TheGermanBastard

Hello Tim, thanks for making contact he. I guess quite a few of us are thrilled to see the worksheet. It was a good you took the shot at the Shinsa. It is something to talk about now

Fantastic Yokote on the Muneaki and very healthy.

Wonderfull! Also excellent polish! May I ask who did the polish?

What do yoiu mean by how this was submitted? It is obvious from the fb post that he had not handed it in by him in person But what would be the difference regarding the outcome? For I think it is best to wait to see if he posts a copy of the worksheet.

Hello John, very nice! Congrats! The only thing I may suggest is using a different image viewer for shoing enlarged images of your swords. The one you have in places makes it a bit hard. Nice image work and blades. Regards

You are welcome to stay in your closet. But I don't want to be in there with you. FYI: Ray also sells his blades on eBay like many honest collectors and dealers do. If you loose always blame yourself in the 1st spot and not the game. Collecting is not just about puting 30k on a table and buying something with all the paper lameta. Collecting is a journey of passion and learning. Collecting physical things is becoming an anachronistic thing in a more and more virtual world. There were times when probably any young boy would start collecting stamps and coins. Most will give up at a certain point as they get more interested in other things, but some keep on going. Do you know why way more people are still collecting coins and stamps than Nihonto? because it is probably just cheaper to get in. If you limit collecting Nihonto to buying important blades then we have about 10.000 blades in circulation and the number of collectors will be way smaller than that number. Both limited by the available amount of coresponding swords but especially due to the lack of money. How many people can afford to buy a Juyo blade? A smaller number than those who can afford to buy a 500, 1k or 2k blade ... how many of you have started in this hobby by buying an expensive dealer blade? That is usually the end of the road not thecstart. I started out buying a cheap 300 USD blade on eBay some 20 years ago after having done martial arts for some years when I was still a teenager. I believe a not too uncommon route for many collectors. I believe that the larger part of new collectors would start out by making a fleamarket or online auction find for little money, looking into it, wanting to learn more and doing a google search, then joining a forum or fb group and starting from there. What you suggest is like: hey, you enjoy eating? Don't go to wallmart and buy some food yourself and enter the risk of using your kitchen. Better go to some Bocuse place. That is not about cooking. Therefore a fleabay market is good. It is good to have a variety of sources and different quality of swords. Telling people to stay away from auction sites or other sources but a dealer is very narrow minded and an attitude that drives new collectors away ratherv than raising their numbers

Well, sicne the are hardly any new collectors we don't need to worry about that ...

I fully agree!

Well, I suppose it just continues the "tradition" in a more gobal world ... There is a reason why it is said that it takes 1000 blades signed "Kotetsu" to find a real one ... You have more fake Rolex than real ones available, still it does not prevent the collectors from admiring a real one. I see it as a challenge.

Glue ... you can insert a wood / bambo stripe in the Tsuka so it gets stuck better ... or a whole can be drilled it would be important to determine if this piece has a real Hamon. It is obviously folded steel but I am somewhat doubtfull if it has a true temper line. Maybe you can show it to some folks at a meeting or similar event.

Hello Ken, well, teh good thing is that if you don't spot it as a fake it won't disturb you Atleast the eBay prices are so low it causes no financial harm. But once the blade gets papered it can be turned around for way more, causing much more damage. I have to admit that while I consider myself a slightly advanced newbie, I could be fooled, too. It just requires enough effort and everybody can be fooled. Infact some of these swords might be better (one day) than some Japanese made ones in terms of quality like a fake Super dollar is superior to the real deal ... still it remains a fake of course. So it is nice to have places like this one that do educate people.

Okay then I double the calculation and it is 7 Minutes per blade. This is definately a great difference. I am not to put down the NTHK-NPO. (From what I recall the Yoshikawa branch had a smaller time widnwo on teh last US Shisna but it may also collerate with a lesser amount of slots) Infact I like NTHK-NPO better than the NBTHK on some aspects and overall consider it to be more trustworthy in my personal oppinion. However we are all just humans and hence we stumble. Infact letting a blade like the one from the Chinese Masamune slip by just is appropriate in an error calculation. What I just personally do not foster is any clult like blind following of authorites.

I think evberybody and everything ought to be questioned and has to stand up to being questioned.

The problem is that Shinsa teams do not spend too much time on swords in general. Let us be done to earth. The NTHK-NPO just handled 400 swords within how many hours total? 12 hours a day? Makes 24 hours total or 1440 Minutes = 3.6 Minutes per blade. This lines up with my observation where it has been about 2 to 3 minutes. I have a sword that I have submiited 5 times just for fun ... I got 5 pretty different results. I have no doubt that there are some experts who can tell you at instance on MOST occasions what they are looking at ... on MOST ... but NOT ALL. Some things will require more study and at a typical (none Juyo) Shinsa nobody takes this time. So I am not surprised at the "fake" sword passing ... Take a Shinsa for what it is. Some knowledgeabkle folks looking at something for a couple of minutes. You medical doctor of choice hopefully spends more time on his examination ...

Virtually

Kajihei or Kiyomaro .. and both were highly skilled.

You have an unique approach at communication. Not my cup of tea. Amen.

I accept your policy Brian and No I am not a Shisna panel. I am happy to learn from others since I am just a well known idiot. Some of you seem to see art value in this sword. So be it. No hard feelings and may the owner be happy with it what ever road he takes.

this sword offers four options a) get it professionally polished ... makes sense to put 1500 usd into it? no b - use it for playing around ... will it get any better? no. c) let it sit as is and continue rusting. will it get any better? no d) restore it for fun. will it get any better? probably no b and d will offer you some fun atleast. this is a swod you do not want to get professionally restored. I would not recommend ever to use a nihtono for cutting pratice nor to polish a nihonto oneself ... but this one is nothing to be consideref a thing of art nor value anymore ..

Hello James, it is Shintio Mumei Suriager. So I would not recommend polishing. You could well be buried with teh cost involved.

Wow! With all your great passings I must be the guys whose submission have failed

Hello Bob, I think you could do with an important blade where your cost of investment is about 4 - 5k and you resell at 40 - 50k. Chances of this are very small though. I think you can buy blades from Japanese dealers at 1 - 2k that are worth around 4 -5k. That is a heck of a deal. But really important stuff is hard to come by. Fittings in general don't seem to fetch top money on ebay. I believe the maximum potential gain is bigger. Also due to the fact that fittings move much slower. Hence it is never a good idea to put a tsuba at USD 1.00 opening bid on ebay. It just won't find its audience in time. I see many decent fittings coming out of Japan at dirt cheap prices. Just considering how much it would cost to do a modern fitting as a replacement it is a joke. So many nice Fuchi / Kashira for example that can be haved at 200 - 300 bucks. If I get the plumber for half a day I allready have to pay that and he neither flushes down Shakudo in my toilett nor - with all due respect - is it marvelous art he does there.

hello Bob, congrats on your great results! I am happy that your Saemonojo Nobukuni passed. A really nice sword! Please show us some images of it! Also I'd love to see some images of your mounts that did so well. Come on! The Tadayoshi was a sucker blade! You better had spent that money on drinks I am now very curious to hear back how the two blades did that I had submitted. Overall I think teh boards members here submitted some really nice blades and I am happy to hear that the Shinsa stood up to the expectations.

Hello Bob, you can strike great deals from the Japanese dealers as the market is slow. But what do you mean by important? Personally I think it is about near impossible to buy a blade out of Japan that will be worth let's say 10 times of your investment. I barely use the word important.

I have had two blades submitted and do not know the results yet but am very excited to find out. Was anybody at the show? I would love to hear some gossip on the Shinsa. I hope you all had favorabkle Shinsa results.