Sandman67

LOL Awww come on, She's not that ugly... I bought it with the intention of using it to practice my carving & file work... It reminded me of a buddhist mendala, similar to the seed of life pattern. Picture it with the interior rings recessed from the rim, rounded & interwoven like vinework. Al

A recent purchase, looking to ID the source, or even the style/school it's design comes from... Extensive web & book search has led nowhere. My only info; Iron, appears hand made, very clean work, probably dates to the mid 90's... Very heavy fitting marks. Worn black oxide finish with minor surface rust onced paint was removed. I thought it might be an early Paul chen or CAS, but no hits... Any insights greatly appreciated... Al

Oh for the love a... 山田寿之 Yamada Toshiyuki I've found a couple other pieces with this signature, & I do believe it's is a 'modern' (1960's to ???) smithy, likely located in Long Quan, China. Aside from the signature, the copper-work is fairly distinctive... The name itself doesn't seem to be anything other than an artistic sudonym, more a company name than a personal one. So all in all, exactly what I paid for... Heh. Al

Here's mine. 18th century Shonai Shoami... Al

My first post here, though I've been around for ages... I recently bought what I thought was a 'china made' curio piece katana, maby from the 1970's. When I recieved it, I was extremely suprised that the blade was much higher quality than expected, & it was signed as well. I've sepnt the past couple days trying to translate the sig, & have found some of the characters on other blades, but can't find a clean comparison going through my Japanese dictionaries & kanji charts... I hope someone here recognizes the markings & can help. Al W.