Greg F

Thanks very much for the replies gentlemen. Hi Uwe thanks for the heads up about the shoulder bar length, I didnt know that. Its aprox 10 cm too long. The dou may be a little small but I was able to try it on just once and Im 5 feet 11 inches tall and 100 kg, although there wasnt much room to move and was definitely too short for me. Im looking forward to completeing it over time as I can afford parts. Just had a baby boy Friday night so budget is getting tighter haha. Hi Luc I knew the Nodawa was repro but not sure about the menpo. I definitely plan to have the complete set antique. I also hope to get an armor box to sit it on. Looking forward to showing it to my sensei when we meet at my gym for iaito this week. As you can see in the pic there is a small peice of laquer missing in the bottom right section of the mon that bothers me. In the sale photo's it wasn't missing and the seller gave me partial refund as he couldnt find the peice. I presume its best left as is but if I should do anything to prevent and more laquer falling off in that section please let me know. I have some very good quality glues but I dont want to do anything I shouldn't do. Regards

Congrats Matthew , looking forward to the next one.

Last year I decided to get a cheap dou to go with my Zunari kobuto and today the stand arrived from Japan so I thought I'd show it before it goes in my gym/door. Over time I will get the missing pieces to complete the armor but im happy for now considering the budget I'm dealing with. My iaito/ kenjutsu sensei gave me a nice kendo armor to display next to it too.

Namban isnt usually to my taste but this looks great and goes well together Matthew. Very nice.

Absolutely JP

Wow Bob and Grev, excellent collections. I enjoy seeing what others have collected choosing my favorites. For me not being able to buy many blades I've found tsuba are a great Nihonto fix. Cheers

Tony I sent you a pm.

Looking forward to it Nicholas.

Beautiful blades. Must be difficult to part with.

Good to hear Ben , congrats on the sale.

You never fail to find great stuff to share Pete. Thank you once again. I wonder how many members have blades polished by Mr Bowhay or have stories to share about there experience with him.

I wonder how many swords were ruined during ones self teaching along the way.

Some excellent pictures of a nice sword there.

If you really think it has even a small chance at being a Masamune you would do what ever it takes to get it to a good polisher.

Hi Ben have you used it for cutting?

Surprised this is still here.

Some very tempting tsuba thefe Grey. If I wasnt expecting a baby any day now I'd have to get one. Regards

Hi Baz I've seen pictures of the Kenshin koshirae you mentioned and it doesnt have a tsuba. Its a nice all black koshirae.

John I appreciate your thread and find it interesting as I bought these two when I started collecting and have seen many variations over the years and have been curious about them. They are obviously not high grade. The katana tsuba(flowers in basket) is heavy and measures at 80mm × 75mm. The Wakizashi tsuba was quite small but can't measure it as I gave it away. Thanks John and all.

Tom I agree that regardless of monetary value it is cool and an important part of history too.

Great thread to read, thanks Roger.

What a dummy. Very painful to watch

Thats very cool. Thanks Pste

Thought I'd bump this up as they are the best sword bags I've had and are made by a lovely Japanese friend deserves to do well.

Ive had the pleasure of purchasing a few items from John over the years including my first wakizashi and he was very patient and extremely easy to deal with. Happynew year John.