Jamie

First May be Waka, but I am horrible at this so I may be Completely off base. Thank you kindly, in advance for any and all help. Jamie

Very nice, thanks for sharing with us. Interesting work!!

The best way to know if it will polish is to send to a known Japanese trained polisher. Bob Benson is a good suggestion. He will tell you if it will polish or not. Don't use an amateur though, IMO.

Vista is Microsoft Operating system.

Ray-I don't think they are singling anyone out, or being sniffy, or snooty. I believe they are trying to lead us down the right path to studying art swords. Everyone I have dealt with here-and I have spoken to a few personally have been all about furthering the study, and preserving these blades. I am a fairly new collector. I have followed most of the advice I have been given regarding buying quality pieces,In polish. And I am a fixer upper by nature. But I have resisted that and bought good pieces I can study. I have learned FAR more from the three I have that are in good polish. One in old polish, one new. I have learned far more from these two blades than ANY I looked at out of-or in less than good -polish.

Thanks for sharing Clive I think you did a good Job BTW.

Mos- that does look like a crack doesn't it (good eye). Could be a piece of string too though I guess.

James, Thanks for the explanation. I just thought by chemical you might be referring to acid. No worries, thanks for explaining Jamie

James, to my knowledge traditional polishing uses no chemicals.

Andrey, Sorry that you purchased a fake. Hopefully it didn't set you back much. We all make mistakes-so don't let this deter your interest. take a look at this link and it will give you a good Idea of fakes. http://jssus.org/nkp/fake_japanese_swords.html You might also consider purchasing the following books and reading them. Together they will give you a solid foundation of knowledge. Samurai Sword: A Handbook ~John Yumato The Japanese Sword: A Comprehensive Guide (Japanese Arts Library) ~ Kanzan Sato The Connoisseurs Book of Japanese Swords ~ Kokan Nagayama

Here is a soten school tsuba that I like. Image borrowed from ricecracker.

Internal server error is more than likely the host. Could be one that just routing traffic too though. Thats a hard one to pin down- This software resides on a server somewhere(and many servers between you and server the board resides on are indirectly involved as well). That one may be the server. Many times you get these as a HDD is failing- although- I am not saying that's what is happening(without access that would be difficult to fully conclude). If a bunch of folks are having the exact same issues though- then it's probably not this end.

What OS -are all three running the same? The pics are on your system? Everything works from my side- from two different machines in two locations. Just trying to help you narrow it down a bit. Try deleting all history in firefox. Got to HISTORY Choose show all history (your saved passwords for other sites will be deleted) and delete all of it. Restart and try again with Firefox. Anybody else having similar issues?

You should have two browsers loaded on your machine-one for Back up- Try another browser if Clearing All temp interenet settings and all that doesn't work. What browser do you use? Mozilla seems to work best for me- and I work in IT.

Check out this link. It gives excellent disassembly instructions. http://www.nbthk-ab.org/Etiquette.htm

Great Video Rob, You might consider the following books. Samurai Sword: A Handbook ~John Yumato The Japanese Sword: A Comprehensive Guide (Japanese Arts Library) ~ Kanzan Sato The Connoisseurs Book of Japanese Swords ~ Kokan Nagayama

I've read the same thing as Joe. Although I am certain others certainly know better than myself.

Darren, Don't buy cheap Uchiko. You want a Japanese kit. Here is a good source. http://www.Japanese-swords.com/pages/maint.htm

Just oil it With Mineral or Choji oil. Once oil has been left on it for a while-you'll be surprised that a bunch of the rust will naturally come off as you clean it. Fingerstones are not easy to use by the untrained. I know it sounds easy-and some directions are probably easy to find. But if not trained to use them-you will basiclly end up with lots and lots of scratches. Which will then have to be removed by a polisher. Even fingerstones remove metal.

Nice set Brandon. Thanks for sharing the pics.

Very nice. You guys have done a excellent job. Beautiful displays. Thanks so much for sharing all the pics.

Well there were smaller blades worn as Katana-used one handed. If it's a Daisho-that's obviously the katana of the pair. I understand your question though- What is it CALLED? I am fairly new to this field of study, so I could be completely wrong- ( I'd bet it is a Katate Uchi gatana. Interesting thread on SFI about it too. http://www.forums.swordforum.com/showthread.php?t=19736 I think that translates to one handed strike. May we see some pics?

It's a Daisho?

Might they be considered Katate Uchi?

Link to Fake swords illustrated- http://jssus.org/nkp/fake_japanese_swords.html Learning what to look for can be a task. A worthy one though. The more you know the more rewarding this pursuit becomes. One answer opens many more questions. If you are seriously interested you might consider buying and reading the following books. Samurai Sword: A Handbook ~John Yumato The Japanese Sword: A Comprehensive Guide (Japanese Arts Library) ~ Kanzan Sato The Connoisseurs Book of Japanese Swords ~ Kokan Nagayama I hope this helps Jamie