LakeBum

I will do my best to find your table! I'll be the tall guy in a St. Louis Blues hat

Yah I was curious about that little stamp at the bottom too. Anyone have an idea as to its meaning?

Thank you for the tip Jean, I will just take the money out early and incur the wrath of my wife that much sooner lol. Mark do you know what your table number is yet? I heard it is so big they give you maps of the convention to find your way through.

That is a great looking tanto, congrats on a chance well taken!

Ah yah, I'm just nervous about carrying that much money around. Granted it would not make me spend over my limit if they did not accept checks lol.

This is my first time going to the Show of Shows in Louisville Kentucky. 1. Should I just bring cash or will most vendors take checks? 2. Are there any dealers that you guys always make sure to visit? 3. Anything else you had to learn hard way? Thank you for your time!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-26268338 I know this has been discussed on here before, but I was just curious as to how you feel the market will be in a few months. If the yen continues to devalue to the USD, do you think swords will be cheaper or that they will just charge more?

Thank you John!

Could someone please write out Koa Isshin Mantetsu in the Japanese characters please? I'm going to the show of shows at the end of the month and would really love to have them written down. Writing them from the steel I am afraid I'll miss something. Thank you for your time!

I agree, thank you for the link :D.

Hey I hear you! I'm going to look for a kai-gunto myself or win the lottery with a Minatogawa blade. I'm going back to reread my books on Imperial Japan swords one last time so feel more comfortable about what I'm looking at too lol. It would be neat to see a couple Yasukuni swords as well.

I'll be there, and will post any pictures of blades I come across :D. If any of you see a 6'2 30 year old with a St. Louis Blues hat, you will have found the Lake Bum lol. I'm just hoping to find some actual Nihonto pieces in decent polish to hold me over until the Chicago show.

I'm jealous you got to see them let alone bring them back!

I too am a fan, and that does look like a great collection. I'm going to look to buy one at the show of shows in Louisville Kentucky at the end of Feb :D.

Yah, you do not get to see great examples of a sword like that very often. Thank you for sharing!

Wow, thank you both :D I knew I came right place!

Oh, thank you very much John! It has definitely seen better days but I thought it was really cool.

I hope it is legal to ask for help on this translation as it is not sword related but WW2 related. This was my Christmas present from a brother in law and I would love to tell him what the translation is! Thank you for your time!

Clearly Tom Cruise went back to the Native Americans at the end of the movie "The Last Samurai".

Ah ok, thanks Josh.

I was wanting to get all three books(nihon koto, shinto, and shinshinto). Does lulu have the three books in a package deal anywhere? I missed the package deal last time and do not want to miss it again! All I saw were the latest 2 sold individually. Thanks

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Japanese-WWII-N ... 3387fc2a26 Just in case anyone wanted a copy they are on EBay now. Picked up a copy for Christmas myself. So many books I want and so few relatives to justify them with lol.

Grey I am sure I would learn a ton from that but do not know if I am up for that challenge just yet. (plus the challenge to my wallet if I am thinking of the right book lol). Mark, I live in Southern IL. Just right next to the Indiana border with all the corn and beans. The only thing that I know of is at Chicago in April.

Thanks Thomas, The ONLY reason I got a decent start is because I went through this forum looking for new guy suggestions. Before I found this forum I was just looking blindly at Ebay swords. Thanks again!

Thanks Peter, my first stop is the show of shows in February. It is going to mostly be Gendaito but at least it is something! Then in April I already told the wife we are going to the Chicago Nihonto event. I can easily get to St. Louis, Indianapolis, or Louisville if anyone knows anything those directions. Robert I hear that. I just keep seeing books that I want lol. I agree with the redundancy as well. At first I just kept reading but now I am catching a few trends. My night time reading before bed has been The New Generation of Japanese Swordsmiths by Tamio Tsuchiko and Kenji Mishina. I really like learning about the sword smiths and what they have to go through to try and advance their skills. Someday I will commission a sword for my family line and hope that my (God willing) kids will keep it in the family lol. I just got in the JSSUS and my Christmas list is mostly more books.