Robert Janssen

Hey anglerdad? (please sign your posts with a name or add it to your sig.) old forum is still available at http://www.militaria.co.za/board/

Hey Grev, as Brian has posted the database of posts is from 3 days ago, pity as it may be posts since then have not migrated over. Brian has tried to make this period as short as possible without rushing it and making a mess of things. I don't know how to fix this but just wanted to let you know.

Good reminder Robert, nice idea. You have gotten mine Brian, and if you do decide to hold the raffle I have a completely new softbound copy of The Samurai Sword - A handbook by John Yumoto to give away with free shipping. I know it's only a beginners book and low value but maybe I can make a fellow beginner happy by donating it. I would also like to appeal to all the lurkers out there... yes I know you're there peeping through the keyhole!! I did the same for almost 2 years before I registered If you like this forum and visit regularly there is no reason why you can't or shouldn't make a donation if you want to help keep this place running! anyway, keep up the good work Brian, mods and all the other Nihonto overlords!! I thank you all very much for your knowledge sharing and time invested!

Hey All, Personally I can't get enough of these types of videos, astonishing to see what bending and stresses our blades have gone through while being quenched. This video was posted on his facebookpage by Komiya (Rokuro) Kokuten, next in line in the Shiro Kunimitsu lineage. I'm linking to youtube now so all can see without needing a facebook account. Enjoy!

Klaus, in his first post he mentions only markings on one side, so I guess not!

adjusted lighting a bit if you don't mind, was too dark for me...

last one does look like mitsu, to me anyway...

I tend to agree with Brian here. The moment the mei is carved is far from the moment the sword is actually finished. Polishing, making of fittings etc. are all processes that come after cutting of the mei if I'm correct. So stating a day or even a week when the sword was "made" would have probably been inaccurate and very hard to predict.

I'm definately no expert, but it looks as fake as they get to me. the munemachi looks aweful, and the difference in location of munemachi and hamachi is like 2 cm or something... I won't go into the rest... I think your gut feeling was right, don't doubt it :lol: Also I see none of the filemarks that you mention I would stay clear of this, good thing that you have too!

Hey Jean, yes you're absolutely right. In fact without the sayagaki I probably wouldn't have been able to make out this masa. But it is my aim by trying to decypher them, and so studying the kanji and trying to recognize (parts of) them that I'll be able to recognize that masa in 20 years instead of 40 years!

haha you're totally right Jean The thing is Peter is also kind of right, you just need to put in some effort to get it. Personally, I only recently started to give decyphering kanji a try, without books in fact! I use these online resources: http://jisho.org/kanji/radicals/ http://nihongo.j-talk.com/search/kanjis ... arch=paste It's all about breaking the kanji down to the level of the radicals and strokes (counts). click on the radicals you think you see, and by proces of elimination you hopefully get an end result in the list below. if you don't you entered a wrong radical and you just reset it and try again. To get the name of the kanji, just copy-paste it into the second link. Hope this helps other people to try and decypher. greets,

政 Masa? edit: damn! still takes me too long

Sorry Martin, I meant to say: how do you come to the conclusion of "mori"(i meant instead of "shi")? do you read a different kanji for that or do you read 司 as mori? I copied and pasted the kanji for haru instead of shi, my mistake! the question still stands though, but with the right kanji this time thanks!

Holy crap I'm getting one of these! The amount of info in there will keep me busy for a while!