hybridfiat

Any chance of some pics of the sword?

Are you able to remove the handle and take pics of the tang? There are instructions on line to help.

Ive often wondered if smiths who get the task of cutting down an old sword, sign them to indicate who did the work. Did they?

Not a silly question at all. We are after all only the temporary curators of these historical artifacts. A museum is an excellent choice if they have the expertise to care for them. Not all museums do unfortunately. That choice would mean more people get to appreciate them.

I am deeply, desperately impressed with this art form and your expression in it Ford. Id like to try a tsuba perhaps in copper, to start with a simple carving. How do I get instruction?

Its' a chopper alright, the width at the yokote is greater than the width at the Ha Machi. No it has an o mara or o maru boshi. Small turn back. Correct me if Im wrong on the terminology.

Yes but it is illegible unfortunately. If I can find a way of getting a pic the mai I will. Ive tried a rubbing but it is really faint.

Im dissapointed that the edge has a couple of marks on it and 2 scratch lines. I think they happened in transport and possibly the scratches at customs. The sword was very well wrapped but the movement of the blade in the saya may account for the marks. The tip is like a needle and just resting the blade gently flat on the bed and then picking it up again left a small hole in the sheet. The koshira is nice but the tsuka is loose and needs a shim or 2. It is a real meat cleaver, very heavy and broad. It was hard to get a good impression of how much heft this nagamaki has. The tsuka is not enough for such a weapon as this. The blister is something I am able to live with.

Tomorrow :lol:

Mumai wakizashi nagamaki style. No idea of the era. Nice polish and koshira for the money. Im making a secure display cabinet for the blades.

Very nice indeed. Does the blade fit?

Call me cynical but they seem too cheap.

The sword has arrived already! 4 days! It is better than the pics. Im well pleased

Call me cynical but you are all forgetting the first principle of politics is to APPEAR to do something whilst achieving nothing of the sort. John Howard bless his cotton socks did that here in Australia when he instituted the gun buy backs. It achieved his purpose which was to APPEAR to do something. As a firearm owner I benefited greatly from his initiative. I sold several old guns to the govt for very high prices and then turned around and bought more new guns that were not banned. The illegal guns remained in the hands of their owners both law abiding and criminal and life went on.

I agree we should be able to donate to the board. This is an invaluable resource for those of us who cannot afford the library of books needed to study nihonto and the saving there alone would be huge. Then there is the advice that enables us novices to make educated decisions about purchases, again more $s saved. This is all without the consideration of the pleasure derived from reading about others opinions and experiences and the camraderie of belonging. This all adds up to money well spent if donations are made. So how do I donate?

Ive had mostly positive experiences with ebay sellers and most were American. One transaction I was very worried about was in Amman (I had to send cash cos Paypal does not work there,(US$1300) but Id have to say it was the best deal Ive ever struck and the guy is as honest as the day is long. The nihonto dealer is showa22 :D

Maybe because it isnt made from tamehagane

I just bought a sword from an ebay seller and he posted the sword BEFORE Id paid!? I have bought from him before but this strikes me as an extrordinary degree of trust for an international ebay transaction. Im humbled and gladdened that there are still people that trust and can be trusted. Yuzo Steve

My guess is a samurai would have a couple of stones just as a soldier carries a rudimentary cleaning kit for his weapon. Same principle weapon failure = death.

The boner's method is to place the whole blade flat on the coarse side of the stone for several stokes then flip the stone over and raise the blade between 7 and 10 degrees for 3-4 strokes towards the edge. My point was that is such constant use/abuse of a thin blade only resulted in tiny quantities being lost.Togi would have been able to keep most well used swords functional for longer than some have assumed. This is only an educated guess based on years of experience wearing out very hard steel knives. I remember seeing a site by a swordsmith in Japan where a sectioned sword showed at least 1/8" of skin steel in a new sword. This is a good margin. A common mistake I see made by untrained people is they oversharpen and remove many times the amount of steel necessary to achieve a good lasting edge. Sharpening like that is only needed if the edge has been badly abused or badly sharpened. I dread people asking me to do their kitchen knives as it always means hours of sweat and toil to undo years of misshaping.

Old english saying (my grannie's): "common sense is only common to those who have it" Good saying seen on a T shirt: "Stupidity SHOULD be painful"

I once worked as a boner and slicer in an abbatoir and we sharpened our boning knives heavily 5-6 x a day. I dont mean steeling them I mean with an aluminium oxide stone. The keeness of the edge was similar to a very sharp kissaki as it had the same purpose. This experience gives me the ability to judge fairly how much "meat" is lost during the sharpening/polishing proccess. Not as much steel is lost as you think, our blades started 1/8"thick and wore out over a period of 3-4 months very hard work. So the conclusion I have is that if the Togi knew his stuff he could easily make a sword last more than one campaign. This is to assume that the chips were not fatal and the owner was willing to 'battle on' with a few minor nicks and have them polished out once the fighting had subsided. Is that sound reasoning?

No problem, I understand.

"I also found a place in Australia that is making a saya " I didnt know anyone here did saya. Pray tell who, who?

This is becoming frustrating, I still cannot get any pics to download.