Steves87

Thanks for the opportunity Dale, it was a privilege and a joy !

Dale's Early article books are great, to have so many past published articles on Tsuba collated and presented in the way he has done it, is a pleasure. Brings another life to an otherwise forgotten article. The 'Tsuba in the Metropolitan Museum of Art' books are great too, on a personal note, I have gripes with the the MET website (is another discussion), so to have a printed format is great, my wife has even flicked through them a few times too!

Amazing!!

As what I read of the article, I take that that mentality is part of the problem

This could be the first article I ever read from Robert Haynes a few years ago. http://www.shibuiswords.com/masterpieces.htm Second last paragraph has always stuck with me

To me, there is no argument that the condition to one is better than the other. The difference in condition between the two vs the difference in price is maybe 100 times out. Why? Some scratchings of a signature? or that a piece of paper is included? If it is condition alone you are either getting severely ripped off or getting an absolute bargain. There is no middle ground here. None. This, im sure the op is likely alluding to. Money is a good thing to accumulate vs junk, and lets be honest to the way non collectors see it, we are collecting antique scrap metal, is saving a bit of money (in turn, saving some of our accumulation) and not getting a perfect condition piece with a sheet of paper so bad? No disrespect intended, but I have been struggling with understanding the elitism of Nihonto for years.

I would almost say the timber one was used as an original to cast from, very similar!

It seems it has been impacted by something with 'teeth', like sprocket teeth. I like the moon/cloud combo

It does seem a little odd, especially if you are so interested in Nihonto? Honestly though, I was reading through the NMB for years before I actually joined. At least three guys I had face to face contact with through gumtree had asked me if I was a member (which I was not) and I wish I could remember who they were. I dont know if they were all members, but at least one was and he had said he doesnt post or surf much. Maybe he is a SBG or sword forum user? Edit: also, being in Perth is quite lonely, especially if your a Tosogu guy. I have almost no one to talk to face to face about them. Im not collecting Nihonto blades, which I am sure there are a few here which do. If you have not been around too long, it may be a good way to meet and get in with like minded enthusiasts?

I'm in Perth and have had very brief contact with this person, through gumtree. I think he just wants to talk about, see and gather information as much as he can, as possible. It doesn't seem he wants to necessarily buy from you or sell to you, but help you out with purchasing a legit sword. Even still, I'd probably not send anything to him for security purposes. I have bought many Chinese functional replicas and sold just as many through gumtree (we are talking 20+), there is nothing wrong with it, but it is actually against gumtree policy points 16 and 39 (i think) and they will take an ad down very fast, you end up buying and selling through the same people. Just send them a message and see what they have or want. I sell through gumtree and admittedly my prices are super high, that is because I don't necessarily want to sell, but I am open to selling as a 'trade up' all to get another (more expensive) Tsuba for my collection.

I think I quite like those multi sided diamond ones, black would go better in my house though

I agree Dale, nothing like the blind folded coke vs Pepsi test. And Happy Birthday Grev!

To add to all this, I would like to recommend purchasing any of Dale's books. The time, thought and content in all of his books are of high standard. I think the image first posted above is a pretty good example

I like it too! Specifically the puffy cloud swirls and bottom left wave. The immortals are great too with the patina wear in certain areas

I have seen some of these in person when I visited there little museum last year. They look pretty good in the flesh, but were a bit out of my price range

Sorry to hear Ken, I haven't had any trouble with this seller in the past, but do you think maybe opening up an avenue for partial refund (through either ebay or paypal) on the ground of "damaged or not as advertised", might be a good idea? The reason I suggest this is the idea of, they will hopefully change shipping procedure and ensure the item is secured to avoid a similar out of pocket claim?

I see where you are coming from Peter, at this stage it does look like this is a possible scenario, I'd guess 70-30. I'm young (relatively at 38) and have a lot of storage room, if you know of any museum collections needing to dump, I will take responsibility as caretaker. I am training my kids to follow too!

Wow! yes that zoom is amazing!

Hi Tom, Great first Tsuba! As per a recent post in an active thread here, ignore the signature and look at the work and plate as a whole. This will clean up great with time and patience

Bryce, I'm in the same boat, I've been waiting on a package from the US to Aus which was sent on the 12th March and according to the tracking it left LA international distribution centre on the 27th of March... it's May 11th, no tracking updates, no package... It was sent first class international mail, I know that service isn't priority, but f-ing damn! I've opened an enquiry with Aus post, they are saying to wait till the end of May before opening a further investigation

My class brought in a container last year, was an expensive exercise, but worked out to be about $4.50aud a mat (that's like 25c USD these days haha), the minimum was 2000 mats, but they were made to order and were wider than the usual 1800x600 dimension, which means more cuts per session if you are economic about it. I bought 100 to beef up my stock. The cheapest site I have seen otherwise is ninecircles.com, if you buy 100 at a time

I got that also and I also got another message for an actual purchase (Tsuba) which said my country is not accepting ems, so she is sending through dhl instead. It may be that ems is ok for certain countries and the ones it is not, she will do dhl.

I like that! I'd probably go for 'singles' though instead of the daisho double

They are interesting cases and I have not seen those before, I'd be interested in a link to explore

Dale, maybe that is why I can relate to you and your work, my eldest boy has a high diagnosis of Autism, although not quite the same, I've got a front row seat to a talented mind as your own