Alex A

Hi David, out of curiosity, what size is the nakago-ana?, it would also be interesting to know what the largest size may have been, before it was altered ?, difficult to say maybe. From what ive heard, there was a fashion for very small tsuba on katana towards the end of the Muromachi period. Alex.

Depending on age, a black lacquered ko kinko tsuba could have been part of a Tensho kashirae

Reminds me of this tsuba that Mariusz showed me a while ago. http://yakiba.com/Tsuba_Kiku.htm Alex.

Everyone to their own Alex.

Yes Mariusz, as you have been involved in the payal discussion . Seriously, do i need to explain why it is safer to use a credit card on a paypal account?, rather than use your own account, funds, with no added protection? Alex.

Ebay profits 2012.... $718,000,000 in the 3 months heading upto September, paypal helped Ebays profits more than double. If you use Paypal, use a credit card linked to paypal, not your own account, safer. Alex.

A credit card offers more protection than a bank transfer. Whilst a bank transfer is a safe way to send money, if the buy turns sour, there is no way to retrieve your cash. One other thing i found out about Paypal last year is that they have a pay limit of £5000, so, if you buy anything over that limit you need to send another amount. If you have agreed with the seller to cover the transfer fees, then you will be hit by more than one fee. Another way paypal stings folk. Alex.

Have you ever noticed how when you buy from overseas and checked out the exchange rates, paypal has there own version?. Alex.

NMB seems to be the Ebay launch platform in a lot of sales. A lot of folk hope to sell here but then add "before i send it off to Ebay" as though its off to the land of doom . Any folk that do ok selling on Ebay are probably selling within a widely accepted price range. Alex

Good evening, happy history hunting! Alex.

Yep, "best offer", is another fee , but not on my new site "NIHONTOMART" . A place where you will find no Chinese fakes, false papers, crazy funny looking tsuba, fuchi necklaces, nihonto hunting knifes, tsuka wrapping services by someone who learned yesterday, no bull descriptions, no repeat descriptions for different swords, no cast metal allowed, gimei must be in big letters on title GIMEI, etc etc LOL, anyone good with websites? Joking :D Alex.

An early sword influenced by the Chinese. As you all know, a number of chinese swordsmiths headed to Japan in ancient times. Ive just had a quick read over this wiki page, interesting. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_swords Alex.

I must watch too many movies, Conan the barbarian springs to mind... Alex

Yep, £2000/$3000 seems to be a roundabout limit of what folk want to spend on Ebay. As the price goes up, obviously, so does the concerns of the buyer. Alex.

This is the only "blue steel", ive seen, apologies Wah, couldnt resist. :D Alex.

A shame Ebay is the way it is, a relentless open gateway for cheap copies, forgeries and bull. There needs to be another place where folk can buy and sell nihonto in piece, and for a fair price. Look at antique/deactivated guns for instance, not allowed on ebay in the uk (not sure about anywhere else), but have there own selling places such as Gunstar, gunmart and millweb. Easy to buy and sell and without all the bull and crap to sift through. Brian, hows about extending your selling capabilities, make a few $ and add a market place to your site, and let us all shop in piece :D, if not, is anyone feeling antreprenorial, a niche market, but still, a market... Alex.

Pictures of the ancient burial mounds.. http://myaukun.wordpress.com/2013/03/11 ... al-mounds/ Alex.

Heres one that would not be amusing, it says on the ebay description "No forging flaws" I emailed the seller, "Are there any flaws whatsoever?", I was interested. He replied " There are a few forging flaws". Why cant some folk just be honest with there original description?, a mystery. Alex.

Shows what reading books achieves, noticed similar tsuba in a Sasano book a few days earlier. Alex.

My inexperienced eye is telling me this tsuba is nothing special, im presuming its late edo. Not cast, but does seem to have quite a bit of use, a copper seki-gane as been added. 82mm x 80mm 4.5mm thickness throughout Is it possible to put a school to this tsuba?, or a more exact date?, just curious. Any comments welcome, please excuse the pics. Alex

Gaudy! jeez, I struggled with that one..... Alex.

"Gordy", the misses came up with that when i asked her what she thought (i was just curious ), I said "old or new?", she replied "new...gordy....you need to get a life" Alex.

Yep, and you still have $6000 in your pocket :D Any chance of a loan? Alex.

Mariusz, the thread as gone off topic and as nothing to do with Aoi art, as you say, but in light of this, it is good for folk, who may not know how difficult it can be to return a sword back to Japan after an inspection period. Alex

Slashing and stabbing crazies , against them, I would need 2 big clunkers!!... :D Alex