drbvac

Raul: As you paid $60 I would gladly pay you 120 plus shipping Seriously, you can list it here, in the for sale section, but you usuallly will have to give some indication of what you want, as well, on e-bay as other members have said, till you have an idea, and look around, search the net even on google for the name of the smith and you may find something comparable. Only way you are going to get anywhere near what it could be worth. As well it may very well need to be polished, ( not sharpened by anyone ) and that will add another 15-2000 to the price so keep that in mind when caculation price. How come no-one ever offers these to me for 60 bucks

Yep a real big Richard. I can't wait till the secret questions for Fuller are released and finally see what it could be that Ron Watson, Henry Wilson, Guido, Dr. Stein, Chris, Grey, Ted and the other 20 world class experts that every day of the week honor us all by furthering the knowledge of all us amateurs. I am a dentist, it would take me the rest of my life to gain even 1 % of the what they know and I have no access to Japan! I praise them the restraint shown even accepting the last bunch of posts - I would have locked it on number 3! Ya. know - maybe its time there were a membership fee - I'd pay 50 or 100 bucks a year for the information available here Dr Brian D Barrett

Speaking of gay samurai - what does this guy think he is doing

That was a bit of good luck - nice indeed - maybe I better look more closely at those junked pieces for sale!

Oh to be worried about this type of problem. In Guido's article he mentions Jûyô-Bunkazai, but I noticed AOI has a sword listed as Juyo Bijutsu-hin, which can NOT be shipped out of the country. Its only around 18 grand US so I am not concerned that he can't ship it to me but I have no idea what this designation means?

John:Are you looking for a tsuba similar to the sho one or a pair that are already matched >? MAy be easier to do the latter -

Regardless it is a beautiful sword and gimei or not the smith was no slouch ! The daisho will be magnificent

Where did anyone say it was gimei. Original photos look like one of AOI's and I don't think it looks odd - very nice in fact - will be interested to see daisho mounting - any pics of the other blade for the pair?

Strange indeed - almost looks like the blade had a very narrow nakago and then inserted into another and welded or something. No real idea for sure.

I don't think that in itself is a sign that it is gimei on its own - looks like someone either cleaned the rest of the nakago and it didnt go into the carving OR someone put a coloring into the mei? Need to see the rest of the blade - then compare it with the mei itself and then decide. The carving of the mei certainly looks like it was done purposefully, and not a lot of hesitation or corrections of the strokes while being carved. If it matches an oshigata of the same smith - go from there.

Hard to see for sure - I blew it up but the original is so small its hard to say. It looks like it runs parallel to the edge and then turns down and through to the edge. If a crack, like one you can feel as a pick with your fingernail it is a hagire and probably a fatal flaw.

Ron can speak for himself - me I am like George Castanza on Seinfeld --- shrinkage - anyone remember the episode :lol:

I am betting he gets 2 grand less than its worth The tachikake has to be worth the current bid ~ I wonder if he will actually increase the amount for the original owner - is there something mercenary about using the board for profit >>?

I trust it was supposed to be funny

Great discussion and to throw a little wrench here is a katana with a "special" Sashikomi polish I saw for a Japanese collector who wanted this style - check out the mune and shinojigi - not burnished so the activity is all across the entire blade

Maybe you could click on the search button just under the title page and put in restoration or saya makers etc. I know it is a bit of a pain but when I first joined it saved a lot of repeat answers unless you are looking for specific items

I thought you were at the University if Western Ontario ! So much for being in the know ! How long were you in Korea Dr. ?

Ford: You have convinced me to stick to shiny cutting implements and just enjoy the true works of art when someone else identifies them as such. That said, and this is off topic so could you point me to a site where it shows how they actually make carved steel tsuba? I cant imagine - casting is one thing - I can do lost wax patterns of teeth and turn them into gold but sure as hell couldnt carve one!

Sorry Mark! It was also a bit of tongue in cheek about guys wanting any little bit of extra "length" and your blade is certainly still worthy of a further look see regardless of size. As you said it was greatly shortened so --- Its 5 am here and I am off fishing with the "boys" to NB for the week-end. Scotch is packed and I think I have a fishing rod somewhere so will post some better pics first of the week.

I would certainly get a window done by some polisher - and get some idea of what they feel the maker/era may be - it could very well be worth more than you think. Joe said "Your sword looks a lot like mine here viewtopic.php?f=1&t=7503 I was thinking Yamashiro as well. Someone emailed me last night and said I should look tto the Rai school. doubtful. I have seen a few Rai up close, and the hamon was a bit more active. I wish mine had that extra 1/8 of an inch. "" Funny how we're all looking for lenght It even looks a little like mine which I know is mid-muromachi and it is not shortened so is still 40" long

FOR SURE -- no arguement from me but my comments were probably from a buyers perspective hoping to find a deal somewhere

Jason: Any pics of the hamon?

Certainly the e-bay fees are passed on to the buyer in one way or another and with the crazy new export problems for shipping from Japan, anything would be better. Those of us in the middle of nowhere can't even attend a decent show without travel costing at least 1000 and that would pay for a good chunk of the cost of some blades. There must be some way perhaps that someone could create a Nihonto site that could let people access collectibles and sellers keep more of their profit. That said the "for sale section" here works pretty well but certainly doesn't reach as many buyers as sleeze-bay. All the known dealers have good sites but none really allow bidding. Wonder how publishing opening bids in the for sale section and taking offers till a week passes or something - I don't know but it seems ANY collectible is hard to get when you happen to be looking and hard to sell when you are doing that!

I am not crazy about the narrowing between the nakago and the hamachi in the last picture and could the heat have been applied to re-straighten it after it was welded on ? - looks really weird - maybe an artifact from the flash