drbvac

Much better and I gotta say I wish I had your budget for Nihonto and the time to look, assess and acquire the pieces you have in the last month - must be like Christmas at your place every time the mail arrives. I am sure you already have more nihonto than my 25 years have been able to get my hand on and I haven't been really cheap in the purchase prices!! Did you ever consider the type of treasure you could have if all the money you have spent to date was on 1 beauty >? I have a bunch that if I sold them all for what I paid for them I could have a real heirloom for my kids rather than a bunch of steel they won't know how or want to sell off ! Lucky man @@

Joe: Your recall is pretty good as far as I can remember as well and I am sure although some may be more interested as these for Iai a lot more would just pass following the comments whether they are correct or not. As well - having written Mike - no one said anything regarding any of these blades that he would argue with. That said - if the forum were to "critique" or analyze many offerings on e-bay or anywhere else while they are active there is no doubt that the comments will affect both the interest and the bidding so Maybe there should be a position that comments of any kind are really not appropriate for active listings OR if asked by a potential buyer - what do you do then. THe only point is that comments from this crew will have an effect - both good and bad

Ford: The site is as artistic and aesthetically pleasing as your work . Very tasteful and relaxing to enjoy and the pictures are excellent. Very well done, BB

OH - good to know - thanks for stating this B

Missed this earlier and I also want to publicly thank Barry for the pictures - its neat in the descriptions the provenance for some of the articles and I don't know if they are part of their permanent collection or were brought together for this particular exhibit? Saw one from the "collection of Henry Wilson" and can't be a whole lot of Nihonto collectors with that handle eh Henry @@

They are all considered gendai unless proven otherwise in any event but as others have said, there are strange things going on in Japan - their economy is affected as well, and any blades that can't be sold there are being sent to dealers out of the country who can market them to less knowledgeable buyers. Takakage has it right on about the lineage of these blades I am sure - same smith - different mei's, only good for iai do - Even sellers like this who end up telling you the history of the smith whose signature is on the blade does not state that he is the smith who forged it. Curious and curiouser as the cat said and it inst going to get better. Has anyone here ever said - buyer beware > I got ripped on a fake watch because they stated that all the items were original replacements - well they were original all right -just not original manufacturers and the re-stock was 25% !! My credit card company refunded the money after I pointed out the lies on the site - not so sure one could do this with Nihonto.

Especially if you were running at the time !!!

Please take pictures if you can - I am 2500 miles from Louisville and a couple of thousand dollars from anywhere else I could see real quality. Last seen were in the Tate in London when there years ago and at the Museum of FIne Art it Boston when Ohiro san was there. Ask questions - look at details - have fun B

You are welcome for comments and entitled your opinion but before anything else is said or done if I may - you may want to assess the blade and fittings with book in hand to use the purchase as a real learning experience with your own nihonto rather than looking totally at pictures. I found out the hard way that it is better to miss a really great blade than be ahead of the game and buy a whole bunch of mediocre or poor ones. The hard thing is knowing or at least recalling the details you picked up looking at the books. I would be very surprised if any of this were made en-suite and personally would not bother polishing the blade. Have fun 0 collect what you like for sure but at least make sure what you like is worth owning as well.

Maybe was added later to allow it to be hung or worn ???? Never seen one before.

Chris: The mail in option would be certainly of interest 0 How did the procedure work out - were there any problems with customs that you are aware of going out or coming back in to the country? I would hate to have a blade I already own to get into the bottomless hole that customs can be

It appears to be something that someone with a whole lot of separate parts in a bin put together to sell. Regardless of purported age by appearance IMHO none of the parts are are all that great and as with anything the sum of the parts is at least not much higher than the average of the lowest. Even in the middle of nowhere nihonto wise I would be hesitant to put much money or time into this particular item.

I would tend to believe knowing the seller that that the blades are as indicated, and whether they are bought as similar to each other or whatever I have no idea. Maybe his contact had a collection of gendaito smiths or the shipping box would hold 4 longer blades. He in fact may have bought them without shira-saya. Saying they are similar is like saying a bunch of Mercedes and Porsches and BMW are similar - all german cars but not the same.

Beautiful indeed - you are lucky to have gone through the entire process - moisture is in humidity and oil is needed in Humidity - follow the traditional methods of preservation and it will be fine.

Missed some of the comments = no it it is not chinese and maybe only gimei in that it was a student of the smith. Your friend is "offering" to sell it to you or give it to you? I am sure the NTHBK are not too far off and it is a beautiful blade but any idea when the hormone would have been added and why>? It is not as good quality as the blade itself. IF THE signature may be gimei only in that it could have been one of his students but will leave that to the "experts" on the forum - Been wrong before

What makes you feel that way >It seems pretty tight and even along the length -

I wonder if in fact the outlined Kinai type dragon is an actual blank pre-carving as you suggest considering the amazing fit of the internal cut outs - guess there is no way to ever be sure - Maybe Ford or other s could comment whether this is how these would have been made or if someone just copied the outlines. I am quite partial to Echizen dragons - have a signed one on a blade I have had for a long time and they are all pretty spectacular carvings

Glad it worked out for you Brian - good exercise for all concerned and if you do recall even those of us questioning the signature were actually saying that it did NOT match the oshigata for the first generation smiths = so we weren't too far off >!

I thought the same but as all have said - it could very well be second to third generation and he can still hope - all good advice and with all due respect to Mr. Benson - if the polish would have added to the value of the blade he would have done it prior to putting it on the market = even at his own labour being the only cost - If I had sat on some stuff for more than even a couple of years of following the markets I would have been better off - That said if you just want to polish this for your own satisfaction of returning it to some of its former glory with no intention of ever selling = go for it !!

Ron: Are you absolutely sure? - I was sort of wondering where this was all going as soon as they started talking of a good polish and the fact that sometimes with chisels the mei looks different etc. It is fairly easy to come up with possible explanations to explain the differences in oshigata of authenticated signatures and hamon appearance in an attempt to convince oneself of the fact that your blade is not a copy. I have done it myself but please be advised at least IMHO the differences in signatures between several blades by the same smith are almost none in terms of angulation, depth of cut, angles, size etc. If yours does not match the first oshigata's submitted - it's not that smith - you may find it is a second or third generation but it will take more study. You are certainly entitled to have this blade polished but just to improve its appearance in itself - don't bet on it becoming a great example of this particular smiths work. Please correct me in my errors = only way to learn

Agreed - now if the price stays low it is probably a good buy even if not Koto = attractive piece.

Not to sound as if Lorenzo, I and others are broken records but are the Sekigane on the tsuba the same metal and all one piece with the tsuba or are they separate and able to be moved >? If one piece then most likely cast all in one - to cast a copy as I said before and then place shakudo sekigane in the tsuba would have to be a copy 0f one worth a lot of money to be worth the trouble would it not?? Sorry written after Lorenzo's reply

Can someone answer Lorenzo's comment regarding the sekigane - if they are in fact not in the same metal as the tsuba and loose or removable I would think this not a cast copy - unless this was a very expensive and rare tsuba the trouble to cast to this accuracy and then fit the sekigane makes no sense.

Shouldn't affect private collectors and considering most museums accept nihonto and then dump them "in back" somewhere for the rest of time with very little if any concern for preservation it may be a good thing for us !!

I would think that as it goes in and is not straight it is a folding flaw rather than anything to do with a casting.