b.hennick

Does it have a matching fuchi? I must have done this in my sleep. Error corrected!

Sorry, I don't know. Christian came up with some interesting things. The story that came with them was always interesting.

Unfortunately, he passed away. He was a character that many will miss.

Very cool!

NO

I suggest that you use kids foaming soap and a well used very clean toothbrush on the menuki and fuchi kashira. The soap comes in a bottle with a plunger top that puts out a ribbon of soamy soap.

The Canada /USA border remains closed. Each month they have continued to close the border. I'm not sure that I would go in any case.

Good luck!

The hamon looks Mino, but the tang loss more like Bizen. I do not see koshi sori or utsuri both Bizen characteristics.

Welcome Brian! Start a new thread in the nihonto section and ask for thoughts on the blade. You will get a lot of information if it is an interesting blade and not so much, if there is little of interest in the blade.

Thanks Reinhard. I would never have come up with Mori.

Thanks Ray. I could not find anything close for the first kanji.

The photos that were sent to me were not great. I did what I could with Photoshop. I could not get very far. All help is appreciated.

I never look at the Daimyo54's offerings. I got burned twice. I have ignored his stuff for years. Good luck.

You can put more than one image in a post. I usually crop and reduce the file size. 120 dpi seems to do well. The first may be an armourer tsuba katchushi. The third is the most interesting one to me. The last is in Peru poor condition. It may have been in a fire. When you don't know most say shoami #2? #4 looks like a Tenbo tsuba.

Hi Tony It would be a lot easier to upload the photos. I do not have the app. It opens with a covet over the photo.

1 shaku is 30.3 cm so a wakizashi is between 30.3 cm and 60.6 cm I have found that in all things Japanese there are exceptions e.g. O tanto are larger than 30.3 cm.

Reminds me of a Halloween pumpkin.

I felt that every black belt should have a katana. In 1976, I bought my first blade a WWII army blade. I went to the library and read every book they had on Japanese swords. Next step was the main library, and inter-library loan. I ended up reading all available books on the topic, in my city, my province, country and some from as far away as Japan. I purchased my second sword a Koto O tanto that was three times as much as my first sword. (I still have both blades.) I learned that there was something called the JSSUS - Japanese Sword Society of the United States. I joined and now am a Director/Ombudsman for the JSSUS. I joined other sword study groups and continued my studies. Every new book that Harry Watson translated was a treasure that people waited for... Please tell us your story. This thread was started because of the thread started by Adam aka waljamada on his project to make a Video for beginners.

Hi Adam When I looked at your list of talking points I thought that it would take hours and hours. When I looked at the video, the first thing that struck me was that the blades are not in the rack correctly. In peaceful situations the tsuka is on the left. That makes it more difficult to draw the blade. When evaluating a sword the first thing to look at is the shape. Shape is not on your list. I wish you the best with this project. You might keep koshirae for a later part.

Please let us know if they paper. You are doing the right thing.

I have bought several things from Fred over the years. I have been pleased with all of them. I have always considered him one of the good guys. He offered to pay for the shinsa fees, if the set fails. Take him up on the offer. It is like someone selling a blade with a guarantee that it will pass shinsa. I have purchased swords with such a guarantee and offered a sword with that guarantee.

I have a pair of iron menuki, one is an axe the other a nata.

Getting the polish done without removing too much steel is a job for a fully trained polisher. There is more to polishing than making the hamon look good. The lines must be correct and the surface not wavy. Niku is difficult to keep. It is easier to polish a flat surface than a curved one. My concern is that the not fully trained polisher will move up as he progresses to polish very good swords.

Every blade had nioi, nei is specially created by the smith. I think that there are many things that determine hardness. You should know that the harder the blade the easier it is to chip. That is it is more brittle.