Jussi Ekholm

Very nice displays guys. I like those acrylic stands as well as more traditional ones.

Added tags so you can try it yourself.

The name Chikushi naginata has it's roots in the area where naginata of this type were historically most popular. As you can see from the skecthes there are multiple variations of this naginata type. Unfortunately I have quite little information of this type in my books. You can see relevance to some European polearms such as bardiche or voulge. Which have similar socketed build as Chikushi naginata. It's also fun to note how historically both Chikushi naginata and bardiche seemed to be bit concentrated on certain area while rest of surrounding area used the more popular style of polearm.

Don't worry about your explanation, your English is perfectly fine. I understood what you meant and it was my wording that could have used tweaking... What I meant that based on the comments you posted I got a very elitist vibe from that Chinese forum. As I read those comments meaning in bit negative feeling towards your new sword, which in my eyes would be a nice sword. And on the opposite end on some production sword forums even tired and rusty genuine Japanese swords get a lot of praises just because they are Japanese swords. That was kinda the scenario I tried to word out regarding different levels of collecting.

Like I said on another forum I think it's a good sword Zhang. If and when you decide to use it for tameshigiri I believe it will perform well. You can see that on different forums people see things differently. Here at NMB pretty much all Japanese swords and related things are usually met with proper attitude in my mind. Of course very high level stuff gets more praising than low level stuff but that's understandable. Then you have the production sword forums where 100$ Chinese made replica might get praises and that is not a bad thing either. Heck I've given some credit to those myself. But they are usually not the platform I'd take on more serious nihonto discussion. Of course there are also people that only focus on the really high end stuff. The great thing about NMB and all the collectors I've met is the fact that they appreciate pieces of various quality. You can see here very experienced collectors giving comments and insight on items of varying quality. Don't be discouraged about your purchase. I would be happy to own a modern sword like that Kanehide. Of course the most important thing is that you like it.

Big thanks to Barry and other updaters. I was able to get a "free" shipping to Finland due to that 20% discount.

This will be an awesome thread. I guess for me it is my Kuninobu tachi. What makes it special for me is the fact that it was my first tachi and that I was able to buy a Nambokucho tachi within Finland. I still remember the feeling as I held it in my hand first time. Of course it has got it's flaws but it is great for me.

Ron I have not heard from this program before but you can run programs in program compatibility mode in newer windows versions. Just right-click -> properties -> compatibility mode and choose anything upwards from Windows 95. Hopefully this will work on that program.

Thanks for the pics Junichi it looks like a great event.

Welcome to the world of collecting nihonto Marc. I think you made a very nice flea market find, I wish I will be that lucky someday. This next pic is of a sword by Kozuke no Daijo Sukesada, who is regarded as the best Shinto Sukesada smith. While mostly my books have only images and descriptions of the famous smiths, some parts of the descriptions can be used for lesser known ones too. Some things to look on your sword, I think it's easier to explain these with the above pic as reference. Does your sword have a yakidashi? Yakidashi is a straight portion of the hamon shown at the base of the sword. Sugu-yakidashi is common feature in Shinto Sukesada blades while Koto period blades do not have this. Another important feature to look is boshi, the tempering at the tip. Sue-Bizen Sukesada smiths often applied complex midare-komi style boshi, so the hamon continues to be irregular and turns back. Shinto Sukesada smiths also used midare-komi variation but also suguha with small round turn back, as you can see in the pic.

Do you have more pics of the 38 inch sword? Unfortunately I think the hamon is just etched on with vinegar (or something similar). I am not sure if it will be tempered properly, so use caution if you plan to use it. How were these swords sold, bare blades, shirasaya, koshirae?

Awesome video, I enjoyed it.

Thanks for sharing that information Ian, it's great to hear about the background of that piece.

I think it has changed address into this: http://ohmura-study.net/900.html

Can't really offer much help but I can provide this interesting pic from Knives, Swords and Daggers encyclopedia by Harvey Withers & Tobias Capwell. I bought this book to get info about some various daggers around the world and I was surprised to find this... I believe this tanto is property of Royal Armouries.

I believe that Moriyama san and Morita san are correct. To me that seems to be Bugei Wave tanto. Here you can see closeup on one: http://home.comcast.net/~waggoduck/Aikuchi-2.JPG and multiple pictures of one here https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set ... 9414985703 Not a real Japanese sword but among top production pieces coming from China. Bugei has discontinued this tanto.

EDIT: Didn't look the date in Reuben's post... it was a year ago. Nathan do you have more pics?

Amazing Markus, this will be another must have book.

We had great time, always nice to see friends and all nihonto related stuff everyone has. Here is a pic of Sengoku tanto lineup we had. Lots of other nice items too but I only took this mediocre pic.

Hawleys 1100 terms and other Hawley terminology books are very basic. I've used it a lot in the beginning but I have now better replacement for them. But there is Zusetsu Nihonto Yogo Jiten, which is amazing resource. For me it pretty much covers the terminology part. And as I'm posting pics here are 2 of Nihonto Daizen too. I just like the format of it with foldouts and great pictures and very varying information.

My suggestion might be in a bit more general book. I think Nihonto Daizen 1-2 are awesome books, and something similar to them in English would in my mind help a lot of people. I think books like these in English would be a great addition to available books in the market. The format of these books is something I like very much, and I think they are easy to approach, yet still have a lot of more advanced information too. Nihonto Daizen is titled currently as Encyclopedia of Japanese Swords in English. I think they would make a great general book to the world of nihonto that would cover wide variety of subjects and would be something to recommend both for beginners and advanced readers. I think a more general book like this one would have larger target audience than more special books, even though we as a community might be more into very specific books.

Congrats Ford, another stunning piece.

That is very nice post Thomas, it's still too hard for a novice like me in general, but hopefully when I get more experience under my belt I might actually start sending in my guesses. For those with limited Japanese reading skills like myself, you can find the English translations here: http://www.touken.or.jp/english/translation1.html And here is a direct link to issue 688, and you can look the Shijo Kantei description in English and oshigata is in that post above by Thomas: http://www.touken.or.jp/english/translation/688.htm And don't forget people that when you are a NBTHK member you can attend NBTHK meetings.

That katana is made by Masasuke from Saitama, it's signed Chichibu ju Masasuke saku.

Even though if it said flawless in the description, you can see the condition in the pics that were in auction description. More marketing hype is to be expected when browsing in the eBay. That's why eBay is a tricky place to be shopping if you do not know what you are looking for. You can see good bit of notches and scratches in the pictures, by looking at them one could assume the blade will not be flawless but in the condition that pics show it to be? If you can get full refund and just be down 100$'s of shipping cost I think that is a good deal and I think it's very fair from Eric to offer that. I would advice to look more carefully into items before buying, that is the problem with eBay auctions as the time is usually very short and potentially there are multiple bidders. Sometimes you can think about purchases very long time and sometimes you have to make them fast. When you have to make them fast do as much research as possible before the purchase.