Jean

Put it to shinsa, there are a few things to check. I have never seen such nengo. I don't like the mei and the way the kanji "ju" is put after Osafune... But I am often wrong

Sorry, but very poor pictures due to poor lightning, I am unable to read the mei, Tadamitsu was a lineage of Bizen smiths, like Sukesada, they are many... but once again the pictures are too small. Sayagaki says Tadamitsu. The boshi does not fit but there are a lot of Tadamitsu, so...

Undoubtedly Peter, my first Bizen sword came from A..A..., it costed me 1,4 M¥, it was recommended to me by the dealer, Sue Bizen, niji mei Tadamitsu. The blade was suriage, machi okuri and had one tiny fukure... My first Mino blade was a tachi mei one Kaneyoshi, early Muromachi. Submitted to shinsa, it came back "Horyu" My second Mino (kanetsune) katana came rusted with an NTHK kanteisho. Had it polished ===> four hagire LOL

Pete, Along with Curran, you have my admiration for your dedication in buying/picking the selected best

AFAIK, UK and Poland are part of UE, so no taxes whatever the amount. Nevertheless, hurry up before Brexit is completed. I have just bought from England Tricker's James loafers and everything is free of taxes and VAT. Code to use is: 9706.00.00

It is a muku gitae blade, James

Totally agreed from the start Piers. In this topic, we are talking about modern meaning of Daisho as NBTHK papers them, blades or Koshirae. I have read somewhere that a new samurai was offered by his Lord his short sword, upto him to get the long one. Useless to say that seldom blades or koshirae were matches but they were daisho

Yes, that's it Pete, what would we do if you were not around?

You spoiled the fun Darcy I was wondering if any of our members will have the curiosity to search who was this Sukemune and why the asking price was so high. In fact, he was one of the Bizen Goban kaji or his son, if I remember well it was initially a kodachi.

Anything between 1,5 M¥ and 2,5 M¥. You will notice that there is no attribution to a smith but only Ko Bizen. Years ago there a juyo wakizashi by Bizen Sukemune for sale on Tsuruginoya website. I don't remember the exact price but it was around 2,4 M¥. It took more than a year to be sold, though there was a kiritsuke mei on the tang attesting that the blade shortened was signed Sukemune. I have seen on Aoi website several Juyo wakizashi (coming from o suriage tachi) with prices going from 1,5 M¥ to 2 M¥.

In fact, Ken, it depends on these swords being papered on the same kanteisho or having the same en suite Koshirae. If not they are only three swords made by the same smith

http://www.ebay.ie/itm/Japanese-Samurai-Sword-77mm-Iron-Dragon-Sukashi-Tsuba-Signed-by-Echizen-Kinai/401003821636

In fact, it depends mainly on dealers and how you are perceived by them. I discussed more than 40 years ago with a French dealer when buying my first gimei wakizashi (I did not even know the word gimei at that time and probably over paid this blade by 20%) about his customers. He told me that his prices were inflated by 30% because of Japanese customers. They were bargaining very hard and never wanted to buy at face value. I never discuss price, I buy directly if the price is honest (IMO) from my one and only supplier in Japan, he even negotiates for me the prices with other dealers. I am sure I get the best price. No problem whatsoever with Darcy, I got two exceptional swords at excellent price. He gave me is bottom price and we stroke the deal.

Echizen kinai tsuba Have been made by hundreds

Hello Joo, Your aka "Nihonto1973" makes me think of the movie "Winchester '73" welcome on board

One of the most copied/fake signature. Had a tanto bearing his gimei (fake signature), nice one. BTW, he had a single leaf Aoi crest engraved above his signature.

My friend Florian is one of the best Nihonto dealers in France

Simon, You can learn by heart all the different combinations with different kind of hada, hamon... and give, in such kind of kantei, a good answer. It will take years and be useless if you have not seen the real things by thousand and know what these terms mean in reality. But, in such kantei game, one must be a real expert to give all the data.

Welcome Wes

I'll say "Yama" and not "Yasa". 山 : Yama

Amanda, It is a shinsakuto (newly made sword). What would be nice is to have the measurements and a few photos in order to make an opinion

John, Nidai and not shodai from the kanji you have written

I have not seen the first one, Stephen lol:

John, It is almost impossible to say, in your pictures hada is not visible nor hamon and nioiguchi is IMHO too thin to be Naoe Shizu. Here are pictures I have taken from hada: http://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/17414-achieved-collection-gokaden

Nothing to fear, it is just a classical mune ware. Now it surely interferes with the sword price but there is no rule it depends on the buyer. It is as always Offer vs Demand... The negotiation depends on the age of the blade, highly acceptable on a pre Muromachi blade, not much on a shinshinto blade.....