Geraint

Dear Thomas. Hirazogan would suggest a depression cut into the plate and the design inserted into it, no signs of that here, especially if you look at the areas where mon have been lost or removed. I believe the signs you are seeing are the edge of whatever adhesive was used to affix the mon. As Ford points out there are no signs of the ground preparation for nunome zogan either. The plate itself is probably a perfectly normal tsuba made more saleable by the application of a few mon. If these are brass then cutting them with a CNC machine is not a problem, cutting them by hand would be tricky to say the least. This is something to look out for but it is a simple case of adding detail and hopefully value to a run of the mill tsuba. All the best.

That curve never gets flatter! All the best.

Dear Jesse. Similar is the operative word here, yes the cricket is the same in that it is a cricket, or whatever the Japanese equivalent is, but look at the treatment of the legs and the quality of work in the body. Also note Brian's comment about the quality of the plate and finally take note of the dimensions of the papered one in the Varshavsky collection, especially the thickness. If you want to go a bit deeper then imagine the Varshavsky tsuba without the brass decoration and also without the kodzuka hitsu. The reason this hobby is so compelling it that there is always more to learn. Have fun! All the best.

Dear Jean Paul. Take this one nice and slow. I presume that by now you have done a search and found out who the mei says this is by. Time to do some study and seek well informed opinions. Enjoy! All the best.

Dear Jesse. Not all brass inlay is Heianjo. All the best.

Dear Bob. Sorry to hear that you have been having some difficulties. I have to say that if these are examples of how not to build a collection then I can't imagine what yo are going to end up with when you start doing it the right way! Thanks for sharing these. All the best.

Dear Ken. Given what we can see of the hamon, which is not much, I would agree that the chip is a serious worry. Not hagire though, surely? All the best.

Dear Ray. I have the other problem, jumonji and cover but no pole! I have been on the look out for one for ages and finally found it, badly corroded nakago unfortunately so not yet able to decipher the mei. Really like them. Odd, isn't it, that tanto are highly valued because they are harder to forge and heat treat. The skills involved in forging and treating a jumonji are amazing. Of course the one that Axel posted is a delight.

Dear Fred. How would you expect anyone to tell you what a fair price is for something where all we have to go on is an older paper? Does it have koshirae and/or shirasya? Is it in polish? Does it have any flaws? At the moment your question is a bit like asking what a fair price is for a 1998 Ford. All the best.

Dear Mark. All pre internet but I have a tanto which I bought from a dealer in the 1990 and have subsequently found in an auction catalogue from 1977, can't vouch for the owner in between. All the best.

Dear Max. To answer the second part of your question, who knows? From time to time you come across well made miniature swords, sometimes by good makers, that were clearly intended from the start to be boy's swords. You don't give us sizes for yours and it seems to be sitting beside a sword that is probably a shortened daito but it seems from the images to fall within the parameters that are normal for wakizashi. Could it have been mounted and used as a boy's sword? Yes, but how would you ever tell? Out of interest what are the measurements? All the best.

Well that's a question I had never thought to ask, Rich. Thinking about it now I suppose I have always associated it with quite late koshirae, certainly the few I have seen have been relatively late Edo period. Interested to know what others think about that. All the best.

Dear Bjorn. For what it's worth I would not clean the habaki. I find that the limited oxidation near the base comes from age and is a pleasant indicator that the sword has had the habaki for some time. If you were to go down the route of shirasaya for this one then of course a new habaki would make sense. Here is one which illustrates the point. All the best.

Hi Jack. Welcome to NMB. You have clearly done some research and learning and as this is your first sword then you have done a great deal better than most. (I see John has just replied.) I assume that you know enough to look after this one sensibly in the short term. As it is not in pristine polish I suspect that it is going to be really hard to get much better photographs at the moment. Depending on whereabouts in the country you are there are some members who would be happy to look at it in hand, when we can do such things again, and give you an opinion but in the meantime I would keep this one under advisement as regards polishing and so forth. I assume you know about the Token Society? All the best.