francois2605

You're describing a "nioi-gire": please check the definition on this page. This is considered a fatal flaw because it introduces a structural weakness in the sword, especially in the mono-uchi area (the first third of the sword used for slashing). From Sesko's Encyclopedia of Japanese Swords:

The hamachi tells me that this sword is far from its end of life.

Unless I'm mistaken, the "flower on the tsuka" is a dragon menuki

Nice sanbonsugi Any picture of the hada ?

Thanks for sharing the video. Just noticed that there is a second part here:

I think so (her FB page has reportedly more items), look at the latest picture in this thread (that I posted), you'll see her business card with more info to contact her.

I got mine today and I second that Tomoko's service is really top notch. Those bags are just excellent, thanks Greg for the tip

Here's a blade from 1974, just stumbled upon it by chance. https://www.samuraishokai.jp/sword/20163.html

No worries at all, those topics are old and I remembered them because I'm also interested in this topic

There are some old topics about this, please have a look here: and

Very nice, I like the rounded edges. The overall result is really excellent

PM sent

Beautiful, good luck with your sale !

Adding 2 more cents to the thread This is a very nice tachi by the gendai smith Hizen Tadaaki, dated 1940 (koki ni sen roppyaku nen), apparently this is a custom order (as per the nakago) mixing 2 different steels hence the high contrast in the layers. The sword has a very pronounced koshi-sori, at least one kirikomi on the mune and is stored in a top notch shirasaya with koppamaki and gold-wash habaki.

He's the one David Hofhine referred me to after explaining he was no longer accepting commissions from abroad.

My 2 cents to this wonderful thread. This is a mumei seki gendaito katana in shin-gunto koshirae, the hada is a very regular masame and the hamon sanbonsugi. One of my favorites.

Interesting, and a good reminder that we depend on invisible people correctly doing their job. I always assume that shipping a package isn't rocket science but it's surprising the number of mistakes I've seen which made me wonder what had happened. Once I had a package from Japan (containing a tsuba) sent to a remote town in France (Seyssinet Pariset) where I've never been (and will probably never go). The correct address was in Paris. I will never know how Paris magically became Seyssinet Pariset during the shipping. It took me 10 frantic calls to the carrier hotline and several emails to the Japanese seller to get this sorted out. Another time, I got a katana sent from Japan automatically sent back to the seller with the rationale "Delivery refused" (supposedly by me). At that time, I was at home, waiting for the delivery, noone rang at the door... That feeling when you refresh the tracking page and read "Package sent back to sender" The package was then sucked into a black hole for 6 weeks with no way to know if it was still in France, in transit to Japan or lost... Eventually the package showed up in Japan and was delivered to me in 3-4 days.

Things must have changed because according to this french government official page, the receiver has now to pay: 1) the french VAT (20% or 5.5% for antiques) on the total value 2) customs fees if the value is above 150 euros I've also read multiple reports since last week about customers having bad surprises when buying items from UK despite "all things being like before".

We can't really answer this question for you since everyone has its own personal tastes. I can only talk about my (limited) personal experience which should still help answer your questions. I haven't been exposed to a lot of swords because opportunities to see them in France are quite limited (a couple behind a glass pane in a museum, some antique sellers in Paris, a token once in a while (when it doesn't get cancelled because of **** COVID), etc). I thought I knew what I liked (that is old swords) until I got to buy an amazing gendaito via NMB and this truly opened my eyes: gendaito which are (kind of) frowned upon by nihonto collectors can be truly amazing ! Then I started collecting wartime blades, something which would have never crossed my mind before this experience. Likewise I thought that what I liked was the sword itself so I didn't mind having them in a shirasaya until I bought a couple of shin-gunto and realized "Oh man, those shin-gunto on my sword rack are so beautiful" So now, if I had the choice I would rather buy the sword with a koshirae than in a shirasaya alone. I think you have those questions because you still haven't been exposed to enough swords to know what you really like so my advice would be to meet collectors (if possible) and determine what your tastes are: you will see things that you didn't know existed and you will think "THIS is what I want in my collection"

Luis is in Germany

I counted 144 tsuba (which is 12 x 12), I think you reached perfection. One more would break the symmetry. Joke aside, that's a nice collection you have here, thanks for sharing. About your question, I would say it depends on multiple factors: - Your financial means - Whether you're still having fun adding new pieces - Whether you have the room to store them - Your wife's tolerance

Did you buy it from Hitendo ? They seem to have nice swords but I never took a chance because I think they're not good enough at shooting swords: The details of the hada and hamon are usually not visible in their pictures.

Could you please provide pictures of the nakago (both sides), a full picture of the bare blade and measurements (nagasa, sori, motohaba, etc). Those pieces of information will help selling your sword.

@1kinko: Open Robert's profile page here and click the button "Message" to send him a Personal Message (PM):