Goldy

G'day all, Before I go any further please let me admit that I know very little to nothing about tsuba (being a blade person) and if I had the reference books then I would hit them. I'm trying to find out a little about the tsuba below, ie; whether it is authentic or not, if so then whatever other info I can gather. If anyone knows of similar examples could they point me to them? Extra info: It came with a shinto sword I purchased a while ago, but really does not look or feel like the original fitting, my first guess was that it may have been a cheap addition to the sword, but who knows. The rust patina seems to match the nakago of the blade, but maybe this is wishful thinking. I bought the sword for the blade and not the fittings. I would have posted this on Mr. Turner's Tosogu site but it seems to have a bug at the moment and at his request I didn't use it. Many thanks for any help, I hope I'm not wasting anyones time. Just took a couple more pics - quite a large crack (flaw?) visible but doesn't affect the circular shape. Cheers,

My apologies. Since reading this thread: viewtopic.php?f=1&t=2178 I am a little more educated. Please consider my previous post the product of an over enthusiastic newbie.

Hi all, The blade looks very tired to me (look at the munemachi and hamachi or rather, the lack of them) - perhaps the polisher got so far and thought better of continuing. Just a theory. Cheers

Thanks again for your help Wim, please check for a PM from me. I was originally after the reference books so that I could verify that the wakizashi was indeed by Kobayashi Yasuhiro. I have included some pics for everyone. My translation of the mei is below and most likely needs correcting: 康 YASU 宏 HIRO 昭 SHO 和WA 已 YI (FINISHED/COMPLETED) 羊 HITSUJI (SHEEP?) 年 NEN (YEAR) 1979? 六 ROKU (6) 月 GATSU (MONTH) Hopefully the pics show enough detail for examination and someone may be able improve on my first go. Thanks to all for your help - please chack out the pics. Craig http://img218.imageshack.us/img218/5838/meiyr4.jpg http://img218.imageshack.us/img218/1742/mei2ap4.jpg

Thanks Wim for your much appreciated help. I think I will follow your advice and go for the Gendai Toko Meikan. Even though it will be a slow process, it will be educational and worth it in the long run. Thanks for the quote from "Naked Blade", how did you get this book? It seems pretty rare itself these days. Thanks again for your help. Regards, Craig

Hi Guys, Thanks for your replies, its most appreciated. Ive been pouring through the indexes listed on Richard Stein's wonderful site and I think I'll have to find a few different titles. Reason being that some of the smiths I'm interested in were forging both before and after WWII and also the 70's and 80's. On the other hand, if anyone knows a bit about Kobayashi Sadayoshi and Kobayashi Yasuhiro (both post WWII, and I have a Yasuhiro Wak) or knows where I could find more info, it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks again all, I'll start saving my pennies for some good books. If only we had a proper Nihonto club here in Oz! Cheers, Craig (real first name, Goldy is a bastardised version of my surname...)

G'day all, This may be a bit of a newbie question but please bear with me. Is anyone able to suggest the best reference book that contains info on modern day smiths? When I say modern I mean from about 1900 through to the present. This will probably turn out to be a collection of publications spanning the period I'm guessing. I admire some of the work that smiths of this period produce but have trouble finding out more about them. Thanks for any help, its much appreciated. Goldy