TheGermanBastard

PS: Bob "Blunt" Benson ... but he won't BS anybody. One may not alwayss enjoy his apraisal but it will always be a honest one

By added later on I mean that it is a modern made Saya in Showa times. It does not look Edo Periode to me ... and that is what puzzled me. My gut feeling is that someone assembled it who is atleast enough knowledgeablet to be dangerous .. and in this case we have to wonder why he may have passed on the blade? However I am just assuming a lot of things here, going by the images.

I feel the Seppa could be homemade by a Gi ... The F/K is a mismatch ... I also think that we might see a Gunto Habaki and a later on added Saya.

Hello Lance, I am not familiar with senkakukan.com ... they do not ring a bell with me. There is a couple of folks in the USA that is qualified to do proper restoration of swords. For example Ted Tenold, Bob Benson / Woody, Jimmy Hayashi and some more ... What Ray suggest is to get a window opened. That is a polisher will perform a proper polish on 1'' or so of your blade. This will show the activity in your blade and allow to judge both the quality of the sword in particular as well as to give an assunption on what school / age it is from. In my oppinion Bob Benson would be your best bet inside the USA: You can find a linkt o his site in the top menue. I do not know what Bob presently charges butit should be about USD 200.00 to open that window (plus you have to pay the shipping to Hawaii). However if Bob may also tell you not to polish teh blade at all or to do a full polish straight away. You can trust on his advice. If Bob think the plishing is not economic he will tell you frankly and not lure you into burning your money. When doing a full polish it is were things get expensive ... expect about USD 1500 for polishing ... USD 350+ for a Habak if desidred and USD 450+ for a Shirasaya. When wanting to submitt the blade for Shinsa in Japan it will be atleast USD 600.00 for the lowest ranked paper. So all in all you are at close to 3k. IF the blade is Miike school it may be worth it despite the crack. It is a highly ranked and thought after school. Getting back to your initial question - while I do not know senkakukan.com I tend to believe they will not be your best bet on this road / approach. For a start you can also post some more images of the blade here and wait what others have to say about your sword ... or you could visit one of the USA sword shows - the SF show - where you get all the usual suspects in one place. You can shop for cheap oppinions there all day then.

It is nice to see there are promising blades in Satsuma Koshirae at times. The Bizen Tanto could be a real winner! You shoudl consider getting it restored! Good luck and keep us posted!

Ray is a very knowledgeable person so you may wan to follow his advice. You could use Bob Benson for having a window opened. Bob will be able to advice you then what to do as he is one of the foremost authorities in the Western world. I had seen this blade when it was up on ebay. Yes, Ray is correct that it could still paper (well). Blades may even paper if the Boshi is missing or on rare occasions even if retempered ... it all depends. My gut feeling on this one was suspicious as it seems to have been assembled of parts to my untrained eyes. However Iw ould be most happy if you have come accross a diamond in the rough! I keep my fingers crossed for you. Case you decided to get a window opened please let us know the result,

Could be Hisamichi then ... https://www.google.de/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwiV7OH1yqbaAhXCzKQKHZDBBioQjhx6BAgAEAM&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.militaria.co.za%2Fnmb%2Ftopic%2F16995-wakizashi-oumi-kamo-minamoto-hisamichi-pic-heavy%2F&psig=AOvVaw239m_JXiMbYbXIajwocRXn&ust=1523136267439389

Probably Sue Koto OSuriage Mumei Wakizashi with a Hagire => Blade is basically worthless Mismatched Fuchi / Kashira. Same is good and Tsuba is good. Cost of restoration approx USD 1500.00 Toatal vale afterwars well under teh cost of restoration. => Do not restore. You want to keep the Tsuba and sell the other stuff s as is.

Amazing is subjective ...

Yes, you are correct Ray ...

I call that a rather bad ware ... covered up by a bonji ... it is like an old lady that has too much fancy make up ... I would like to keep on believing that we have a machi okuri here ... and some bonjis added as a cover up. Obviously someone took some effort to cover up the flaw the best he can. It is a great deal at 500 bucks ... but not a blade you would want to get polished.

Well, do you see that big Ware right underneath the Habaki? I am pretty confident that the Machi has been mobed up to hide that flaw. I can not say for sure of some of the tang has also been cut offf but my gut feeling looking at how it ends says yes. The blade has probably just retained its original Mekugi Ana and has had a new Tsuka made. What we see now isn't the original Tsuka anyway so that would habe been easy. I am very sure that this is no Ubu Hamachi. Whenever you got a big flaw right covered up by the Habaki then it is prett save bet that you have had some altering of the Nakago, too.

I think it was an excellent deal at 500 USD. A bargain. But is it a worth polishing candidate? I doubt that. The swords looks to be slightly suirgae to me which is a big no no with such a young blade. The reason why it got shortedn lies underneath the Habaki.

Which I believe is why Gendaitos are (not yet) in high denabd In Japan.

Very nice job in the translation / image!

Randy B. ... PM sent

Aside from that I have to give komonjo much praise. He has some of the biggest bargains on eBay at times. Mike Yamaguchi himself is a gentlemen and offers accurate and fast service.

Well said!

Who knows what was the reason. Maybe the 1st bidder was from a country the seller did not wish to ship to or changed their mind. With eBay I have about 8 parties out of 10 canceling their purchases for whatever reason. I believe it is just the Amazon like attitude that they shop around one once they change their minds or see something else, they back out with no bad feelings at all for not honioring their "bligations". If you got a 2nd chance offer then you were obviously willing to pay that price so you should rather see it as an opportunity / chance.

Eva? Sounds like a female ... just kidding. if your eMails don't bounce back, he sure will get back to you but may just be busy.

Thank you very much guys! You greatly helped me. I think I'm taking a shot at them then.

Hello, I am totally uneducated in this field and would hence appreciate some oppinions please. Do you think these two figures are Japanese made? I am somewhat doubtfull. The Kanji do not look Japanese nor does the designwork on the clothing like the carp on wheels ... and teh whole movement looks more like some kind for drunken master disco fox. I think it could also be antique Chinese work from 1900+ ? Thank you for your thoughts, Luis

The Higo Style Kojiri on the Saya is worth probably 100+ USD on its own

Sekia Showato ... Kane something. Not a quality that is handamde blade. But maybe a nice Saya which is however most likely a mismatch / none original to the blade dating to an earlier periode.

No apology here. This is just the most blunt wrongly described piece of junk I have seen in a very very long time: https://www.ebay.com/itm/World-War-2-Japanese-Sword-/273126371429 How can anybody who has the faintest idea of a sword claim that the sword is in ok condition?! This is about as bad as it can get. It is just worthy looking at these images for that reason. This is anout the most motivated seller I may have ever seen playing all the sweet sales tricks by saying he doesn't dare to remove the Tsuka (not wanting to damage something) to see if it is signed. A nice Habaki though.