bone

to start with I'm certainly not interested in buying something this poor for what they are asking tut my question is, is this blade, poor as it is, worth saving at all? http://www.ksky.ne.jp/~sumie99/sword3.html

I absolutely love this place.

I wise man once wrote; Our failures are more important than our successes. Our successes let us revel in the moment. Our failures give us reason to fight, to search and to finally become greater as we turn failure to success. And in that we can revel for life. For the longest time I felt the same way about Picasso. The paintings I saw were all strange and made no sense at all to me. I determined to understand why he was considered such a genius. So I researched his work from the early to the late and finally had that eureka moment. This led me to, if not always understand, to appreciate all the impressionists. Over the years this has given me great pleasure. Listen to Mr. Hallam. The only way to truly understand Japanese art and culture is to be immersed in it and study it for a very long time. His understanding of the art of the tsuba is in no small part that he makes them the way the Japanese do. And is probably the best at his craft in the world right now. Don't bother studying this one piece. Study everything. Read everything you can. Listen to the greatest experts on the planet many of whom reside here to our great delight. And one day you'll have that eureka moment. Many of them actually.

Would you be happy with this assessment? It is if nothing else fairly safe from correction by Ford. :D .....Ooooops sorry, I mean MR HALLAM Sunrise to sunset, probably seven days a week. happy sigh Yah. If Mr. Hallam is satisfied I'm ecstatic.

Ummm guys? Can anyone hazard a guess as to when this person worked? laugh We've never got to that part. Ah! Nevermind. I'm guessing it's showa the same as the one in the link. Though I think mine looks better.

The 'same' tsuba? Umm, can you link that for us? http://sinogi.dee.cc/katarogu/2301/juou ... 04503.html I'm not sure where I got the number 30k. It's been a while. Still nice one...

Ah! Thank you but this same tsuba (in blue) is mounted on a 30k sword. Still *shrug* If it's worthless at least I know it's old.

ok. that was totally wrong!!!! try this one. http://s43.photobucket.com/user/boneami ... t%20Katana yeah. that's the right one. sorry about that... *puts on anti trout helmet*

Sorry but the only way I can really show you is for you to go here http://s43.photobucket.com/user/boneami/library/Sa It's mostly pics of one of my Katana's but that Tsuba is there as well. And I already know it's not THE Sa that made that katana probably gimei. Though it is covered with utsuri. Gotta get that thing to shinsa one of these days. Which brings me to a question. Every time someone who doesn't know swords ask to see it they almost never remove it completely from it's saya. The favorite of the people I've shown it to told me had many Japanese swords and mine was fake. Japanese swords were made of damascus steel and folded a thousand times. I didn't bother though my knee slapping laughter might have given me away.

Are you telling me you haven't been Touched by His Noodly Appendage? *cough* My counselor said not to talk about him. Especially the part where he's covered with meatballs and sauce....

wow. to get a decent tachi I'm looking at several thousand dollars. *wince* that's gonna take awhile...

Also... what the hells is a spaghetti monster?

Soooo about my tsuba... Any ideas when it was made?

Mr. Hallam. I have, for years, respected and held your opinion in high regard. As I still do you know more about nihonto than I ever will and at my age could ever hope to. To read your suggestion that my familiarity has bred contempt is troubling indeed. I sincerely apologize to K. Morita san and to you as well as anyone else my comments may have hurt or annoyed. Sincerely, Steven Bone

download/file.php?id=24042 THIS is the tsuba I was asking about.

Hi Brian, Sorry about copying the typo in my first reply and not paying attention. I am thinking he means to say "K. Morita". Dope smacks self. K. Morita of course. However the gold painted tsuba is not mine. It's red in color. They do look a lot alike though.

利 (Ichi-ri or Kazu-toshi ? Translated by K Morichi who totally rocks.

Thanks Tcat. That was some good reading. Congrats on your amazing blade too! I won't be buying this one. Thanks again to everyone for helping me steer clear of this one.

Wow thanks for the fast response guys! I love this place. Brian I got excited when I saw the bohi cut all the way through the nakago. I don't remember ever seeing it before except in blades that are suriage (and by seeing I mean in books or on the internet mostly). I thought that would have made this blade enormous when first made. I was wrong, yes?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ANTIQUE-JAPANES ... 500wt_1413 Hard to tell from the pics. Also aren't tachi longer than this blade? Nagasa is 27". I may bid if it doesn't go too crazy. Thanks guys. You're the best.

Any timetable on when the results might be coming? Great debate. Thanks for not shutting it down Brian.

Ah! Thanks Chris! The add-on for Chrome is called rikaikun but I was able to find it by googling rikaichan from your post. Been driving me nuts not having it. I love this browser add-on! Thanks again and good night.

Sorry to have to ask this again guys, but what is the browser add on that translates kanji? I had a computer meltdown and for the life of me I can't remember what it was called. Thanks!

Hi guys! I want to apologize for being gone so long. But I have a home again and a computer again so I'll be answering all the questions in the next couple of days. And hopefully learn a little something new. I'm in the process of rebuilding my less than extensive library so anyone that can point me to some low priced reading material would be an angel! Jacques: I know how things can be misconstrued without vocal inflection so I want you to know there is no sarcasm or malice in what I'm saying. I see your comments and value them. I'm sure there's nothing you can learn from this poor tired girl, frankly if she was in perfect polish I still don't think you could learn anything from her. But I almost certainly can. Please, any comments you have from what little there is to see would be welcome. I've got a new camera which I'm going to start using this weekend and I'm hoping I can get the measurements everyone has requested. To answer one question though... mariuszk: There is active rust below the munemachi. As with most of the rest of the nakago there seems to be old black rust underneath it. It's good to be back friends and neighbors.

???? Errmm, what Brian said is true. Though I'm not even using ivory but rather a wool cloth with choji oil and that only on the nakago. I'm only using uchiko and choji on the blade of course. I appreciate your concern and your passion though. I promise not to do anything like "polishing" or using a dremel or anything else insane.