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Derek79

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  1. Curtis, Same here, although I believe the habaki on mine is silver foiled/plated brass. It has almost a complete reverse image "smashing" on it compared to the one here. I haven't been able to get the habaki off of mine either, leaving that for a professional when I get it in for a polish. Haven't had it for shinsa yet, and unfortunately won't be able to make the West Coast one this August... Ruben pictures can be found here: viewtopic.php?f=1&t=13534 and here: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=13312
  2. Nice, I'm sitting on a possible Kanesada/Terukane wakizashi myself. The fittings look pretty nice, something I wish mine had. I've been learning a lot about nihonto in the past 8 months or so, but I find it pretty cool that the habaki of this piece and mine are so similar, I wish I could compare all the fittings...and compare stories.
  3. Haven't fallen off the wagon. Been on here a lot lately just don't have any meaningful amateurish comments to add in other threads. Had a falling out with some of the family who wanted to file suit for possession of the sword solely because of the mei and saw a single piece by Terukane signed as Echigo no kami Kanesada appraised at 5million yen online...ugh...couple month long argument backed up with quite a bit of the advice from you guys here. No love lost in the long run anyway... Found out a bit more of my Grandfather's history. Apparently he was also part of the initial occupation force in Japan after the Pacific war. This would probably explain the non-military saya that the piece is in. Right now it stays in my humidity controlled fire-rated gun safe and I do a cleaning with dehydrated alcohol and a light run of mineral oil once a month on the blade. Has cleaned up very nicely, I'm just now worried about some of the blemishes. A couple of them may possibly be hagire but look to only be surface level to my extremely untrained eye (just comparing to other surface level metal blemishes I've come across in other hobbies including cars and firearms, probably doesn't compare but I've been able to identify fatal metallurgical flaws in the bores of several extremely high priced firearms that rendered them basically scrap metal unless one has sentimental value for them.) Will be calling Jimmy Hayashi tomorrow about getting on his list, and just see if he has a couple minutes for some questions.
  4. A Chicago event would be awesome. I'm in San Antonio but would probably swing by Nebraska, pick up the old man and make a pops and son trip. We'd love to submit the family heirloom for shinsa in person.
  5. Thanks Veli. For some reason I've been having a hard time with the search function on the forums. Most likely user error.
  6. Direct or difuse lighting from an incandescent? I kept getting glare and reflection trying that way, the best results I got were outside on a sunny day in the shade.
  7. And a few more that turned out ok. It seems that all the photos of the blade that show the hamon the best are of the same side. I don't know if it was my lighting or what, but the other side either reflected light too much or turned out of focus.
  8. Alright, lets see if I can't get some of these pictures loaded. Unfortunately I'm having a hard time getting the hamon to show in pictures. It is much more pronounced now that I've cleaned it, but I've been trying different lighting and having a hard time with reflections off of the blade itself. :? edit: There are scratches on the surface of the blade that look to be attempts to remove blemishes. These were not visible until I cleaned the blade. They WERE NOT ME haha.
  9. It is a good looking piece, gimei or not. As I am still learning, and there is so much to learn, is it common for the boshi to be so drastically different. It almost looks forge welded on. Granted I have zero experience, it just looks...odd...to me. I also spent the last 30 minutes looking at the different periods and schools and, wow, I have a hard time differentiating. Definitely so much to learn.
  10. Alright so I tried both methods. It's still stuck on there. And upon closer inspection the habaki looks to be silver plated or foiled brass...there is some of the green brass corrosion on the nakago side of the habaki. It may just get left on for the pro's to remove when I get to the polishing stage eventually. I spent a good hour cleaning the sword. WOW. Only I forgot my camera charger and it's dead so I can't get pictures up right now. It is a whole world of difference with just a gentle cleaning and a light wipe of oil on the blade. There are still some spots where that green crud (I'm assuming old machine oil or gun oil or something) is still caked on. I just refuse to go at it with anything more than a light touch. maybe I'm just approaching it a bit too cautiously, but I'd rather not ruin this.
  11. I will give these a try. Would soaking the area in a break free oil be the best way? I don't want to end up oiling up the nakago...or does that not matter, you just don't "clean" it up?
  12. Continuing the journey here: viewtopic.php?f=1&t=13534
  13. Alright, so my adventure into nihonto began (can one say re-began?) here: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=13312 First of all I'm hoping that this is in the correct place. I have the wakizashi in hand now. Pictures will be coming later as I just spent 14 hours in a car with my 7 and 3 year old today (this was after 34 hours over 3 days with them about a week and a half ago). So I do apologize for typo's and running of the keyboard. Since I've already gotten so much help from this community and have been spending as much time as I can learning about nihonto, I'd like to put a long term "journal" so to speak of my process in this thread. 1. To share. and 2. for any input, as really, I don't feel like I know a thing about this. My first step tonight is to polish off a bottle of jack daniels and take the polishing attachment on the dremel to the blade. I kid haha. sorry probably in poor taste :lol: Really the plan is in the next couple days to get some plain, zero anything added, tissues, dehydrated alcohol and mineral oil and give the blade a nice light cleaning/oiling as outlined elsewhere on these boards. I will then post some more pictures in better lighting, and if that light cleaning takes the green what-ever-crud is on the blade off to show the state of the metal/blade better. A couple of questions/requests 1. feel free to go "wait moron don't do that" I'll be checking on here daily before doing anything with the piece. 2. any additional advice beyond what was already put in the other thread 3. correct any of my terminology/spellings/assumptions (please, I always learn better when corrected ) 4. share in the process...it doesn't seem to be a "hobby" that one can truly enjoy alone, and without the help here, this wakizashi would probably have sat in my father's basement until he passed and I got it and then started researching it again. Finally, I know pictures of the nakago with the habaki removed were requested...I couldn't get the habaki off and as of right now absolutely refuse to use anything other than the two fingers I can while supporting the piece with my other hand. is there a trick to it? I want to say the habaki is silver.
  14. I think the mail in option is great. As I said, I'd love to attend, but if that wasn't possible being able to get something mailed in and put through shinsa would be fantastic.
  15. Chris, I would be interested in either. An in person shinsa, maybe with a show would be great I'd like to meet some other collectors face to face as I've always found that sometimes the best knowledge comes from anecdotal conversation, especially since I've been at this for...oh a week now. Either way, I am planning on trying to get a window placed on the piece that I have and would like to submit it for shinsa to see if it's worth a full polish on.
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