Alex A

Kind of acceptable on some old blades, in moderation, depends.

I dunno Stephen. Its an horses for courses thing My personal take on this is that there are better modern oils For me, its akin to cooking with lard lol

Usually dark patches in photos like that indicate core steel

My advive Dont use Choji oil, use a decent gun oil (as backed up by Aoi Art, they should know, see below) Dont use Alcohol. Wiping an old thin oil film off, not maple syrup or the like. Maybe you guys need Alcohol because you are using choji, dunno. Just use soft cloths. "Special notes ; 1. Generally, Choji oil has been used to treat Japanese swords. This is a sticky vegetable oil traditionally used in cleaning swords. It promotes oxidization of the blade that will result in rust in the future. In our opinion, and based on our experience, we do not advise you to use Chyoji oil. We suggest that you use high-quality machine oil on your sword. This is the same type used when maintaining guns or sewing machines, and it is the only oil that we use with our swords at Aoi Art."

Must say, well done Grant. Nice to see a sensible approach from a newbie with realistic expectations. Briefly, if you want old at a reasonable price, expect a worn signed tanto or wak in shrasaya by lower tier smith, maybe mumei with or without papers. Occasionally see them, expect to pay around £1200 upwards Sometimes see signed late Muromachi Tanto at reasonable prices. I picked up a signed Muromachi Mino Tanto here in the sales section a good few years ago, a few tiny chips but in good polish. $650. Needed a tsuba and re-wrap. You need patience and lots of time trawling sites, i will warn you though, it can become addictive. Lost count of the tuts and comments i received from the Misses whilst on such quests. A great way to learn. Being brief, as mentioned above, lots to consider and compromises involved. We have a few experienced genuine sellers here, that wont rip you off. Good luck.

Are you sending it back ? Sometimes with care they can be straightened, trouble is if you try it and break it off then i guess its your problem.

Do various antique arms forums. Surprising really the amount of help that folks new to the hobby receive here, truly noticeable compared with other forums. Folks readily sharing lots of time and the info from books that they paid a lot of money for, i don't see a lot on such other forums. Newbies very lucky here, some take the ****, some ungrateful , that's people i suppose.

One has a Sarcopenia appearance, thin limbs like it needs go gym.

Aye, I'm coming around a bit now to the notion this nonsense will get sorted...................hopefully Don't take bad collecting news well lol

Its the same with antique guns Colin. Can easily import them with UPS but apparently exporting isn't quite so straight forward

Hearing that don't make me any more confident about buying more swords, sad to say. Ps, might come across as overreacting lol, but no, just being prudent. Don't like what i see via those that govern us. Can just imaging some narrow minded soft ass know it all down at HQ intent on banning pointy things.

It wont matter whether they are "antique" ok or not as i expect more couriers and airlines to jump on the bandwagon So yes you can own them but no you cant post them, so as said in another recent thread the field of sale will narrow, should you want to sell. As in, someone willing to drive to your house kind of a sale What happens when the likes of Aoi art cant get their swords to be delivered here, they go via EMS and usually Parcelforce finish the job. Also as said in the other thread, folks that wish to ship swords abroad will be forced to use specialist shippers which are expensive. Shippers that get your sword to the designated airport. Its up to the buyer to get his arse to the airport and sort the pick-up out, no more sitting on the arse watching tracking and wating for the courier to arrive. At extra cost an agent will sort the extra hassles, if required. Pissed off but had an idea it was coming. Will try hang on to the antiques for now but feel the need to start selling my knife collection. Just to mention also. Your not supposed to post antique firearms with the post office, but folks do, without hassles.

Game over for me, Too risky hanging on to stuff that one day i cant ship Most will go. as from tomorrow.

All i will add is that good and "collectable" items can be found for affordable prices, even for folks on a tight budget. Takes a little time, patience and education. Its not just learning about swords etc, its about learning where to look and how spot something suspicious. If anything looks too good to be true then, as the saying goes. I surely believe there is no need to accumulate junk on any budget, that's from experience. Think too many threads lately involving "cookie" tsuba , iffy swords and uneducated sword searches are having an impact lol You don't get into any type of collecting without educating yourself a little, that's kind of dumb and a recipe for buyers remorse.

What you don't know Jonas is that i gave up over an hour of my life trying to help you out with the blade the other day. When folks like yourself ask for help, its not just a case of coming up with something off the top of the head, its a case of getting the books out and researching online,. You don't have the knowledge to go shopping for swords on Ebay, its a minefield, as you have just learned. Far from a snob, just someone that doesn't want to see someone throw their money away. Some folks come here with sword after sword without buying books and expecting constant input into their sword buying antics, don't be one of them Think i need to be more dont give a **** in future. Good luck

Hey Jonas, did you end up buying that book i recommended?., expect not You be better reading that, rather than buying something on Ebay and expecting folks here to tell you whether you been scammed or not. Ridiculous.

Photography is not good and they don't like to go out of their way to send more pics. That's about my experience.

Imagine the sword that deserves a $40000 sword bag

You asked I would say dont skimp on artistic interest just to get a hold of a sword because its supposedly Nanbokucho. That kind of money opens up doors where when you look at the sword you think wow With the one above, no real detail to be seen in the hamon, the jigane appears rough in places. Seen swords sell like that for £2500 On top of that mumei and suriage Anyways, horses for courses.

The Connoisseurs book of Japanese swords, for starters. https://www.amazon.c...gayama/dp/4770020716 That's cheap, when this book was out of print i think folks were asking £250 (if i remember correctly) Lots of posts about beginner books, you would need do a search.

Hi, thanks. Was hoping to see Mishina Boshi (Kyoto) but it don't appear to be the case. Its difficult from your images as cant really see the hada clearly. Looks wide, nakago/yasurime fits, yakidashi. Mishina were a Mino related group. Masame may appear in Shinogi-ji Anyways, leaning that way, maybe as kIrill points out worth looking into Osaka or anyone else you may find in that style. Always said unless a sword stands out as textbook for a school then it can become a very time consuming wild goose chase. I guess you cant fit every sword in a book, they are hand made, not mass produced so you will see differences. This is why i now tend to avoid mumei swords. Saying that though, i like your sword.

No worries, picture the boshi when you have time. Just had a bit of time. The hamon starts off quite straight, like Yakidashi but don't look obviously intentional. The nakago, the hamon and the feature i mentioned above had me looking at Mishina school but not convinced. There are similarities though. When you get time get us a clear pic of the boshi Welcome to the club.

Hi, i cant see the hada in your images. Do i see itame mix with MASAME?, think i see it

I see, look for schools that used that type of nakago-jiri in the Edo, Your pictures are so dark!. Try Edo Mino

Off top of head Edo Kaga maybe, do a search