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DavidF

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About DavidF

  • Birthday 10/10/1970

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  • Location:
    Vancouver, Canada
  • Interests
    Research, Archaeology, Religion, Rabbits.

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  1. Bummer. It's a nice piece.
  2. The lack of serial numbers seems odd.
  3. There is always someone who knows more. There is always a faster gun. To echo your sentiments, it always pays to be humble in what you know and open to learn. Because the more you know, the more you understand how little you really know.
  4. Pete, yes, I see what you mean. You are noting the silver amalgam in the recesses of the petals, if I get your drift.
  5. I think that it is an authentic tanto tsuba, but the photograph needs better white balancing. The photograph has shifted the colors in a way so that they look a bit unnatural, giving it an "overcleaned" look. My guess is that it would probably look better in person.
  6. Mario, Your blade has all the tell-tale signs of an authentic blade, even if (as already pointed out) acid was used to "enhance" the hamon. While a pretty crappy thing to do to a blade, acid etching is not the worst thing that could happen to a blade. At least, the nakago appears prima facie unaltered. If you take care of the blade, this is certainly a piece that you can appreciate and enjoy for years to come.
  7. The geometry of the blade looks wrong, the metal screams mass produced, and the mei looks hinky. My gut tells me this is gimei. But take this opinion with a grain of salt.
  8. I hope he wipes it down and oils it afterwards.
  9. Hello George, I might have some thoughts on the value of shinsa documentation. The value of shinsa documentation as you have already probably discovered is worth very little on its own. In your case, you have a gorgeous quality blade in polish with a clear signature. If you paid a fair price for the blade, it probably won't add much to the value to blade. The value of a sword is ultimately based upon the sword itself, although the NTHK papers are based upon the relative quality of the item. So, the grading sheet can give you a third-party expert opinion as to the quality of the blade. But there is one notable exception. If you have a sword that is out of polish, has crap fittings, that you picked up for a song, and you take it to, say for example, the Chicago sword show and everyone laughs at you and tells you to not get your hopes up, but you did your reading and you did your research and you really believe in your blade. And you put it through the shinsa and it scores, say for example, 77 points, and people stop laughing at you and your rather hapless blade. The shinsa is so worth it. Not that anything remotely like this has ever happened to me. Actually, I find that the best part of the shinsa is the grading sheets. Ideally, you should know as much about your blade as the grader, but the fact is that they have spent a lot more time looking as blades. They have an eye that can see things that you wouldn't otherwise notice. And even years later, I occasionally go through my grading sheets and learn new things about my nihonto. What I learn about my nihonto makes the shinsa worth it for me. David.
  10. Yes, it is true that "every newb comes in here thinking they have God's greatest sword", but on occasion newbs do stumble upon great swords. I know because it happened to me. I doubt that this guy's sword is legit. And even if legit doesn't mean it's valuable. But sometimes, just sometimes, snow does fall in June. David.
  11. DavidF

    1St Tanto

    Dwain, Such a beautiful blade is a great way to start off in the hobby (or should I say "addiction"). You can learn more from a few wise purchases is better than a hundred mistakes. And it looks like you're off to a great start. David.
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