Alex A

Thanks Jay, left it with the Misses to post, lets hope all goes well, don't need any more palava with this one

Hello, can someone please confirm this as Aoi arts address, I read somewhere that they were moving. I need to ship an item and tomorrow is the only day I will get the chance. No point emailing them as they are not in until tues. I got this address from the site. Aoi Art 4-22-11 Yoyogi, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo, 151-0053 Japan

Sorry Chris

Look on bright side Chris, miss three or four of these and you will have enough for a WW2 Koshirae with a gud un

Well, the smith certainly didn't go out of his way to recreate a Koto masterpiece, tourist piece maybe

A chance to own a large Ko-Katchushi, pity its not sold separate.

Yes Chris, I was just referring to the sword. Im not convinced in either direction with regards age, thats up to the new owner now.

Easier for him to judge than us, difficult from images, but educational nonetheless, and funny

Old is a broad spectrum, I have a pair of "old" socks that are almost 8 years old

He left it open to the buyers imagination by stating "Old", Description bottom of page Age.................. Old

Sometimes I need to remember that not everyone over the years thinks like us lot , why did he not have a Dotanuki or a Tadayoshi??

Hi Chris, I could have worded that better. I didn't mean that you stated it was "low end", I meant I agreed with you that it may have been handed down. It was me that stated "low end", flaws, mumei, etc Maybe the owner was proud, we will never know.

Hi Chris, that's what I was wondering about. I would ASSUME an officer would have a far better quality sword. It crossed my mind that this sword may not be original to this koshirae, but just a thought, don't know. Then it crossed my mind that why would an officer carry such a low end sword?, unless it was handed down, as you point out.

Chris, don't know much about these fittings, would they belong to an officer?

I could be wrong paul, not much to go off, could just be marks on the blade. Ive made it bigger and added a shaky arrow.

Just looking over the blade again, i see hada and i think i can see activity within the hamon, always difficult using photos. Dont know much about Guntos (or anything else ) and what was stamped and what wasn't.

I'm with you on that one.

Sticking with 1700ish. Chris, you have good blades like the Tadakuni (that I want back ), why look at this? This is a ? blade.

As a start, look at the Hamachi and compare whats left of it to what you will see on a more modern blade, an indicator of a blade seeing a number of polishes. Ps Chris, could do with dimensions, hamon appears to run into nakago. original or not, the last time that nakago was messed with was no older than 1700 approx., but likely newer, judging by condition and patina. 5MIN age opinion, love EBAY, not

Some of the members were good enough to show us their high quality pieces in this thread, from memory one or two excellent koshirae and many fittings, definitely worth taking a look. http://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/18592-show-us-your-high-class-tosogu/page-3?hl=+show+your +tosogu

Curran was an absolute pleasure to deal with. The tsuba is stunning in hand, a real beauty

I use a fine film of high viscosity gun oil, wont drip all over inside of saya and hopefully help to protect against "in and out" saya scuffs. I find some oil too thin and forms droplets. Horses for courses.

I'm not referring to the two wakizashi mentioned, but To buy high quality blades by top notch smiths with TH, wakizashi for some is the only viable option, Katana being around double the price. I would rather try and sell an excellent wak by a top smith, rather than a mediocre Katana for the same value. I actually prefer studying wakizashi (not just because they are cheaper ), I find Katana to be a bit cumbersome. Obviously if you can get a "great" deal on a katana, go with katana, always depends on whats around at the right time. some good ones on here at the moment, as mentioned.

I don't think a sword with a dodgy cutting test will attain Hozen.

Cheers Uwe