mareo1912

To Patrice, I will PM you for further details To Steven, absolutely right, you do not know the treatments the wood has gone through: oiling, etc. can have influence on the objects stored, reduce the amount of water the wood can bind and can increase the danger to catch dirt on box and items. To Luca, The point that Steven meant (at least I think so, please correct me if I'm wrong) is the stability of the whole insert. It can scratch/damage the object if not done properly and if loose/overused. I make my boxes from good quality, only dried wood and the insert completely without metalparts such as nails to avoid damage in any case. PM to you. Regards, Marco

Hey you guys, hope this is the right spot for it. I will be ordering new Paulownia and cedar soon for my tosogu boxes/cabinets. You can see the work here http://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/24547-my-finished-tosogu-closet/?do=findComment&comment=248512 The wood is very nice quality, very smooth and a bit more massive, yet light and that's why I like them over casual boxes. If you're interested in the wood or boxes, measurements can be done individually, please tell me so I just order a bit more for samples to send. I'm far from being a master in wood work, but I think it's good enough and a good way to get individual sizes. Also it is really a joy to work with this kind of wood and I am happy to get better at it with every piece I make. Kind regards, Marco

Hey, Well in comparison the general nakago work, as well as the signature is pretty questionable i think... Need to overthink the whole package though.

Hey guys, so this time for real a blade that I like. There's also a very nice koshirae with it but I know a lot more about tosogu than on nihonto themselves. My thought is of course for the signature, also the to me strange seeming file marks on the nakago. Sadly the blade has the green paper virus. Any help and opinion is highly welcome, Marco

More pics for you. Going pretty well ment that the auction is getting pretty high for this blade...

This "piece" was offered to me in a Facebook group, found it on yahoo afterwards. Got it offered at 2400 Dollars... Even worse that it's at ~750 Dollars on you yahoo right now with a decent amount of bids. Getting you more pics soon Seller stated "polished by high ranking polisher"... (Obviosly ^^)

Hey guys, this blade going pretty well, your thoughts? Regards, Marco

Thank you for all the positive feedback! Jean, with just the thumbs it is easy to pull out any box, even with very short trimmed fingernails such as mine. Richard, not a bad idea, but I know the places in the closet very well and I do not want to damage the boxes as they were hard to make and fit just in their place. Maybe for the best pieces that I will surely keep I write something on the frontside with ink.

Hey guys, just finished a project for my tosogu collection. Set includes 12 Boxes (Small Boxes 120x150x50mm, Big ones 250x150x50mm) and the case, everything from paulownia wood. Fitting at the moment eight Tsuba (one Daisho set) two Kozuka and 2 Mitokoromono, so still some place free I also made custom inlays and pillows for every piece which worked astoninglishy fast when being in a good workflow (all together ca. 10 hours with 1-2h for trials). Would be happy about feedback and ideas for improvement, either in material or setup. Kind regards, Marco

Okay, thank you very much for the nice translation!

Hello guys, got this paper shown on a photo. But what the ****? As far as I understand this is for bonsai pottery... Am I totally wrong or what does that certificate say? Thankful for any help, Marco

Thanks Uwe, was putting in the link right when "a new reply was added plopped up" The file marks on the nakago are pretty good visible, that seems unusual to me as well

Hey guys, Found a really nice blade which is declared as Hasebe Kunishige. The blade is very nice and the Jada is stunning in my eyes, but what do you think about the attribution? Marco

Thank you for all the informative and helpful posts. To my favor on these blades: On the first one I got baited by cutting test and I liked the overall shape, with the second one, my favor for kaga smith comes from a very dear friend that came from a city that historically belonged to Kaga province. Anyway, the blade from Raymond is too big to fit my showcase... damn

Dear John, thank you for your very long and informative statement! You hit many of my thoughts with what you wrote and I am happy to have another opinion on this blades. I already wrote Raymond a message for one of his blades, just waiting the answer Best regards, Marco

Hey guys, I found two wakis which I pretty much adore. Yet I cannot decide as I only have money for one. Could you give me some thoughts to help me deciding? https://www.aoijapan.com/wakizashi-kasyu-ju-fujuwara-mitsukunishinto1st-generation https://www.aoijapan.com/wakizashi-mumei-den-yamashiro-kunitsugu-with-cutting-test Have a great week, Marco

Both would be a pleasure to me, have a lot to work at the moment so I will try to continue the list on the weekends as good as possible.

The word you search for is "product of food quality" there is no "one-word term" in english

Nothing to say against Choji, but the gun oil etc. That some guys use contains chloroethylene, so I added these oils to the List.

Made a look up on different sword oils... horrific information uncovered for me...

Rewrote first version with your aspects. There's always a lot more to say, but I hope that this list emphasizes the peoply to inform themselves more than just reading this and taking it for gold. To gold and silver: Both are not toxic in metal form as they can nearly not be absorbed in the body. Even most of their salts are non- or only toxic at low level and also rare in use.

Hey guys, a recent post about urushi laquer and it's toxic side effects brought me to this post that shall give you important information about common health risks at nihonto related works and will be continously edited by Brian and me. Right away, I will not have mentioned everything at a time, so please post comments, ask questions so that I can work and extend this list. Also, please do not understand me as Upper pedantic in anyway, I just want to give a wide range of informations and I know that a lot of things seem trivial to many of you, btw. it's kind of the introduction pharmacy freshlings get . To my person, I'm a pharmacist that of course has a lot to do with toxicology, pharmacology, casual lab work and risk management. Therefore I will try to give the points with the best of conscience and knowledge but please do not rely only on this list, I won't guarantee for anything. So let's start with some basic stuff. Rule 1: You know what it is, but not what it does? MSDS-> Material Safety Data Sheet: A sheet with easy and clear description about risks and prevention of those. e.g. you have ferric chloride, just google "ferric chloride msds" and you will find information about risks and countermeasures. Rule 2: Never eat, chew gum, suck candy or drink with harmful substances near, especially if you work with metals or other dust producing objects. Very small dust particels will lay on your food or hands and get a higher resorption when getting into your body mixed with food. Just make a small break and wash your hands with soap, then you're fine to eat. Rule 3: Never panic! You do not work with any substance here that can harm you within seconds, lay down your work safely and go clean the affected body part. Also, be careful with your eyes, skin can regrow, but an eye is very easy to damage and can not recover! Keep protective glasses when needed (especially with liquids of all kinds). Rule 4: Change potential gloves every 30 minutes at least! When working with acids or leach, every 15 minutes, Most times you will not notice that the substances penetrated the gloves, they do not produce holes, they just diffund through( takes some time, change will prevent this). When talking of gloves, I mean Nitrile gloves, not Latex. Latex cannot resist most chemical compounds. Tricky for leach: You do not feel it, the moment an itching or pain starts is when your skin (maybe invisible under the to long kept glove) is peeled off. Rule 5: Always try to avoid breathing in fumes or dusts! That is never 100% possible, therefore, keep windows/door open so that the rooms air can not enrich with harmful particles. For all the compounds, always take a look at the msds if existant for detailed information! I hope I can help you, feel free to ask questions and please participate in extending the list, Marco Legend: !!! : This is really dangerous when used incorrectly or without the right precautions. Ask somebody experienced or prepare carefully on working with it. Also the visibility of the danger is a decision point in giving this symbol! Alcohol --- See Ethanol Aluminium-(foil) --- Keep away from leach and acids, can give near explosive reactions! Be careful with aluminiumsalts, neurotoxicity! Ammonia --- Stinks, strongly basic and corrosive, do not breath deep in when exposed to that stuff. Keep a good airflow. Wear gloves and wear good eye protection!!! Ammoniumnitrate !!! --- Hygroscopic (draws water), do not bring in contact with burnable stuff like petrol, it can result in an highly explosive mixture. Otherwise Ok Choji Oil --- This is especially choji oil, a mix of mineral oil with Syzigium aromaticum (hell yeah I knew that name still by heart ^^) extract. Harmless, do not drink it and you're fine. Smells strong, so do not spill it on something because it's hard to remove from textils. Copper --- Do not breathe in (e.g. when sawing), do not bring in contact with strong acids - exothermic reaction - with a lot of heat! Coppersulfate --- Nice blue color, so keep away from stuff that shall not get blue... Acidic character, wear gloves and eye prot. Otherwise Ok Ethanol --- Can Burn with just a spark, not for drinking, tastes awful, maybe toxic remains. Keep airflow. Otherwise no problems Excrements --- Yes, part of many antique recipes as Nitrate donator. When heated and further worked on, nitre could be produced from natural uric acids and digestive products. Just use some nitrates as Ammoniumnitrate to avoid health risks. Ferric compounds --- See Iron Gold --- Do not inhale dust, but otherwise harmless. Grinding Stones --- Generally not a problem, but they can produce dust that can harm the lung, therefore always keep them watered! Hydrochloric acid --- Eye protection is indiscussible here. Gloves above 3% HCl conc. or when working unclean highly recommended. Highly corrosive, do not bring in contact with metals, use glass or plastic tools. Aluminium is highly reactive with it, keep them away from each other!! Keep airflow, do not breathe in, when diluting, set water first, then add acid slowly. Iron --- Do not inhale dust, but otherwise harmless. Iron (II/III) chloride --- Pretty strong acid, full glove/glasses protection recommended. Do not inhale dusts, keep away from metals, e.g. copper: it can get dissolved by Iron chloride Always buy the "hexahydrate" as it is not a liquid like pure Ironchloride and therefore a lot safer to handle. Iron (II/III) oxide --- Strong red colour, hard to remove (from white carpets especially...). Do not breath in. When in liquid, use eye protection. Iron (II/III) sulfate --- Pretty acidic when reaching into your body. Wear protection, especially skin protection as it can also be taken up through your skin (rather slowly). Getting a decent amount (like 10 sqcm) on your skin an leaving it there for 1 or two minutes can already cause intestinal health issues. Ivory --- Not harmful normally, but keep away from the dust as it can chronically damage your lung. Lead metal --- Lead in metal form is not that much of a problem. Do not breathe in dust and do not get often in touch with it. Also do not drink from, bath in, etc. lead objects, as small amounts of metal lead will get dissolved as salts and can then be absorbed in your body and harmfully enrich there. Lead compounds !!! --- They are pretty harmful as they destroy organs, brain cells and make impotent very fast. Even worse, many of them can be absorbed into your body just by skin contact. Avoid lead compounds generally, there are lot of alternatives today. If theres no other way (rare), wear gloves, sleeves, eye protection and clean your hands/arms good afterwards. Mercury !!! --- No, no, no. Just do not use it. There are different salts of it, but these should be only used by professionals as many of them can dissolve through the skin. There is always an alternative to mercury! Nitre !!! --- Just as Ammoniumnitrate, slightly more reactive. To be correct: mixture of multiple nitrates, such as Potassium nitrate, Amm.nitrate, Sodiumnitrate, etc. Oil !!! --- This is for oil except "Choji oil". There are lot of special oils, like gun oils etc, on the market. I looked at the ingredients of just few and holy ***. For the example of "Eezox": This stuff contains Trichloroethylene (also others contain this), a very harmful chemical compound that is stated as "particularly worrisome". This is easy to explain. Inhaled in even very low concentrations (it has narkotic effects which is always a sign of lung and brain interaction) it can irreversibly damage the liver (just from inhaling it (not right away, but if not used very rarely...)). And does not only higher the risk of cancer (bladder and kidney cancer) it is definately an active compound that can cause cancer!!! For an example, even in our labs were we have substances that kill you within 1 day after they touched your skin, this s*** would be upper Level 2 risk in a 3 level scaling and to hand with thick special rubber gloves and und protective air supply. This is not against Eezox, maybe they have other products without such stuff so you can buy them, but please guys, do not use this and take some alternatives without tricholorethylene. Potassium Hydroxide --- Nearly same as Ammonia, stronger corrosive activity, more harmful to the skin. Eye protection and gloves are important! Silver --- Do not inhale dust, but otherwise harmless Sodium carbonate --- Slightly basic, not a problem. Keep away from acidic solutions as it will foam by CO2 production Sodium hydroxide --- Same as Potassium Hydroxide Sulfuric acid !!! --- Eye protection is indiscussible here. Gloves above 3% H2SO4 conc. or when working unclean highly recommended. Highly corrosive, do not bring in contact with metals, use glass or plastic tools. Keep airflow, do not breathe in, when diluting, set water first, then add acid slowly. Can set free huge amounts of heat when reacting (e.g. with metals) -> can result in "explosion-like" evaporation Uchiko --- Finely ground Hazuya & jizuya stones. Do not inhale dust as the lung can hardly exhale it again. May cause chronic lung diseases when often and careless used. Comparable to asbestos Urine --- See excrements Urushi !!! --- Kind of devils blood. No problem when dry, but has a component with extreme allergic potential: Urushiol 3 is the most important and inactivates the bodys prostaglandine synthesis, causing huge local inflammatory processes. My plan: Long sleeves, careful and precise work. Eye protection and two nitril gloves on each hand! Change outer pair every 15 min. Keep good airflow, avoid breathing in the fumes. If you can get somebody else to work with it and even for some more money, do it. Jokes aside, if you work clean and be careful, have gloves, you should be fine

Hey guys, for all that have allergic problems with the urushi, the compounds causing the allergic reaction can easily penetrate latex gloves. What you want to go for is Nitril (Normally light blue gloves). It resists acidic as well as basic components for an acceptable time (15-30min) and should be able to block urushi from penetrating through at least 30 min. To be sure you could take two pairs over each other, change the outer pair every 30 min and wear something with long sleeves (smock). This way I handle highly toxic (deadly) compounds that pass through the skin every day. A box of 100pcs is around 5-7 Euro. Greetings from the lab , Marco

Thank you both for your comments. I will go further in PM

Dear members, I have a long term fascination not only for nihonto, but also for yoroi and other pieces. Now that I found two pieces I like, some opinions on quality and maybe an approximate price range would be very helpful. Also, you have some special advice on storing and caring for such pieces? And, are there any good books on restauration you can recommend. That's a lot of questions, but I want to be sure that I can treat these items right so that they sustain long after me ^^ Best regards and thank you very much, Marco