Promo

But given he has “normal“ humidity and not lives close to the sea there is nothing wrong with storing a blade outside the shirasaya?

On 12/26/2020 at 4:05 PM, faust1103 said:

I plan to keep the nihonto as a decoration piece in a glass cabinet and take it out only very rarely. No cutting tests or anything are intended

 

Would it make sense to keep the nihonto blade in the shirasaya (with the koshirae being displayed with a wooden blade alongside it) or would be ok to have the blade fully fitted with it's koshira (and inside it's saya) for display reasons?

So despite him putting the blade in a glass cabinet and therefore protected from anything that could come through the air (well, aside of light) it still is recommended to store it within the shirasaya?!

What if you display just the bare blade right next to the koshirae? This way its not on the blade but both are visible.

Thanks for the compliments, feels like home if people here are happy with me and not envious of what I had stumbled upon like it happened elsewhere. I'm myself highly looking forward to post pictures of the blade once I have it back! And Tom Darling, no worries, there are not plans from my side to sell it - I'm keen myself to hold it in hands. Yes, Darcy is aware of this blade, in fact he even contacted me when I originally had posted here. He also offered to do the work, but since that would had meant that I'd had to consign the blade finally with him for sale, I decided to use someone else. Despite following recommendations by more experienced persons than myself I prefer to always have full control over it, plus I would never let myself get in the situation to be forced to part with something.

On 10/28/2020 at 9:42 AM, Rodenbacher said:

To answer your second question, Promo: these are good and honest Tsuba, as Mauro said - but nothing special. Rather middle-class. In my eyes these are good Tsuba to start a collection. The first one is an interesting and dynamic composition, hard to say which school. The smallest one shows the work of a good craftsman, I like that one. 

Thank you for this evaluation! I didn't pay much for them and thought they would be good to start with. I've found time to do better pictures of all three, now with the new camera and not mobile phone. They are attached, maybe they would allow telling more.

23 hours ago, Geraint said:

Dear Georg.

 

You refer to the dragon tsuba as having signs of heavy use or damage.  What makes you think that?

 

All the best.

Geraint, it looks much more worn and seems to have digs and dents. Do you see this differently? Curious to learn on this!

The dimensions are:

Dragon Tsuba: 85 mm height, 79 mm width

Round one: 85 mm height, 85 mm width

small one: 67 mm height, 63 mm width

Sorry for the wrong wording and posting them upside down! Truly a beginner mistake that should not had happened.

Since I could not edit the starting post any more please find attached the images now 180° turned.

From a seller in Germany I got these three Tsubas, he had bought them many years ago on a trip to Asia. One is remarkably smaller than the other two. The largest one shows heavy signs of usage/damage, the condition of the other two however is nice.

For being a full beginner I'd appreciate any feedback on these three, what the themes are called and if they are something special or common. THANKS!

All I can add is playing a bit around more in Photoshop with the pictures, to make yours look picture look like the one in the book and put them side to side. If this is of any help, see attachment.

Adam, at this point I do not want to speak on any investments from my side. I do not know the final costs myself (yet), I do not know what the value is when fully restored and papered, I'm only following what I'm being recommended to do by experts, so why discuss something like this? I have received help from this forum and several members in particular, by giving feedback to the current status and additional information I got I try to give some of this help back. That is the reason why I keep this thread alive. So even if the numbers Michael quoted are correct, wouldn't that be my problem what I'm investing in a hobby and as long as I'm happy with it, all should be fine? And finally, it is a bit weird if not rude for you to assume I would only do this for financial benefit and that you are sure it will be put on the market. Several times within this thread I made it clear that a) I can afford all of what so far was done plus b) I don't have the financial need to sell this item and I'm looking forward to the day I'll get it back. While my background surely is not the same of a person who dedicated centuries of his life to the study and collecting of Nihonto, I still can appreciate workmanship and give it a warm and good home as long as I am happy and pleased with it.

On 10/3/2020 at 10:04 AM, Geraint said:

My imagination is working over time on what your sword looks like now, can't wait to to see pictures when it returns to you.  Are you planning on having the koshirae restored as well?  Given the age of the sword this is most likely it's original outfit.

Hi Geraint, I did get to see a few snapshots, but since they are of rather poor quality and additional aren't mine (hence no rights to do anything with them at all) I will not post them here. To my amateur eyes the polish looks great, but who am I to give evaluations on nihonto. Re koshirae, as you can see with the first images the "koshirae" consisted of tsuka, habaki and tsuba. Neither of the three were sent to Japan since the tsuka is missing parts and badly damaged, the tsuba is not very special and not in best condition either. Plus the habaki was anyway already replaced by a double gold habaki.

Short update: the blade finished polish (by Saito Tsukasa, a Mukansa polisher), now carries a double gold habaki and has a new shirasaya. It will now go to NBTHK for papering again.

Thanks to all who had replied after my post. Attached a picture from above with markup. Note how perfectly smooth the surface in this area is, the first and very few file streaks become visible at height of first hole. Wouldn't this be a sign that it formerly was polished in this area and the blade originally was much longer? Secondly, I marked (or at least tried to mark) the line I was able to see .. it seems to extend back. Or do I see something wrong?

I'll be shipping the blade out for evaluation tomorrow. Hopefully I'll get feedback soon and of course will share it in here.

Finally and just to have it mentioned: it would had been easier if some in here had told me what to do to make a possible hamon visible. If it hadn't been for Kevin who told me what I should do, I would had put the blade aside as it is and made it a time capsule again. A bit frustrating for a beginner to only be told what it could be, but not what is needed to be able to find out more on it. I'm not here to only get opinions for free and sell at a profit (btw just to have it mentioned again and make it very clear: I'll not be selling!) based on the information I was given. I appreciate the opinions, but my goal is to learn based on an own blade, for maybe in a few decades to be able to tell this myself.

PS: Tom Darling, while I did understand most of the posts in here, I honestly have no clue at all what you want to tell me (or others) with your single line posts. Maybe you could get a bit more in detail because I'm not a native speaker either and I'm not sure if you sometimes are being sarcastic or if your posts are directed at me or others. Thanks!

Chris and Paul, many thanks for your replies and all the others as well. I already spoke today with a knowledgeable person where I'll send the Tachi to (without having to ship it far away; I somehow do not feel comfortable knowing items of mine on another continent) where I'll hopefully get in-hand expert opinions.

In the meantime I'd want to express big thanks to the neverending patience of Kevin who had been so helpful in educating me on all the terms, plus explaining what some in here meant. Based on his feedback I also took the big LED torch from my trunk and played around in a total black room. It seems there is nioi. As well as it looks like the hamon goes into the tang. But who am I to assess, attached some pictorial results of the outcome. Maybe I also recognized it wrong, but to me it appears as if it originally was polished up until at least the first hole, note the smooth surface, no file streaks at all.

Please all forgive so much enthusiasm and so many newbie questions!

Disappointing, but understandable. This however means as someone only having limited to no personal contact among Nihonto collectors this basically tells me to put it aside and leave it as it is.

Final notice then, just to have it mentioned in here as well: the blade seems to have been polished quite several times since it is much thicker at the rear (7,95mm at the thickest part) than just in front of the habaki (7,24mm). Hope the attached pictures show what I mean. This might also be interesting in context with the picture that I've posted on the previous page. It also has a clear step in the tang looking at it from the side. I'm re-attaching this picture as well.

I maybe should be the one to not speak on this, but could the Tachi be what Markus Sesko calls on his website "itame mixed with masame"? Playing around with the mobile phone I captured the attached shots which should show more details.

I've wiped off some rust with oil and clothing, I think that bit that is on it is only superficial and if I was to clean it a bit more I'm sure only a few darker spots will be left. Same thing that over the years I perfected with firearms. I don't really think it needs a good polish, most is still visible, a touch up should be fine since it has no rust that goes into the blade. Plus I've played around a bit more with the DSLR, quite unsatisfying if the mobile phone shows the grain better than a professional camera. Attached some results. And yes, the picture showing the blade from both sides were taken not from perfect middle at 90 degree, hence it looks weird that the holes are not mirrored. Fault of the photographer, sorry. Only wanted to illustrate the shape of the blade with this picture, I hope it does.

9 hours ago, Surfson said:

I just realized that you are the same Georg that found what is probably a Kiyomaro.  You are getting a great start in finding excellent blades!

I wish it was Kiyomaro, unfortunately it is only Masayuki :-). But at least it is not only probably, but confirmed!

14 hours ago, Katsujinken said:

In any case, it’s a neat package, and I imagine the blade would clean up nicely if you ever head in that direction (but don’t expect a return on your investment). 

I'm not much worried on the ROI. I've roughly had € 1000 in this blade, mainly because the "time capsule" setup attracted me.

I've attached a few more shots of the tang. Tough to show but notice that around the large hole the tang becomes significantely much thinner on the cutting side (I've tried to highlight this with red lines). I really wonder if this was where the blade originally started and parts of the tang were chopped off? Also some more detail shots of the file markings. Some are rather wild.

1 hour ago, PNSSHOGUN said:

It does have all the hallmarks of a Meiji era tourist piece, but well executed. A very interesting curio/display piece for anyone.

Did you refer to the mounting only, or also on the blade? I'm mainly asking since the other blade shown in this thread houses a very different blade. Maybe they made these as tourist pieces, but simply used any older blade of smaller value (at least at that time of smaller value) they could find?

Brian, I unfortunately do not know any polishers. And maybe this is also because I'm not too deep into this topic, but can a blade be polished despite it was engraved/will the polishing harm the engraving?

It would be appreciated if someone could tell me what a fair offer on it, pictured as is, is, because as mentioned it belongs to a friend of mine who is looking to sell it. Thanks!

Last update for today, I promise: a few mobile phone shots that I've did of the blade. Hope they shows what was asked for.

Thanks for the replies! I've tried various picture styles. The first attached picture was done with the scanner *edit* sending the message throws them out of order. The pic showing the tip from both sides was taken with the scanner *edit* whereas the others were done with the camera.

When I lay the blade on its back the (roughly measured, as far as I could do) highest open point under it was 18mm until blade started again. I think this is what was meant with Sori? Jigane is very tough to picture, easier visible with the Scanner. But what the Scanner shows isn't really visible in reality, so not sure this would be helpful?

Well, long time no posts from my side, then two threads within two days. Was at a retired gunsmith friend of mine today when he handed me over a Tanto which he was given for sale. Took it home with me for closer inspection and of course took better pictures to get feedback because I've never seen anything like this before.

The mounting is so massive, you simply can't believe it when you have it in hands. Especially since it is heavy as well (total weight of all parts is 1418g). Due to not being able to find something comparable I however have no idea whether this is original, or just a modern day reproduction that was fitted with an older blade. One side of the jaw of the dragon is broken off, tried to show this in pictures - that damage seems to be older however. Overall length of  mounting is 47cm, the blade itself only has 37,5cm length of which 26cm are cutting length. The blade seems to be older, but not in very good condition. It however has a nicely engraving on it.

Please find attached some pictures that I took, if there is any more to show, let me know! Plus a big thanks in advance for any help that you can give me on it!

I had missed to take a picture showing both sides of the blade in full length, hence I took one just very quick'n'dirty this morning. Please find it attached.

If someone wants to view this picture in a much higher resolution (at 5000px height) please CLICK HERE.

Hey guys,

well, it was not a big surprise to myself that after the first blade I had to get myself another one if I would see one that appears to be of interest to me. This was one of the cases - especially since it came directly from the vet (or his wife - she turned 97 and moved to a nursed home; he already had died). She didn't care much on his souvenir since it still was in the wooden box in which he had sent it back home. I've attached a few pictures of this box. Someone was researching on behalf of the widow on the blade, mainly because she wanted some money, I made an offer that was accepted. Then it was shipped at beginning of May - and disappeared in tracking at the end of May. Turned up again mid of August, and today finally received it!

I was amazed by the fact that inside the wooden box that I said I definitely would want with the blade was a clothing bag in which the blade was stored within a Shirasaya. I've been told this is a Tachi, based on the shape, and that it must had been shortened (based on the amount of holes). Total length is 96cm, blade length is 75,5cm. Yes, there are some small rust pittings on it, unfortunately, but at least the hamon is still visible and otherwise not bad. I wiped it down with oil to make sure the rusting will stop.

Looking forward to be educated on what I've purchased and please forgive me my incorrect wording and especially since I'm sure I'll need to look up words that will be used in the replies. So please make them as simple as possible for me to understand ;-). Any ideas on where and when it was made, any features that I should know? And to have made this very clear, I bought this for myself because the ensemble itself was attractive to me and I somewhat got caught with Nihonto as well - hence I'm not selling this! To however find out if I overpaid or underpaid this Tachi it would be appreciated if I would be given feedback where you would place the value of this ensemble.

More pics to follow, once I know what you need to see. Most pictures were taken with the DSLR, but also tried with the HighRes scanner, these are the last two pictures. I hope you can see the details that are important. If not, let me know what else I should picture and I'll do my best!

First of all: I'm learning and this by reading as much as I can, to understand as much as possible. So please forgive me if I'm wrong - it would be of great interest to be correctened and understand why this is wrong.

My intention was not to form a simple rule, it was more intended to understand the view of others on the value and maybe take with me a very broad and highly general guidance rule. Of course every item should be looked at itself only, but where do you start when you put a value on a specific item. There is nothing such as "pricing modules" which would work (I guess?), so when trying to determine a value I assume it is either based on prices the particular item may have been bought or sold for in the past, or it will be compared with other items and based on variables put into a certain relation to something else. Coming across several times the argument that a later produced blade is of higher quality, I therefore had wondered if this might been a very general guidance. I however do need to admit that my conclusion was mainly based on the assumption that the more experience a smith has, the higher the quality in theory should be. And the higher the quality, the higher the value would usually be.

Trying to learn on Nihonto and when speaking and researching specific topics I also tried to understand a bit more on the pricing. While I fully understood and can only concur that each item has to be looked at individually and specific details can result in a particular item not following this rule, I had however wondered that if it can be seen as general rule that the later a particular smith made a particular item and therefore with greater experience the higher the value is when comparing it with early works.

Yes, the value is the sum of (additionally) a huge amount of small potential influences such as previous owner, cutting test, if the smith had a bad day, etc., but if ignoring those and as a maybe very superficial and overall guidance rule I wanted to understand whether the Nihonto collecting world would see the later item from the same smith at higher quality level and therefore also estimate a later item at higher value.

Sorry if this might be very controversial and/or sound very amateurish - I'd not deny I'm a beginner, but I'm here to learn and the question above was something I couldn't find an answer upon. So thanks for any input in advance!

Your pictures would be much better if you did not use artificial light but natural light. Best is a cloudy day for outside pictures. This way you don't have any glares and the same amount of light on every part. Camera might also be a problem, but the best camera will give worse results with poor light than most cameras with good light.