b.hennick

Having been burned twice I never look at Damiyo54's listings. I suggest that you don't waste your time.

Nie large crystals, nioi small crystals Smaller word bigger crystals larger word smaller crystals. Think of it this way, granulated dsugar crystals vs icing sugar nie vs nioi. Individual nei crystals can be seen easily, nioi cannot - - > misty

Even if the blade looks fine after the polish by a not fully trained polisher, my worry is that he will remove more steel than necessary. This will reduce the life of the sword. I had a long delay with the polishing of a sword by a fully trained polisher. He told me that he needed the right stone and did not have it. He looked for the stone and I waited. The polish was amazing, the wait was worthwhile, I was much younger then!

Sorry but those photos are long gone. It was not my blade. I was helping someone with it.

I can see the photos note. Unfortunately, I do not like what can see. You pointed out things that should not be there. I have seen pieces glued to a Kogai before. This may be a very new piece of work. It reminds me of the old saying. "Good from far, but far from good."

Yes, red lacquer in groves is not unusual. The lacquer may hide a defect but no always. Theatrical blades often had red lacquer... Blood.

I can only access one photo. The link is probably to only that photo rather than an album of photos.

You can do better. You can clean off the cosmolinr but not the large chip. You will have difficulty as everyone will ust see the chip.

They looked like arrow heads to me. I have a ginko tree in my front yard and did not see this as ginko

I. Purchased the book and I am enjoying it. It is nice to see sketches of some of the things I really like. E.g. Shiachi, Dharuma, flowers etc.

Hi Steve. It is nice to have another Canadian on the board.

At my sword club, I ran a kantei for quality. The five swords presented were of different quality. Some had kizu others had no flaws but were not particularly well made, others had no flaws and were better, leading to the best sword. People were asked to rank each sword. The group discussed the least favoured sword , then the next least favoured up to the most favoured. At each stage the purpose was to determine what makes a great sword and what detracts from a blade. Every sword had a suguha hamon so that a flashy hamon would not affect the outcome and become the focus of the discussion. To me, first is to get the jidai ( period of manufacture) and second the quality. Once you have the level of quality you can eliminate a huge number of smiths and then go on to School.

Hizen smith signed katana on the tachi side.

The point of a kantei exercise is to provide a typical example so that people can figure out what they are looking at. You don't learn much from an atypical blade. Would you want to kantei a Norishige that lacks matsukawa hada, or a Muramasa where the hamon is vastly different on both sides of the blade?

Thanks Jean. I hate autocorrect.

The clear masame hada in the shinogi strongly suggested Shinto. The wide noiguchi in suguha and hada suggested Hizento. I would have gone for 4th -6th generation Tadayoshi. I did not see koshi sori, utsuri or choji all Bizen characteristics.

The answer depends on the country. Some countries have a minimus (amount below which they do not charge import duty). Some countries charge a VAT or other tax based only on price. Some items may be duty free e.g. antiques over a certain age. Some items are charged import (duty) fees.

Here is a Shingen tsuba from the Varshavsky collection. I went looking for a typical shingen and saw this one.

To add to Stephen's post the light bulb image changes shape on a poorly polished blade but keeps the same shape on a well polished blade. The wavy parts distort the bulb image. We are double teaming them Oyabun!

Here washboard is used to mean wavy.

The only meetings that the JSSUS has are Board of directors meetings. Those only happen at sword shows. The JSSUS does not recommend appraisers or artisans. That was the advice given by the late Paul Davidson. Barry Hennick Director/Ombudsman JSSUS

Here is a suggestion. It is suggestion because I am not sure. If the shakudo is thin, the tsukaito could crush it. This would spread the force out as there would be more surface area and so less force per unit area. I have had iron menuki that had a similar filling. There would be no chance to crush iron menuki.

Welcome Ben. You will find a lot of people here who share your interest in WWII blades

Thanks for sharing... I see that the rabbits multiplied - they are good at that... may they continue!

Pay for a shirasaya $300 habaki $300 sword -$50. What are you waiting for?