Hello NMB,
My name is Mike W. and I am a neophyte here at NMB. (sure wished I’d saved this before hitting submit the first time – which did not get posted but simply shuffled off to some nether world region of the internet; giving me some error message and forcing me to try and recall what in the heck I said on the first attempt, but I’m doing the cut and paste this time – fool me once only….)
I’m pretty much a neophyte at the art of the sword, but own all the books, took Iaido lessons for 2 years more than a decade ago, own a SwordStore purchased Japanese made Iaido and had all the funny pajamas too, (sorry can’t remember what we call ‘em) . I do own many commercial branded katanas, wakizashi and tantos as steel and firearms have always been my first love and an addiction I'm not interested in giving up till I'm dead.
Purchased my first koto sword in 2010 from Nihontocraft, (Danny), it’s a Bungo Sadahiro, (hence my handle) , mei Sadahiro Saku, late Kamakura circa 1300, unpapered with sayagaki and old polish by Honami Koson in October of 1940. The second, from the same source, is a papered Sandai Nanki Shigekuni, NTHK Kanteisho Shu Saku, Yoshikawa Kentaro Sensei, Genroku circa 1688-1704 and while I understand some of this I just typed, I’m hoping at some point that some of the smarts around this place will rub off on an old hick from Texas.