DavidF

When I lived in the Vancouver area during the fall of 1991, the police were investigating three murders in the Surrey area. The victims were found beheaded in a couple of parks. The police suspected that they were decapitated with a sword but could never prove anything. But it was pretty freaky since I was taking night classes in the area at that time. DaveF.

I'll second that. We all love looking at blades, and we don't mind offering opinions as long as you take them with the proverbial grain of salt. Please post pictures. But the better the picture, often better the opinion. If you want an opinion, I suggest taking the following pictures. 1. A shot showing the whole blade without any fittings, so we can see the overall shape of the blade. 2. A close-up shot of the boshi (tip). 3. A close-up shot of the signature side of the nakago (tang). 4. A close-up shot of the ha-machi (the notch where the collar meets the blade). 5. A shot of a middle section of the blade showing a section of hamon (temper line). 6. Any unusual markings like horimono (carvings), armory stamps, etc. 7. Some shots of the fittings. Hope it helps... DaveF.

Of course, before you get too nostalgic, remember that the dollar in 1970 was worth 5.79 times what it does today. So, if we convert your receipt to the 2006 dollar, you paid roughly.... $217 for the two katana blades. $869 for the signed "samurai sword" :x $449 for the "tachi miniature" For a grand total of $1535 !!!! Now, just last year I paid $50 for a wak that just got papered. If I convert that to 1970's dollars, I would have paid only $9.06. :lol: Why didn't you buy the civilized world back in 1970 when it seems so cheap? Because you were being paid in 1970 dollars not 2006 dollars. You still paid good prices back in 1970 for nihonto, but the prices are not quite as good as you remember. Economics is one the thing that can bring perspective to nostalgia. DaveF.

Hey, there's nothing wrong with Shinto or Gendai blade. As my tastes have developed, I now actually prefer Shinto and Gendai blades over Koto. Unless you have preference for the shaping of Koto blades, there is really no reason not to like Shinto and Gendai blades. Koto blades fetch more cash, but IMHO the artistry of early Shinto and post-WWII Gendai is much more attractive. :D DaveF.

The "yoshisada-seki" blade is badly rusted and the rust on the nakaga does not look right for a supposedly koto period blade. I would think this is gimei. The "Edo period" blade looks like the boshi is broken and probably hagiri, making it worthless. The "Kunimune bizen" blade also doesn't look koto. The rust on the nakago looks no older than shinto. Overall, these look like very low quality swords. DaveF.

Very nice. I have no idea what you paid for it, but it a very sweet. Great fittings, lovely blade. Cheers.... Dave.

I don't think the "look" of the sword had a whole lot to do with the judging. The wak I submitted was definitely out of polish and stained with rust, but it scored 77 points. It depends on how many Nobusada smiths there were and their periods of productivity. From all the posts, it does look like the judging was very conservative, which is a boon for us that did paper and a bust for those that did not. Do you have an example signature to compared it to? Post pics of the mei and an example signature or a biography of smith in question. While we are not experts in validating mei's it would be interesting to see where the judges might have questions. Although I'm not sure that the school's signature is a common feature on high quality nihonto, post some pictures of your sword and let's see what the blade looks like. Maybe there is some feature of the blade that would identify it as an export blade (e.g. a thin blade, bar steel, thin or non-existent hamon). DaveF.

I just got my shinsa results from Moses. Shoshin, "77 points Tosa Yoshikuni" :D I am soooo... jazzed! DaveF.

I submitted a sword to Moses Becerra to put through shinsa. I have emailed and phoned him and have not heard anything from him. Is anyone else having problems contacting him for shinsa results? DaveF.

Hmm.... News about the "guilty as gimei until proved innocent" pink sheets is not very encouraging. I had a wakizashi in the Shinsa. But I have not yet heard from Moses Becerra, who was supposed to be presenting my blade. Welll, I guess I will hear from him soon enough. DaveF.

Not nice. Poor quality, tourist grade koshirae. Very poor quality metalwork, even the menuki are low quality. Advise against buying. DaveF.

Nev-R-Dull is useful in those cases when rust makes it diffucult to evaluate a blade. I would not use it for a blade that is in polish or slightly out of polish. But it is helpful for lifting off the rust without abrasives. I received a blade that was brown with rust. In order to see if it was even worth polishing, I used Nev-R-Dull. It took a long time to remove the rust, and I used it in combination with normal choji/oil cleaning. I can't recall who recommended it to me, but it was someone on Nihonto Message Board. Nevertheless, not all of us have the option of buying juyo blades in polish. Some of us have to weigh carefully if we send a blade to a polisher. Many of us do not have $2000 just lying around to send to a polisher on a whim. For some of us using a non-abrasive, non-acidic rust remover can be helpful for us to enjoy or evaluate a less expensive blade to see if it is even worth sending to Shina or the polisher. A rusted blade will not only conceal the hamon but also any hagiri that may be present or deeper damage such as pitting. Yeah, Nev-R-Dull can make your blade look like a gunto. But it also won't damage a blade if you decide later on to send it to a polisher. DaveF.

I would stay away from this stuff as it is an abrasive unless you don't give a crap about your blade. To be quite frank you should never use an abrasive on any nihonto, even a gendaito. On a blade that has minor scratches, this could ruin the complexion of the rest of the finish; restraint here is the best policy. On a blade that has rust problems, I would try Nev-R-Dull instead as it uses non-abrasive petroleum solvents. For more serious problems, have a reputable polisher do the work. DaveF.

With so many good tsuba out there, it would be a waste of your hard won dollars to spend them on this kind of tsuba. :| You really NEED to (a) buy some books--it's not as much fun, but you will make wiser choices in the long run; and (b) go to a nihonto show and have the change to hold/feel/get to know some real tsuba. Judging the quality of a tsuba is difficult to do on sight alone and requires some tactile learning in order to "feel" what a good tsuba is like. BTW, what you would pay for any one of these fakes may be $50, but for $150-$300 you could buy a decent, antique tsuba. A $150-$300 tsuba will not be the greatest work of art, but it will nonetheless be recognizable nihonto craftsmanship. Being a student myself, I don't spend a lot on nihonto. But I did make the investment in books, and as a result my dollars are going towards wiser purchases. :D DaveF.

Tsubas 1 and 3 look cast (and fake) to me. If tsuba 2 is real, it is not very high quality. If it is shakudo, it is probably poor quality shakudo given the fact that the patination is not very dark. I think you could do better. DaveF.

While not all nihonto have a yokote, this "specimen" does have the tell-tale signs of being fake. The kissaki is very poorly formed; and even when the yokote is absent, the kissaki is usually well-shaped. It looks like a high-end Chinese counterfeit. DaveF.

I have met Moses Beccera and seen his work. His work is VERY nice. If my wak passes shinsa, I will have him do the polishing. DaveF.

Hey Milt, What makes bizen swords susceptable to being bungoed? What reasons did the shinsa give you for bungo? BTW, I sent my wak to the New York shinsa. :D DaveF.

This is a mumei (no signature) blade. The active hamon and the condition of the rust on the mei would make me lean toward a early shinto era blade. Also because the blade has a deep curvature but is a little broad, I probably would not classify it as late koto. I did notice that in pictures "Sword 065" and "Sword "064" there appears to be some unfortunately places corrosion pitting, which could result in hagiri. But a very nice gift, nonetheless. DavidF.

This just doesn't look right... for a few reasons. The mei looks a very odd color of black. Perhaps it's the photography, but it almost looks as if the mei has been patenated or lacquered in some way... it has the same kind of reflective black pigment one finds on tsuba. Very strange. Also, there are two different handles being shown: one with yellow silk cord the other with black. While it does kind of look like "a modern put-together" peice, none of the fittings shown look especially impressive or have that classic Japanese asthetic that we have all come to admire. Our opinions are based purely on the photos you supply. We see a lot of Chinese junk, and poor grade nihonto, so unless the pictures are good most of us tend to be conservative with our opinions. A really good shot of the tip of the blade showing the hamon, pictures of the ha-machi, and the mei are very helpful in assessing the blade. Close-ups of the tsuba, fuchi, and kashira are helpful in assessing the fittings. The other posters are right, $800 is probably too much for a gimei wakizashi. But if it were to pass shinsa, then that would be another matter. DavidF (formerly Theologian).