Ken-Hawaii

Glad to have you, Mark, but I'm afraid that "dabbling" isn't likely what you'll end up calling this hobby. It's a pretty deep rabbit hole!

Nice package, Wayne.

Well, you're obviously well-known to other members, Jim, but how about introducing yourself to the rest of us?

I would recommend contacting your credit card company, or Paypal, & seeing if you can get a refund. It may shake Tsuruta's tree. Welcome to NMB, by the way.

That's awful! RIP Paul.

Jeff, you have a lot of people throwing out bits & pieces, much of which requires explanation. My recommendation is to lightly oil the blade (everything except the nakago (tang). Then, do nothing until you contact Grey Doffin, who can walk you through the cleaning process. Remember that all of us are just caretakers of our Nihonto.

PM sent.

Only for those who do Facebook, Henk-Jan.

Are there any other countries that prevent foreign buyers from bidding/buying directly? Can't think of any.

Nice find, Malcolm. Note that all of those sales were from 3-15 years ago, & I wonder if the market is coming back up?

Those are special, Daniel, & will be the centerpieces of any collection.

Scary!

On the shirasaya, there's nothing odd. Blades are stored in them, long-term.

Welcome to NMB, Lee. Good start with this blade. Looks interesting Please measure the hacho (from the notch to the tip, & the sori (with your ruler at the notch & the tip, measure from the deepest part of the curve to the ruler's edge).

The papered Jakushi tsuba I used to have, also had some carving, but the inlays were similar to yours, Mark.

You cam use a piece of wood, tapped by a small hammer, to persuade the habaki to stretch & yawn. Weldome to NMB, Gordan.

One of my fellow Rotarians is the head of customs in Hawaii, & I asked him about needing my SSN. His answer was that's it's very unusual to require that, & only when there is no other form of verifiable ID. So, a driver's license should be sufficient, although I use one of the tax IDs for the companies we own.

I've never had any problem with Customs, nor have I ever had to give my SSN. That sounds a bit fishy.

Hamon extending into nakago could be yakidashi, which would indicate Shinto.

That blowback looks uncomfortable, Piers.

A lot of those pieces went for higher prices than I would have paid.

That's what I would choose, too.

Inna, what you have shown is everuything EXCEPT the blade itself. Please take some photos that shows the entire bare blade, to start with. That will us the age, then, close-up shtos of the rest of the blade itself may give some idea of the provenance. Two mekugiana & the end of the nakago simply show that the blade is suriage.

Wlecome, Rich. Shoot us a couple of photos of your collection, so we can see what interests you.

Martin, I opened my computer consulting company back in 1986, so I definitely understand what you're saying. I retired last year, when my wife did, so I guess my timing was good, letting the next generation deal with Covid. Like IT, understanding the basic terminology is hard, but necessary, so I'm Attaching a fillable PDF that I created to evaluate my own blades. You don't have to have a blade in front of you (although I'm sure that you're anxious to buy one) to use the sheet. Just wander over to https://www.aoijapan.com/ & choose one of their blades to see what you can identify. If there's a sword club in your area (state or D.C.?), you might check in with them, too. Final Nihonto Documentation Sheet.pdf