TheGermanBastard

You are fully correct about Tanto and Katana. Those are these ones thought after by collectors the most. Anything else sell for literally cheap money. The most awfull thing are Jumonji Yari. They are a pain in the ass to polish. Many polishers will even turn you down because the stones need to have a special shape and it is not worth the effort. Then when you have a perfectly polished Jumonji Yari it will often not fetch the money of the extremly expensive restoration. By now I personally prefer to buy and collect Tanto on many occasions. They are the least costy in restoration and also much easier to handle. Wakizashis can be great never the less as you basically get great work at cheaper prices - but again they are not in such high demand. Also for all the paper lovers it will be harder to achive really high papers on Wakizashi. One the one hand that is because Wakizashi often are greatly greatly shortened tachi / katana and the less a blade is original the more it is hurt and less collectable ... on the the other hand Katanas are the true weapon of the Samurai where Wakizashi were open to other classes and thus also simply greater in number. So if you are on a budget and just starting out a cheaper Waki may be preferable over a Katana for study purposes ... but you have to be aware that the demand will be lesser when wanting to re-sell it. I often speak about selling and values. For simple reason: Unless you are a billionaire you will always see the need to sell soemthing again in ordert to buy something ... and then you do not wish to take a loss or be stuck with your previous acquisation. Collecting is like climbing a ladder ... On the other hand there are people who just want to own a Samurai Sword and not get into the Nihonto path much more than that. For them it is just fine to buy whatever is appealing to them ... there will not be much dealing and wheeling. Buying something you like and enjoy is in teh end the core advice I can give without hesitation. But the more you advance the more your preferences and taste may change. The new collector will often find fancy huge billowing Choji or Gunome Hamon with a lot of Hadore the most thrilling while the old fart collector won't get his eyes of a perfect Suguha.

I only get to see an awfull amount of advertisemnents. This photobucket thing is a pain in the ass. Why not just upload the images to the board?

I could only see an iamge of a Tsuba that is indeed a fake. I can imagine the blade that went along with it.

Many of you have may probably allready have seen it. For those who haven't enjoy this great footage of a true artist at work:

Hello Frank, I think those are very nice Menuki and highly collectable. Case you don't have a full translation of the inscription on the box yet, you may wish to spend a couple of bucks on Markus Sesko for his service. Markus is alwas recommended. Best regards

Well, you posted two differents swords ... one is a Seki Showato from from WWII ... and the other a decent older piece! Could be Sue Koto. Not bad at all. Also the WWII mounts are in pristine condition.

... real paper frency ... crappy blade though: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Antique-Japanese-Kirishitan-Katana-NBTHK-NTKK-Certifications-Museum-class-grade/132536513203

hey, and just because I am curious ... please let us see some images of your well made fake Katana.

hello Lex, why not study first, then watch the market and only buy in the last step of this process. Right now yu don't have it all set yet and I feel you are not ready to go. You are at a stage where you can not tell a genuine from a fake sword and where you think about having something in decent polish re-polished - which absolutely makes no sense on this blade!!! ... so my advice, sit down. Study some book keep on surfing the well known dealer sites and once you have come to the level you reached some insight and formed a personal tase buy something. Until then it is all just academic talk.

There is no Hada visible. You would need to get a window opened by a polisher. Nots ure if it is worth the investment though.

Hello Frank, those Menuki are lovely! I do admire them and I think the work is very nice. I have several snake Tsuba and the theme is often found at later times. I can only offer a very unqualified oppinion but would think that they could date roughly around 1850 - 1900. Case you submitt them for Shinsa please kindly let us know the result. Agan I am not really qualified to comment on Menuki but I can not remember havig seen TBH level Menukis in a long time. I do not hnk it is beause Menuki wouldn't ofen make it but beause it isn't worth the money. You will have to pay around what? 500 bucks? (inckluding handlng, postage) to get that ... this will raise the bill on the menuki but the overall demand may not reflect that investment. Usually Menuki move pretty slow at higher prices unless somebody really wnats something badly. I love yours and think they are well worth what they had been offered for on the board.

Beautifull piece!

Peter: the market IS very soft. It is way too soft ... Only the top and bottom tier are stable everything in between is in the fall. I heared that the Tampa show was about half the size it still was last year. Maybe there will be no Tampa next year at all. Who knows. What I know is that all the old farts aren't getting any younger, neither am I ... so we will see more swords coming into the market from old collections with too few young collectors going for them. I think this is a logical step in a world of virtualisation. A world were there will maybe no more cash / physical money in a near future won't see that many young people hanging on collecting ancient coins ... a world with eMails makes stamps obsolete and something akward. My daugthers probably will love at me one day for keeping some music CDs somewhere. Who do you think is gonna stickl his heart, money and time anymore to collecting old records? Yes, a few nerds .. flooded by a market full of physical stuff that just makes no more sense to the vast majority of people. Due to the internet we now have a great offerings of swords where the market was rather clsoed some 30 years ago - but while the offers have grown, the demand has decreased. In the above example I see a blade which would cost way more to get restored / papered or even newly forged than the seller is asking. Still it may be a difficult blade to sell. As far as I am concerened I wouldn't buy it for being a) Wakizashi B) Suriage Muromachi or Shinto ... BUT still it is a great deal. By the way: I have some Suriage Shinto Wakizashis for sale! GREAT GREAT deals! ... It is a pitty but it is the way it s.

This is likely either Sue Koto or Shinto. Well, I can tell you that this is a solid package. If it is a bargain or not is always up to the buyer. It has two sets of paper that are allready costy for the Gaijin to acquire and there will be no import fees on your part which is also good. You may wish to also buy some literature so you can as Jean suggested enjoy the real beauty of your new acquisation. For now it is like you buying a car without ever having taken a seat in one buts just seens them from the distance. welcome to the world of Nihonto and enjyo your new hobby!

Solid workmanship in the blade!

yes tht is true christop but it is just a malus like when you mess around with a blades tang

I might like the Sake even better

Hello Christoph, the problem with number 2 is that we don't know the back. It could be a later Taisho / Meiji periode piece and not a real tsuba but something made for touists by reputable Tsuba makers. Impossible to tell for now. I surely agree that it is the most interesting piece. However the problem is that it is somnething you can no longer mount on a sword ... For the Gunto Tsuba I am doubtfull if it would fetch USD 100.00 on catawiki ...

Hello Bamer, Geraint allready gave you very good information and I agree with him that Number 2 is the most interesting piece but again it has been altered which is a problem. Overall most of these tsuba are probably worth less than USD 50.00 and would sell for 30 - 50 USD on eBay. Best regards

Hey Bob, please don't have hard feelings. Please take my comments to serious. I am not a Shinsa team and I keep my fingers crossed that your blade will paper. I just try to give my honest oppinion to the best of my knowledge which isn't much at all ... I couldn't give you enough praise and compliments on that very fine Nobukuni blade that you got from the floor auction and you have been outbidding me for years on things I thought to be good - where I may have been right or wrong. In this case I am sorry that I can not give you positive remarks. I have gotten good and bad remarks here on my own stuff for what it is worth. My oppinion is cheap so take it for that and please don't be put down by it. I don't mean that.

Hello Matt, not having any arsenal stamps does not mean it has to be a Gendaito ... neither does having an arsenal stamp for sure make it a Showato. Overal yes but still it is a case by case decision. I do not think that you have made a mistake

I think it was a good purchase as just its Koshirae is very nice and possibly almost worth what you paid. The boshi missing is unfortunate BUT the sword is still nice and very enjoyable! Congratulations

Hm, I am sceptical as I see some differences but then I am no Shinsa team. However I wonder why such a praised smith would produce such heavy Kizu? In the end the blade quality has to confirm the mei and not the other way round. If you have Kotetsu put his Mei on a Mumei Muramasa what do you get then? Yes a Gimei Kotetsu that is a Muramasa after Mei removal. Even if the signature would be no doubt legitimate it would still be Gimei. So aside from looking at the signature - where I see some differences - shouldn't we look at the blade first? That is why I asked about more images of the blades. Because if the balde does not look like Tadayoshi school then it is academic to look at the Mei anyway ... which is again where I am coming from: Why would such a famous highly rated smith produce severe Kizu AND sign it. Sure he everybody could produce bad Kizu. Even I could! Probably better than anybody else ... but if I produce flaws I am not to eager to put my name under them ... and I am not a famous guy but just a common man in the street. But strangely I still have an ego ... I no longer have saved the additional images which I had gotten from the auction house. Since what I saw in the images looked pretty bad I didn't bother to bid nor to keep the email / images on my system. So let's look at the blade and see if there is good workmanship which is inline with Tadayoshi.

Hallo Matthew, personally I tend towards Gendaito. I think your hopes are legitimate. Again it is a bit difficult to tell from the images but the Hamon is not the typical Seki Sanbon sugi oil quenched type as found on most Showatos. Also you have no arsenal stamps as far as I can see. Well, the person who wrote the description was a bit enthusiastic and euphemistic. The seller obvisouly enjoyed putting up a nice background story ... which is nothing but a nice story coming straight out of his vivid imaguination. I am by far not an expert on WWII blades in special nor anything in general but I wouldn't dare to state that this is a defintive pre WWII sword. I couldn't tell that on an undated blade. Also I do not believe that there nly 10% of this periode swords are Gendaito. I would estimate the number to be higher but again I have no valid data for that. The mere fact is that you have bought a solid Gunto. Nothing wrong about it To remove the dark rust you can use petrol with sufficient patiente. It may take several months but won't damage the blade.

PS: I am not sure if it is a Showato or Gendaito judging from the pictures. I tend towards Gendaito but as far as i am concerned I am not 100% sure either way.