raynor

Yes, very clearly fake, and badly made at that. Notice how no effort at all went into the tang.

I can't imagine habaki on equal artistic footing as tsuba and fuchi kashira, but together with its intended blade a well made habaki to me personally have the potential to be a piece of art - simple, direct and effective with a high level of skill evident in its making.

I fully recommend being patient and watching or browse the sales section on this very forum, I've yet, as my still limited knowledge has grown, seen any better deals online. Ever. My first real nihonto I picked up here on the forum- it got me a hefty shinshinto katana in perfect polish, original habaki and saya with a fairly new shirasaya and tsunagi for a price I still can't believe. Granted the blade was unpapered at the time but easily passed Shinsa, as promised by the specs and seller. Any purchase here wont steer you wrong unless there is a string of warnings by members following the ad but that doesnt happen here, people look out for eachother. But first, as already stated, figure out what you want, grab a couple good books and study. Figuring out what you want and getting a taste for the depth of the field makes it more fun.

Gordon Robson has been a great help after contacting him, looks like things might work out.. cautious optimism for now.

I'm gonna risk a bump on this since to avoid succumbing to corona induced wall crawling I have decided to go ahead on this project. Guido gave a very good description of the craftmanship I am after and I got all the pieces together sans the needed new from scratch tsuka and saya. I am in no rush but seeing how shipping items to Japan is out of the question for now does anyone have some names for me stateside regarding quality work for new tsuka and saya, maybe same wrapping? I've already found someone to do the tsukamaki down the road. Looking for quality work and materials, this will not be a flashy mount but I'd want it done right, form from function and so forth.

Stephen has very graciously and kindly given me some information, but I'd rather not get more people involved unless absolutely necessary, especially during these times where a missing piece of paper does not matter at all. At this point, about a year since the Tampa Shinsa I've given up on getting my origami from the agent, and will thus also take a planned sword restoration project elsewhere. Not my best spent $440. If anyone happens to have a way of reaching the NTHK (Yoshikawa group), an email, a phone number or otherwise I'd be happy for any information and try to take it from there myself.

Yep, read those links. In short, NO oil on nakago and tsuba, ever. Regarding the nakago it's not that simple if we consider future generations but leave it til you know what you're doing. Microfiber cloth >>> uchiko powder unless you are literally wiping off the coagulated blood and guts of your enemies..

Get a sub one million rated shinshinto smith's katana in decent polish, let that be your watermelon katana. You wont get great Chinese repro katana for under $800-1000 and even then there will usually be glued tsuka, fake silk ito (not safe!) and $5 zink menuki. Blade will be good if you pick a good smith. For a good Chinese cutter dont buy Japanese swords from them, buy Chinese swords but go through a middleman to avoid the astronomical prices they charge in mainland China now since Chinese collectors are starting to also have money. http://www.lqzwdj.com/247.html

I have both a couple antique tsuba and a 100+ year old pocket watch that still ticks.. time to hit the tool shed, I feel inspired what can go wrong?

Can't comment on the blade, but that habaki is first and foremost not safe, don't try to swing the blade with any force even through air. Second, I thought I saw a Kaga style habaki but upon enlarging the photo it became clear its a very poor reproduction, photo of antique copper Kaga habaki attached for comparison.

I often wonder if the sole criteria for sword quality was its functionality in battle, not aestethics or skill working with what materials were available how the sword ranking landscape would look.

If a subject is important, someone willing to learn will make efforts beyond internet archeology. Buying books and seeing real items is mandatory to really understand. We do live in a time when there is a seeming death of expertise and many are satisfied with quick simple answers from a google search. They will never be experts in whatever the subject is. I firmly believe in time the quality available online will improve, but make no mistake, if you have made no effort asked no silly questions you are none the wiser no matter if its studying nihonto, carpentry, chess or martial arts, there is no free lunch. I've seen some fora used forced participation so to speak by making a pool of topics and/or questions then tackle them point by point with new additions arising as it goes along, the best questions often arise from trying to answer another. I dont think this place needs anything like that, but then again I'm still among the beginners tho I like to think slightly past queries about grandpas bringback by now, but I still read each one of those posted.

Talking from experience as an instructor in a field also including in depth discussions, a forum like this is where it is at. It is made with in depth discussion threads in mind, available for posterity. VERY different to any social media platform with its quick, short, simplified ways of communicating. People interested in the subject beyond scratching the surface or quick google searches will end up finding it, as is evident from all the grandpa's sword inquiries. I don't see any reason why the forum would go away anytime soon.

Really starting to wonder about this guy.. he's selling swords off his website so he is clearly alive but he does not respond to emails or the facebook message I know he read nor the inquiry through his website regarding the missing origami. Seems like an honest hardworking individual but if he dropped the ball he should at least own up to it or give an explanation, cause so far I'm out $440 with a shinsa worksheet and a new mekugi to show for it.

$1000 for a hozon katana? Why not just give them away for free on the street if that is the case. Red flag imo.

It does affect balance but not to a detrimental effect in the hands of someone with skill unless you go out of your way to put the biggest katana tsuba you can find on for example a wakizashi. More so then say a European saber, katanas had the point of balance further away from the grip. It's one of the reasons why they were such great cutters together with the thicker blade vs a slimmer spring tempered European Sabre, the slicing motion with the extra niku in the appleseed shape left you in real trouble if cut.

I showed my sword to someone more versed in blades then myself, he liked the sword but was awestruck by the to my fresh eyes quite plain shirasaya. Said it was made by someone with clearly decades of experience. There is clearly an art to it.

I'd be all over a pirate ninja sword. Everybody knows no tougher men sailed the south China seas. If it's a well made t10 blade you have a very good beater, the material surprises me with how durable it is.

This forum is by far one of the best places worldwide to purchase nihonto and fittings outside of physical stores in Japan. Usually offers here are priced well into buyers market territory and you get a free scrutiny service through all the experienced and knowledgeable members here. I bought my first nihonto here through the forum and will most definitively get my second the same way unless something truly unique shows up from left field at the right time. Nice blade and good deal, just a pity people would do such a thing to a sword, I genuinely wonder what goes through some people's head sometimes.

Read first buy after! Definitively glad I went that route..

Congratulations, 80 is a very very good result. Did you receive your origami recently? I'm still waiting, the agent has gone radio silent since October.

Others correct me on this if I am wrong but Shinsa scores does not seem to be an extra hidden layer indicating the quality if an item as much as a number the judges put together to guide wich paper gets issued. Ie. an item getting say 70 or 78pts does not neccessary mean item with 78 is blanket higher quality then item with 70, since apparently NTHK assign points equally to tang and rest if the blade, etc. So one part of an item when judged might rise or drag down the overall score, for example a sword having a very well preserved nakago might rise the number? Might they not also blanket sheets with the passable score only on sheets to avoid such speculations etc, wich could serve to detract from the origami itself?

Glad some people getting their 2019 Tampa origami, I'm still waiting on mine with radio silence since October last year.

I'm off facebook and other social media for near a decade now and can wholly recommend it. I saw Stephen King follow suit today, so by now it should be socially permissible to bow out for everyone Oversimplification and misinformation sprees aside, data (information) overtook oil a year or two ago as the worlds most valuable asset, yet there are still no (effective) legal framework to protect people's rights when it comes to the information we generate and share, any person or company can still (and will) benefit from this in whatever ways they see fit. If you ask to see or have removed your information today you will most likely be ignored, at best told a cordial no. Initially I logged off because I was tired of baby shower photos and petty arguments, I can understand why people chose to read over participating in online fora where internet distance allows a different approach over old times sitting down talking in a cafe or whatever else used to be the public space. Regarding Aoi art, I once bought a tsuba stated to be shakudo but it was very clearly iron. I kept it as I bought it for the work not the supposed material which the price also reflected. Do I think there was mischievous intent involved? Not for a second, and I will shop there again. I was puzzled that the mistake could been made, but they happen. A very wide canyon between a mistake and deliberate misinformation. People would not be able to stay in business for long in this field if they deliberately snuck one under the radar now and then, better to go into the used car market or ebay if that is how you want to do business.

I own the book. A bargain at $350. As a relative newbie in the world of Nihonto I am sure I will appreciate the book even more in the future as my knowledge grows, as with other books like Nagayama. The production effort that went into this publication is as impressive as its contents. I used to think some of my books, like for example a gifted 50th anniversary copy of the Lord of the Rings was nicely made, this blows it out of the water.