md02geist

Wonderful taste. Hope your bank account is loaded lol.

Haven't created anything yet. Been formulating how to do it, and been tied up with two sick kids lol.

Thank you all for the wonderful ideas. My collection is humble but I like it..a tsuba, a katana, a yari, some other odds and ends. I've had a few nice ones in my possession and studied them then moved them along. I was very happy to receive this as a gift from one of my crew (I am an officer at a firehouse). It meant a lot to me that one of my guys not only knows me well enough to know my interests, but would go out of his way to locate something for me like this *and* spend the money on it on a firefighter's salary no less (I'm sure it was more expensive than your typical stocking stuffer presents exchanged at work). So it means a lot to me sentimentally! Thank you all again for the great ideas. I will play around with some ideas in my head and see what I can do about putting this in display. I have two young kids, one of whom is extremely curious about *everything* and I worry one day he will grab an antique he shouldn't. So I tend to keep them all very high up lol.

Here are some pictures. I know these are not in the greatest of condition, but they were a gift and given with a very generous heart. So if anyone has any negative comments about the quality or condition, do us all a favor and keep it to yourself.

Thank you!

Hello all, Anyone found a good way to display partial armor? I received pieces of an Edo period dou from a member of my crew as a christmas present. It is about half the back and half of the front, and a few kusuzari. It isn't in the greatest of shape but isn't complete garbage either, it's enough that i'd like to display it with my other things. Thanks!

Yes, you're verifying what I have already. More, would love feedback on the Kane ___ part.

Anyone like to verify the translation here? Thanks!

It's been a year or two since I sent something in, how does one donate again?

Who is the maker?

Big difference between pruning a bonsai and chopping down a tree. I think you're assuming that all garden or menial tasks are crude by necessity and that simply isn't the case. It's very possible they were used for head removal. It's possible they were used for scalping. Samurai were pretty obsessed with the whole head taking thing, it wouldn't surprise me if some samurai had a special blade made just for it. Truth is we just simply don't know.

Could easily be as stated charcoal or other ceremonial swords. We see swords that are absolutely glorious that obviously were not intended for battle, like most of the shrine swords. I can see a ceremonial preparation sword being made very well and with good fittings.

The katana I just sold, I'm losing some on. I have thoroughly enjoyed it while I had it, and now it is time to pass it on. I don't mind taking a loss and consider it part of the cost of education.

Lovely blade! Please tell us about it!

I liked that one a lot but sadly it sold before I was able to really look into it. The language barrier with that particular vendor makes it hard, I only know a little Japanese and they don't seem to know much English. Our communications were fairly confusing.

Awesome thank you Ray! I'm not sold on the old NBTHK paper and condition for that price but it's not a bad piece.

Sure. It will be interesting to watch.

By the way, it's available on netflix.

I've got a copy. Figured it was probably worth the price of admission.

I'm planning on simply trying to find similar fittings or a complementing theme rather than going full on same school / same maker. At least for now. lol.

Well I believe tsuba will be easy, but FK / menuki may be much tougher....lol.

I think it's probably a reasonable item but I feel like the price itself is high. It's an Uda school katana from the late Muromachi so not particularly rare or exceptional, that is in pretty solid shape but nothing amazing. It has no koshirae or anything although the shirasaya appears OK if nothing particularly special there either. It has a decent hada, and I personally enjoy bohi swords. I don't think it's a bad piece to have but I do think it's overpriced. I'd pay 1500 for it or so maybe? Ballpark guess. Of course I'm quite new in the world of Nihonto so please take what I say with a grain (or tablespoon) of salt.

I'm sure it would still make a wonderful iai blade, and there is still quite a lot of history behind it even if it's not in the form we'd all love it to be in.

Thanks, I'm happy with the grabs. Got a very good price on both of them individually too so that helps a ton. Now to find fittings!

Not a big name guy I suppose. Didn't have a huge filmography. I bet if they were Mifune-owned swords they'd be up in the thousands or better (with documentation).