriage but still long 

well it does state not to use it on hadori. I’d bet the majority of swords are polished in hadori. 
I think the current thinking of microfiber and that’s it is still most relevant. 
 

To me it looks like someone “cleaned” it. The yokote line is not so prominent and it looks fairly scratched vertically.  
 

I too would guess it’s older but definitely needs some restoration work to tell period. 
 

a picture of just the whole bare blade laid out would help probably tell period. 
 

Welcome to the forum, btw.

That’s a good price on a tokubetsu hozon from that era. For sure. 
 

I believe yoshihara can produce utsuri. 

I’m not sure why everyone is so against acid etching. It’s way cheaper and it looks ok. 
 

happy April fools 

this is a nice blade with a lot to enjoy. 
 

I have seen only one of each , Go, and Tametsugu. The Go was (I believe) the very best sword I’ve yet studied. The Tametsugu was also very good. However they were definitely different leagues and I don’t think they were “close”.  

I’d send it to Bob and see what he thinks from having it in hand. He’ll let you know if he thinks it’s worth it to polish or not. He’s honest and will give you the very best advice. He’s one of the very first people I had contact with when I started collecting and he’s helped so many times since, I can’t count them.  

I’d take just one Go Yoshihiro 

I have seen only one, and it was by far, by a very large margin my favorite sword I’ve ever seen. 
 

I don’t really collect fittings as I’m deep enough in with blades, but damn this is an outstanding piece!

Not in grate shape, but also probably not in poor shape.

My biggest question would be if you can see details in the hamon. Personally I’d only buy this if you can see the activity in it.

I find cutting tests particularly interesting.

I have one, but I’m not sure of the actual cut

This is fake as everyone else said.

I think it looks good.

Is it shinogi zukuri, or shobu?

It does appear tempered in that second picture

Can you post pictures?

You might post a full length pic and a few of the tobiyaki at least.

Helmet cutter

Personally I think that techniques, and material had to do with hamon and hada. And I’d bet that If analyzed we’d find some differences in metal composition too. Probably not greatly varying, but some. Echizen swords are dark - they look black against (if set beside) a Shinto sword.

People made ok copies of norishige right and we know the used different steels to achieve that effect, but no one after him that tried did it as well as he did. Why not?

Welcome to the board. I’m in Nola frequently.