b.hennick

At the last San Francisco show Dick Dodge had an interesting display storage case for tsuba. I found it for sale on ebay and have been considering it. Here is the link to the item. It is regularly offered. http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie ... K:MEWAX:IT I have no affiliation with the vendor. He sells many types of display cases. The top is glass and so one can display a few pieces.

Hi Ted et al: I have never sold on ebay. Something about it bothers me. I am not sure just what. I have bought a number of things over the years. Some were disasters others fine. I think that after over 30 years at this I would make not make mistakes. I have! I learned to never deal with certain vendors and that others are great. I am excited to learn about any alternative to ebay that you come up with. I have certainly bought items on the messageboard but not sold here as yet. Perhaps it is time to start... No I think that I will wait to hear what Ted has up his sleeve. Finally yes Mike is one of the good guys. I would have no problem buying from Mike as I have over the years. I still think about that Shikkake tanto I let slip through my fingers.....

Hi Ted: I note that the vendor has zero feedback. Do you know him/her? I hardly ever bid on items from a brand new vendor...

The best uchiko, I use, comes from Bob Benson. He is a well-known US sword polisher. He makes his own uchiko. I have had one from him for years. It does a wonderful job without any damage to the blade. I also use microfibre cloths. In addition I have a separate uchiko ball of lower quality that I use on not so clean blades. I use Bob's on polished blades. I do not want to transfer anything from an unpolished blade to one of my freshly polished blades. Bob's uchiko cost me about $45. It seems like a lot compared to the "kit uchiko" but when compared to the cost of swords it is not a lot to pay for top quaility uchiko. When you think about how much a polish costs and how long it takes - you will, I hope, use the best uchiko available. Bob usualy has some available at sword shows and probably will send it out to you if ordered from his web-site.

+Hi Jason: None look as if they have been mounted on a sword. All look to be caste and probably Chinese copies to me. $150 is not a lot for a tsuba. I have been able to purchase genuine tsuba from members in the for sale section. I have not been disappointed. I suggest that you spend your money on books and but sword stuff after looking at a lot of pictures and real pieces. I think that if you are at all near Cihcago or San Francisco you should attend a show, You will be able to see and handle both swords and fittings. You can learn a lot and perhaps find a genuine treasure. Fight the temptation to buy until you know some more. Even then you will probably make some mistakes. As other have said Ebay is a dangerous place. You do need to know - what you are looking at, what to look for, who you are dealing with and how much it is worth.

Great read! Thanks Stephen. It left a big smile on my face. :D

Hi John: I only have a hard copy. It requests that the work is not copied so that the author can earn enough to publish a book.

I was hoping to find more monographs by him as I learned from the one on horimono and hoped to learn more. I was not looking for a book on Aikido but thanks for the information.

Hello: I just finished reading a monograph published by Daniel (Kensho) Furuya in 1987. It was a great intro to horimono. The introduction states that this is one of a series of monographs that will eventually form a book. I Googled Daniel and found that he died in 2007. Does anyone know of other publications by Daniel Furuya? Did he publish the book he wrote about?

Daimyou54eb did not respond to my telling him that the yari I bought was a fake. He claims that he never received the reproduction menuki that I bought from him and returned. Twice bitten - once I see that it is his auction I never bid. My advice do not go there....

I got stung with that description. He says "old" and then adds the disclaimer that some might think differently... Mine was made yesterday! daimyou54eb is not my favorite seller. Keep away or read very very carefully.

The lecture series was fine. A friend taped the talks and I tried to have them put on Nihontomessageboard. Unfortunately the quality was not good enough. The videos surpasses the audio tape in that there are images of what was on the screen during the talk. Some talks are better than others but all are worthwhile. I encourage you to listen to each of them when you have the time.

Hi John: I can verify payment if requested to do so. As Ombudsman checking on things is par t of my job. Having said that I am not looking to check hundreds of members. John you sent in your payment Jan. 15th

He still has the sword . The blade is a tachi by Shodai Hizen Masahiro with a dragon horimono by Yoshinaga. The tachi koshirae is covered in Nabeshima mons. I am having a tsunagi made for the koshirae using the original habaki and the new habaki will be the same design as the original. Patience ... patience ... good thing I am a teacher (We have to have a lot of patience.).

I waited 9 years to get to the top of a polisher's list. He has had my sword for over 4 years. I know that he does excellent work and so the wait, but sometimes things get to be ridiculous. I will keep his name private...

Mine arrived today. It has been read and I will recommend it highly to the sword clubs I belong to. The Rochester New York sword club will have a kantei session at our next meeting. This little book will be with me and will make a welcome addition to our study group. I expect all members to want one. Thanks for the efforts Paul!

Note the write ups for Tod's latest auctions. He seems to have lost the poor writing and learned correct Japanese terminology very quickly or he has received some serious help.

The mei side is usually facing away from the tip towards the tang end of the blade. The hole for the kozuka is on the left when the blade is held cutting edge up and looking from the tang. Consider the tsuba on the right. I copied this image from another thread. It shows the correct position for a tsuba on a blade. The tsuba as shown on the right would then have the second seppa (washer) added and the handle reattached. The tsuba on the left does not have a hole for a kozuka. Not the difference in shape of the hole for the kozuka (left) and for a kogai (right). In general the side with more decoration faces outward. That would be the side seen by people facing the person wearingthe sword. If you look in the for sale section at tsuba in general they are shown in the same position as the ones above. Tachi tsuba have the hole for the blade with cutting edge facing downward. This contrast the katana, wakizashi or tanto tsuba which have the hole with cutting edge of blade facing upward. This general practice also holds for swords placed on a rack.

I fly with swords in my luggage every time I attend a sword show. I usualy put them in a golf bag hard case. I used to use a guncase but everyone wants to look in a gun case. If you do use one then write in large letters "NO FIREARMS". As for the state of the sword - the better the polish the better the chances of getting a correct result. They have to see a hamon and hada. Unless a mumei blade has major flaws or is saiha (retempered) they will probably issue a paper to someone. There seems to be some catch all smiths or groups that seem to be used as a dumping ground when they are unsure. I remember one shinsa wih many many Bungo blades - all mumei... As for fittings, ones that people try to restore on their own with little or no experince will probably fail. When you consider that the paper costs $250 the item has to be worth having that amount added to the cost price. It seems to me, that in general, fewer fittings collectors are paper collectors when compared to sword collectors who seem to value papers much more than fittings collectors. You might bring more blades than you have spots for shinsa. You can then ask people which ones of the gorup should be submitted. People may note an obvious gimei (fake signature) blade or a saiha blade. In any case my recommendation is to study your sword and try to figure out who made it. Then when you get your results use them as a learning experience. Try to understand what the shinsa team learned that you missed. The lessons learned should be worth the $100 fee.

I can confirm that Al Bardi will run a show next year in Tampa at the same hotel at the same time. He intends to expand the show. There will be guns, antiques etc. at the show. There will be advertising and the show will be open to all.

Hello: Some hackers put all sort of spam into the database. Darcy Brockbank, the author is looking into fixing it. It is taking a little while...

There is nothing wrong in collecting papers. Perhaps we need a forum for paper collectors rather than sword collectors.

Drop by and say hello. I'll be there with lots to look at. The Tampa show is a very friendly show. The Saturday night auction is always fun. There is usually a good educational program as well.

Thanks Ted for doing a tough job with few rewards and I am sure lots of criticism from those whose threads you rightly closed. As one who suppported your efforts I can only add my heartfelt thanks for a job well done. I hope that you do still tune in and add your usual thoughtful comments. The work of all our moderators should be rewarded with thanks on a regular basis especially when tough decisions are made - all for the benefit of the messageboard.

Hi John: I liked the second one the best as well. I originally traded a tsuba for the first two. Not having seen an owl in Japanese metal work before I thought it interesting enough to get that one as well. I am far from well learned in fittings but the Hamaon work I have seen seems to be rounder with less detail. The face has good detail. The carving seems good to me.