b.hennick

I'm surprised that no one mentioned the mitsu tomoe motif in #84.

Well put Grey!

If you want it done properly, a professional like Brian Tschernaga is who you should contact.

You make an appointment as to when to send the blade for shirasaya and or tsunagi. They do not want to store your blade for months. It takes time as they both have a lot of work lined up.

That looks like a fatal flaw called hagiri - a crack through the hamon.

Brian Tschernaga

I have 2 questions for you. 1. Does the blade have papers? Blades with hagire typically do not have papers. Yes this may have happened after the blade was papered. 2. If the blade is not papered, did the vendor tell you that it would receive papers? If the answer is yes, you can submit the blade. If it does get papers - no hagire. If it doesn't get papers and the reason is the hagire, then you can ask for a refund. Depending on the vendor's policy, it might be too long a time has passed since you purchased the blade.

In a daisho set, usually, one tsuba is larger and the other is smaller. Your two appears about the same size.

Markus has a good sale once or twice a year

I would add that we might not know the story that units the elements in the koshirae. George M. amazes me when he explains the story behind fittings.

If genuine Omori School, the blades could be iron tsunagi and still be a good buy

Your sword also has a Seki arsenal stamp which indicates that it was not traditionally made.

Welcome Ralph. Enjoy the journey it is a long road.

Steve you are doing him a wonderful service.

I'm sad to hear that Fred Lohman has died. He provided the nihonto community with good reasonably priced things for many years.

I found that an old toothbrush (clean) and foamy soap work well. The soap bottle has a plunger that when pushed causes a stream of soap foam to exit the bottle.

I like it too. I would send it to shinsa. The work looks very good to me. I can't comment on the signature.

Dear Yas san Thank you for your efforts to teach us the tricks used by people who caste tsuba and other fittings. You have opened people's eyes. I must admit that the 3rd, 4th and 7th items shown would have caught me. I have enjoyed the journey that you took us on. I hope that some time in the future you will continue this trip.

I have one concern the ana (plugged) is to close to the seppa dai. 75 may be partially covered by a seppa. It looks modern to me as well.

Welcome Michael! I'm sure that you will enjoy it here. Love to hear about your time in Japan and the swords that impressed you there.

Most of my kogatana are in poor polish - they were bought in that condition. I have one that I bought in shirasaya, with a sayagaki by the smith. It is in full polish and ill stay that way in its shirsaya. I do have two others that have an amateur polish.

There used to be two stores that sold Japanese swords in my city years ago. The owner of one store was happy to earn a small amount on every piece and sold many many blades and fitting. The other person felt that a sword had a right price and that is what he tried to sell things at. He did not sell very much. His customers were happy but few in number compared to the other dealer. The first owner bought and sold in three countries, Canada, USA and Great Britain. He took items from one country to the next where they sold well/quickly. So he moved things around to where they were wanted and bought things that were wanted in the next country. So, if you want to sell quickly, sell at a good price. If you are in no hurry, sell at a higher price and wait for the right customer.

They look more like okimono than netsuke. The two holes do not let them down as netsuke do. I'm not sure if they are ivory.

The dragon is not a rain dragon as they do not have scales.

One does not see owls often in Japanese fittings.