bryantholland

Just to follow up and close out the story of this sword, if anyone's interested: I received the sword on Friday, and the blade is just lovely. There are a few more ware than I noticed in the photos. I'm not sure if this was because of, shall we say, artful use of the digital camera and photoshop, or if I just didn't pay close enough attention. But it's nothing beyond the pale; like I said, it's lovely. The tsuka (including the ito and same) is in better condition than I expected; I may keep it for a while rather than have a new one built -- still not sure. It was shipped pretty poorly -- just bubble-wrap inside a cardboard box. Cheapo $300 Chinese swords ship in halfway-decent wooden boxes, and even $40 beaters ship with form-fitting hard foam inside the cardboard; maybe expecting a nice wooden box was unrealistic, but I would hope that for $2k+, I would get something better than bubble-wrap... Nonetheless, it doesn't appear to have been damaged in shipping. My only real disappointment was called by Taz575 -- the tsuba has a ridiculously sloppy fit. It's not just a little bit of play; it slides wildly all over the place with no resistance at all. The tsuba appears (to my untrained eye) to be legitimately old, but it seems equally clear that it wasn't original to this sword. Oh well; I'll find someone to add sekigane to fit it to the blade. The saya also rattles a bit. The habaki and the koiguchi make a good firm fit, but the blade slaps inside a bit. All in all, I'm pleased. Again, thanks everyone for the advice and the intro to this community. - Bryant

To me, part of the beauty and elegance of the Japanese sword is that the plant and animal portions of it can be replaced as needed, while the metal parts are maintained and re-used on down through the centuries. I feel like part of good stewardship is to maintain the sword in a usable condition -- while not actually using it. I'm not in a rush, though. And don't worry, I'm not going to be dragging this sword back and forth to the dojo or cutting tatami with it...

I couldn't ask for this particular advice before purchasing; I couldn't know he would ship immediately until after I had actually paid for it... And even his own listing information in the auction stated that he wouldn't ship for two weeks due to de-registration. And I did search this forum for his username (and others I was considering, such as showa22...). But yes, message taken about not worrying any more about the registration issue. Thanks all!

I understand that I wouldn't receive the original registration card; but most sellers (at least most of the ones I looked at) advertise that they'll include a photocopy of the card for overseas buyers. And I was thinking that I could then contact the local prefectural registration board and use the info on the card to ask them if it had indeed been de-registered properly. I'm not worried that anything bad would happen to me in any event; I was just more thinking that if the seller was exporting illegally, then I should be wary because maybe they'd be doing other things not above board -- like forging the NBTHK papers as well. The advice of, "it was probably illegally exported, but don't worry about it" was... not what I was expecting, but honestly, it does put me a bit more at ease. So thanks for that. And thanks for the warm intro to this community; looking forward to getting to know everyone better. One more question, which I can (and will) search the archives for, but asking anyway for any recent info and experiences: the habaki looks like it might need to be replaced (or repaired?), and I'm thinking that I'd like to have a new, slightly longer tsuka made for it. Does anyone have any particular recommendations for these services here in the US? Close-ups of the habaki: http://imgur.com/a/XUvJt Thanks again. -Bryant

I was also considering a sword from this seller as well. Were you pleased with the piece you bought, and the overall interaction? Thanks.

Sure: would appreciate any other opinions about the sword itself as well: http://www.ebay.com/itm/272272290912 But the general questions remain: is it is usual for the de-registration process to take a while, or is it generally possible to ship swords out of the country immediately? And is it possible to authenticate NBTHK papers or copies of the registration cards included with swords from Japan? Thanks. -Bryant

Hello all. I'm new to collecting nihonto and looking for a bit of advice. I recently purchased a sword on eBay. The sword and seller are located in Japan. I completed the auction, made payment a couple days later, and the seller mailed out my sword the very same day when my payment was received. I was under the impression that Japanese swords had to be de-registered before they could be mailed, and that this process usually took a week or two. But in this case, I made payment on Sunday afternoon (local time in Tokyo), the sword was mailed on Monday afternoon, and (according to the tracking info) it arrived in the US on Wednesday afternoon. It feels a little bit backwards to be worried about a seller who ships too fast, but in this case, it has me a bit worried. Does this seem suspicious at all? The eBay seller is "high5japan." I did actually search this board for that seller, and there were only a couple of hits, neither of which was a definite "stay away." He was responsive to my questions before I bid, and he has a decent eBay reputation (though I know that this is easily gamed...). The sword is allegedly papered and the price seemed reasonable. I honestly don't care about resale value; I just want to know that the sword isn't a fake. Is it possible to authenticate either the NBTHK papers or the copy of the registration card? Any other help or advice is appreciated. Thanks. -Bryant