Marius

Photographs?

Don't. It will drive you nuts. The seller specialises in selling junk swords. Nobody wants them on Yahoo.co.jp and he lists the stuff at higher prices on eBay, hoping for treasure and bargain hunters with a... let us say... inadequate knowledge? Been there, done that, leave it don't be blinded by the low price. Whatever you pay for it, might turn out to be too much. A halfway decent tanto is much much more expensive.

You can use antler or (clean) bone pieces to remove the red rust. The nakago has not been in fire.

The smith has probably used different kinds of steel and this is the result. I got a somewhat similar thing in a tanto blade...

On HOLD. A member has taken the tarts along with the payment schedule Thank you for looking

Dear Raphael, Once a potential buyer contacts me, the sword will be available until a deal is made or until both sides decide not to pursue it. I cannot expect anybody to make a decision about an item like this under time pressure. If you are interested, we shall talk. I'll send you a PM.

Thank you, Jean Courtesy of Hoanh who gave a me detailed instructions

Someone asked me for pics of the hada and boshi. So here we go.

I will probably keep this offer for a few more days. I am prepared to offer a very attractive payment schedule (how about six moths or even more?) but I will not cut the price. Again, ubu, long, Kamakura... Not exactly common

Yes, after it was damaged (the rim probably had hagire).

kodai = later generation.

Congrats to your daughter and her Dad, Guido I think we have hijacked this thread

Jason, Eric has one on eBay: http://www.ebay.com/itm/18-C-SUKASHI-KATANA-TSUBA-NBTHK-Japanese-Samurai-Sword-Fuchi-Kashira-Menuki-/281496638458?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item418a81d3fa I also attach a picture It looks like the tsuba was heavily damaged, as Ed has pointed out, the rim was removed and replaced with a soft metal fukurin, lost since.

Steve, You have got yourself a fine blade. An excellent first purchase, and a sword you are going to enjoy for a long time. Well done

Often it is a question of pure coincidence. You post a great deal, nobody is interested at that particular moment. You post it two months later, it sells right away. No way of predicting what will happen. This applies to $300 deals as well as to $3,000 and $9,000 (forgive me my self-advertsing here) deals.

You know my policy with sales, take tarts... Offer expires on Sunday and then I will ask the ever patient admins to delete this post. Thanks for watching - I think such a long and ubu Kamakura tachi will not show up anytime soon.

Gentlemen, I'd call this a rare opportunity to own a long ubu Kamakura tachi. The sword is ubu, and with a nagasa of 81.5 cm (32 inch) it has an imposing size. A Hoju school sword that has been awarded a Tokubetsu Hozon by the NBTHK. This is not an art sword, but a formidable weapon and a rare specimen of an ubu Kamakura tachi. The Hoju school from Oshu (Mutsu) has been producing highly functional weapons which, unlike other Japanese sword, withstood the harsh coldness of Northern Japan. The sword retains a grand sugata, although it has had it share of polishes, and it displays all the characteristic o-hada of Oshu-mono, the most visible of all being the standing out, large hada (o-hada, hadatatsu). It feels very heavy in hand. It is very likely that the nakago had originally a more pronounced curve so that the koshi zori was deeper. It has likely been hammered back during the Muromachi period (a theory of a Japanese sword smith who has seen this blade) The hada is somewhat coarse, as is typical for this school, and there will be small tate ware here and there, but nothing that detracts. The sword comes in a Japanese shirasaya and an old one piece copper habaki. My pictures are pretty bad, but at least you can see the hada and some parts of the hamon. In one of the pics you will see the tachi together with another Kamakura sword - a suriage daito with a 70 cm (27.5 inch) nagasa. That should give you an idea how long this sword is Nagasa: 81.5cm Sori: 2.2cm Motohaba: 3.15cm Sakihaba: 1.8cm Motogasane: 7.5mm Sakigasane: 4.5mm Nakago: ubu Mekugi: 1 Jidai: Kamakura Province: Oshu (Mutsu) Hamon: Suguha cho with ko-gunome Boshi: Yakizume with hakkikake Jitetsu: itame $9,000 plus shipping and PayPal fees. Find me a long and ubu Tokubetsu Hozon tachi for this price if you can Bank transfer welcome, payment schedule possible (don't be shy, ask). Guarantee: 3 days inspection period and if, for whatever reason, you are not happy with the sword, you can send it back for a full refund (minus actual shipping costs)

I had the same problem and Markus was so kind as to send me the searchable version via a file sharing service.

And I am very pleased to say that thanks to Markus the problem has been solved. Thanks, Markus

Darcy, Try as I might, my PDF is not searchable. I have downloaded another ebook by Markus again (Legends 2) and it is perfectly OK. I have no idea what the problem is... screen shot attached - as you see "no results found" for "Northern Fujiwara", which is on the page.

Gentlemen, could you please check if your copy is a non-serchable PDF, as is mine? Markus has uploaded a new version to Lulu, I have downloaded it and get the same problem...

Absolutely, Chris Walking before running. And, as said, it is great fun to learn all these things

One advice: don't let yourself be blinded by the lingo and kantei skills. Even if someone tells you how to tell nijuba from yubashiri and chikei from hada patterns and spits out schools and masters names with the speed of a machine gun, it doesn't necessary mean that the person understands swords. What you really need is to be able to judge the steel, its quality and the tempering work (as those two things combined determine the quality of a sword). This is easily said, but very difficult to achieve (don't ask me, I haven't mastered it and I probably never will). Having said that, nothing wrong with identifying and naming various things in a blade and try to come up with an attribution. It is great fun.

Thank you, Markus That is what I call outstanding customer service! I am grateful for your kind help. I'll drop you a line.

Ehem... Chris, this link was posted twice in this thread