Bungo

sold off a few of my horse theme fittings, but this one I still have. milt

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2008/0 ... TON_5.html milt

first kanji looks like Kane milt

now the flip side

just received the sword back and I like it. Very hard to take pic of boshi but it's a continuation og the gunome-midare ( I think ). The hamon is complex, choji-gunome-midare, sometimes one on top of other, nioi based. According to Big Mo, ther hada is itame mixed with mokume. He promised to post pics on his web site with before and after pics. I am posting some pics to give you all an idea. milt

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/23/scien ... ref=slogin be sure to click on the slide show. milt

" responding to the request to copy the touch of Itcho (maybe 英一�)" .................... I see Itcho's touch on quite a few fittings ( esp. koz ). I love the Tsuba, nice . milt

now the mei................ milt

experience with submitting " big name " items do not rest with " matching " stroke for stroke alone. Here's a few Goto mei that match with " known " examples...................pics in 2 parts the one with butterfly....... see example in Kozuka 100, c. thuault collection, page 198 milt

Here's a Mitsunobu kogai I have, not shinsa yet. The " brown spots " actual color is gold. milt

no big loss. Question................ assuming it has no NBTHK paper and/or mei, would you go for it at that " price " ? milt

gang, I have a koto O-suriage katana coming home from Big Mo polish SOON ( next week if I can come up with the dough ). Since I am not good in taking sword pics, Big Mo will do it for me ( I believe he took some before pics too, but not sure ). I will post them for kantei since my sword knowledge is stuck in the beginners' stage. So.............. I will be putting some fittings up for sale over the weekend. p.s. this is the sword I have for over 20 years and had the strangest looking hada rust, sort of like silvery grey satin finish but the outline of the hamon was very clear with choji, I played with it by rub, rub, rub with hazuya/jizuya ( spelling ? ) finger stone/sliver and the more I rubbed, the more interesting features showed up ( that was before I sent it to Big Mo for polish ). Should be interesting to kantei, no, Bungo is not an acceptable answer. milt

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 0097866486 milt

that's what I thought....... the shinsa paper described it as " nanako " but may be my reading of it is incorrect ? milt

pics of the flip side........ milt

" How was the gold applied to the surface Milt? Nunome, Suritukezogan (metal inlayed by pressing into a thin carved line) or maybe just paint? Pictures are too small to tell. " like thin gold sheet/foil overlay on carved outline.......see pic. Also question on the shakudo ground........not exactly " nanako ", is it ? milt

james, the pic of your set is a bit " washed out ", but does your set show different color bands on the copper ? milt

http://cgi.ebay.com/9055-JP-Samurai-Swo ... 911.c0.m14 probably " modan "....... I have the " original " set ( granted few fittings are one of a kind ) milt

" You need to see some really good kozuka to be able to identify the good ones from the generic ones that are so common. Regards, Brian " ...................... something like these ? milt

why do they put such " distracting " chisel/punch marks on the seppa dai area? It doesn't seem to affect the " fit " for the nakago. I asked the same question in one of the kantei tsuba thread ( pic of a ko-mino tsuba from the swedish collection ) but get no response......... here's another example...... p.s. school identification marking ? milt

the flip side milt

shakudo is dark purplish black, worked to simulate " iron ". silver foil on top of Mt. Fuji. Ura shows reflection of Mt. Fuji ( that's why it's upside down ) Dragon is " identical " to the one signed example shown on Dr. Compton's Christie cat. #1. shinsa to Kyo Kinko, but i feel it should be able to be attributed to a school. Example of " over-worked oversea shinsa " ? Later reason given was " quality not there "................. you all be the judge, I think the dragon is quite well done considering the size, this is a tanto tsuba by the way. milt

" This feeling is directed primarily at the NBTHK, but then there are calls like Milt's tsuba where I respect the Yoshikawa NTHK fittings judges and wish they would explain why they gave his to "Kyo-kinko". I still think that one is something else. Maybe you (Milt) should post that one in a seperate thread. " ......................... which one ? I can take the dragon fish one as Kyo-Kinko but the dragon ascending Mt. Fuji REALLY bugs me, I mean an almost identical example ( signed ) was in Dr. Compton's catalog #1 and they can't at least attribute to that school ? I heard the " usual " excuse....the quality is not there, to that I say bulls%$#, the dragon is identical scales by scales, both shakudo of high quality .............I was tempted to show them the catalog but then........don't even get me started !! milt

Ted, Please do if possible, always like to look at examples. I like the way the horses are " drawn ", a few simple strokes and it shows the vitality and ' spirit ' . milt

yeah, should have stuck to my original bid of Kyo-kinko 78 pointers !!............. but I decided to go fancy milt