Lee Bray

With mei? Unless it's gimei, it must be shobu-zukuri no?

I prefer the work of the second piece by far. The third piece reminds me of modern work done by Bartoz from Poland. Not sure if he's a member here but he makes kodugu and is fond of the owl theme. The rendition of the work seems very similar, too. Not saying it is his work, but I wouldn't be overly surprised if it was.

To my eye, this is obviously YummyMummy period and because of the way the foreheads of the figures interact with the seppa-dai, it must be by 'Yosser' Hughes of the little known Glasgow school. 'Yosser' was known for his unique way of expressing his art via the medium of his forehead with a technique known as "Glasgow kiss" and that is clearly shown on this tsuba. Also shown is the common Glasgow trait of "Swift knee to the seppa." Source, "Samurai from the Blackstuff" by Alan Bleasdale.

You promote your items well, Ronny...

Thanks for the explanation, Keith. More terminology for me to forget. Henry - you could try Robert Soanes at http://www.katchushi.com/. He's in the UK and comes well recommended.

You can see the external 'bits' I'm referring to in this pic, stolen shamelessly from http://Japanese-samurai-swords-koshirae.com/ Not the ashi but the small rectangular pieces. Here they're shakudo, not gold. This is similar to my friends though his knot is much taller and more flamboyant. I believe(again, not gospel) the internal pieces give more shape.

Metal ?? I would guess paper (ishigami) but not metal ?! I'll get clarification from the source but I'm 99% certain it was brass and not paper hishigame. Brass was used in this instance because it is not visible and much cheaper than gold. The visible embellishments are gold. I understand that on a proper, old grandiose knot, gold was used internally . Obviously, that could be a 'samurai tale' - no comment on that. But this is only my understanding from a conversation and not gospel.

A friend of mine just had his "big knot" restored on a tachi by a chap in the UK. It sounds a lot more complex than a diagram could demonstrate; it seems there are little metal pieces inside the knot to form the shape. I think this is one of those things that has to be done by those in the know. Not necessarily because of the 'don't touch nihonto' mentality but because it's just so damned hard to do. If you want his name, drop me a PM.

Thanks, Sebastien. I plan on hitting Hollywood Road tomorrow as it happens. Been waiting a few days for any "transactions" to occur before going to check.

Thanks, fellas. No joy as yet. Mark - Yes, it sucks but not quite so much as trawling ebay daily with the search word "spear" (on the basis that a Chinese taxi driver will not know yari). If I have to look at Britney one more time I'm going to cry...

It's probably a long shot but on the off chance that a board member sees these for sale or is offered them privately, it's worth it. I stupidly managed to lose two pieces of my collection last weekend after a sword day at a friends. Late, tired, left them in the cab on the way home and cab company are useless since I don't recall the driver's details. I've offered a reward locally of HK$1000 for information leading to their recovery. Should anything be forthcoming from here, I'll work it out with you. Yari Ryo-shinogi yari. 4 sided yari. Ubu nakago signed KISHU JU FUJIWARA X X Nagasa/blade length - approximately 5" Nakago/tang length - approximately 10" No koshirae, wrapped in oiled white cloth. Wakizashi Late Kamukura, early Muromachi wakizashi. O-suriage. Mumei. Nagasa/blade length - approximately 15" Nakago/tang length - approximately 5" O-kissaki. Nioideki, midare hamon. Lots of sunagashi, nijuba. Koshirae - Black ribbed wood for the first third of the saya around the kurikata with the final 2/3 being lacquered sharkskin. White sageo. No tsuka (left it at friends to take to Japan for restoration ) Tsuba - Mokko gata. Iron. Gold inlay of bird and grass. Mei/signature - NOBU X (not IE) Was inside a burgundy cloth sword bag. Both contained in a black leatherette sword bag.

Block him from your ebay account. As Brian points out, not everyone on ebay is an idiot and you will get a bad reputation. On a couple of $100 tsuba - who cares? When it comes time to get rid of rid your swords, you'll care, as they won't realise their full potential.

After eating the first one, which was delicious by the way, I keep coming back to the third. It's now set as my desktop wallpaper so I don't have to keep using NMB's bandwidth to view it. Would you happen to have a frontal shot with the raking light? I just love the colouration it shows. No worries if not.

Perhaps tantoguy of Taiwan was doing the bidding...

Is that first one edible? It certainly looks delicious.

Yes, you're right and I tend to agree. I just find it vexing to be indirectly part of it. I've never even bothered trying to sell items on ebay for this reason. Shame, as I'm getting to the point where I want to sell some of my modest collection and nihonto don't seem to sell well on forums, especially with the lower quality I'll be offering. It also vexes me as I see it everyday here in the streets and there is very little done about it. Few locals seem to care that China's reputation is one of shoddy goods and fake items which is a shame as it has much more to offer. But this is unrelated to the topic and just my take on it. On topic - I imagine the cost to ebay of hiring 'experts' for each of the plethora of items they sell would be extreme. I can't see them accepting independent authorities on spurious items as it would be far too ambiguous for their rules. They couldn't very well have a 'guaranteed no fake sword' auction and a 'take your chance Rolex' auction. Then weigh the expense, logistics and legalities of the above against the huge revenue that said sales are generating... With the amount of money involved, you can bet ebay's lawyers will be doing everything they can to stay a gnat's whisker within the law. Give or take a bit. Buy maybe I'm just too cynical. I think the idea of a group is great but I also think it will always be confined to the likes of the ebay section of this forum.

What, so I have to sell through a filter just because I'm in China? Thanks. :D I'm sure you can see where this could lead so let's not go there. Suffice to say we should all follow caveat emptor; realise that there are fake swords in every country(though admittedly their origin is generally China) and that hobbling a nation because of a few bad eggs is not the done thing.

Definitely authentic Japanese work. Masamitsu, though no comment whether it is gimei or not. Are the kanji in gold or have you highlighted them with talc? Difficult to tell in the photo. If it's fresh rust giving the colouration, have a search here for nakago care and get some light mineral oil on it. Repolish? Considering your initial cost, it's certainly a viable option but it looks in pretty good condition anyway. If the tip was intact, I'd say leave it alone until you can get to a sword show and have an expert try and identify it in hand.

You know you're onto a winner when the opening scene shows a claw hammer ready for action...

I could very well be wrong but to me the tameshimei looks fake. It looks very crudely done and scratchy compared to the cutting tests I've seen.

Perhaps the taper at the jiri of the nakago is sufficient that the appropriately shaped habaki slides over without fouling? Purely speculation on my part but it looks possible from the picture.

Rather off topic but amusing - I recently finished restoring a friend's sgian dubh which his Grandfather left to him. He'd heard that he should keep the blade oiled so he used.... .... margarine! Word to the wise. Don't use margarine on your nihonto.

I saw this restored yari on another forum and wondered if lacquering was perhaps originally done as a shortcut to finishing the blade, thinking that a coat of lacquer would be a lot quicker to apply than finish polishing the hi and/or kerakubi. With your above comment, I guess not. As a polisher, do you think it is quicker to lacquer than polish, regardless of cost?

It looks like an Indonesian golok. Water buffalo horn handle.

Looks corroded. Maybe it was laying in a river for a while, found, re-finished and sold. ?