francois2605

Yes. From Sesko's excellent encyclopedia of Japanese swords:

Very nice, the difference between your first 2 shots is like night and day !

I find it too difficult to shoot a sword with direct lightning. Instead I shoot when the sword is lit by the (preferably low) ambiant light to avoid very high contrasts. This also requires a very long exposure (10+ secs), low ISO (to avoid noise), a tripod and a remote (or 2-sec delay). I believe that the end result better shows the hataraki in those conditions. Here's an example (edited in Lightroom).

Steve, just a friendly advice: don't buy anything off eBay unless you know exactly what you're buying. The fact that you "were on the fence", don't know that a gendaito stands for "traditionally made from tamahagane", can't visually differentiate between a showato and gendaito probably means that you should read more about the topic before making another purchase. There was zero risk with this purchase: Eric is a honest and trusted seller, the sword is legit. Again, this is just a friendly advice to ensure you spend your money wisely and with confidence.

So excited by the upcoming sales and book. I feel like a kid at Xmas

This is just awful, the worst being that the offender seems very happy with the end result.

Steve, You can read more about the different ways of rating swordsmiths here. I personally don't pay too much attention to "1 million vs 2 million" comparisons, the value is not absolute: you'll see that some swordsmiths are rated high by someone and low by someone else. Of course it's better if your sword is signed by a highly rated smith but that's a plus, the sword should be considered on its own merits first.

https://ebay.fr/usr/ericowazamono

Eric Molinier is a super nice french guy from New-York and always very honest when describing items. I consider him one of the most trustworthy sellers of nihonto on eBay. His swords are among the best you can get via eBay.

Since someone mentioned the Evangelion sword exhibition, here are some pictures I shot in 2014 while the exhibition was in Paris. https://photos.app.goo.gl/RHZYxRNUFnuPcJ8C2

That was my plan, thanks Barry I already sent him an email.

OK, that's what I thought. Will find another way to get what I what. Thanks very much, Jon

Do you know if the website https://www.kusanaginosya.com/ accepts selling to foreign customers ? I checked their website and couldn't find any information about this which makes me think they only accept sales to local customers. Has anyone from NMB already bought from this dealer ? Thanks very much.

Grev, the Dropbox link is dead FYI: it says the file has been deleted