Rich S

Those of you interested in military swords should check out Seto Cutlery's page on military swords (all repro). http://www.setocut.co.jp/swords/e_ogatatouken2.html Of course they also make tons of repro Japanese swords of other types also. Rich S

Scott - Contact Bob Benson in Hawaii. Excellent Japanese trained polisher. His website is: http://www.bushidojapaneseswords.com/ Rich S

I use a piece of leather cut to the shape of the seppa; use thin or thicker leather depending on how loose the tsuka may be. Rich S

I hope everyone had a great new year's eve. Personally I'm nursing one devil of a headache :-) May 2011 bring you lots of wonderful Nihonto; all Juyo. Rich S

Definitely a Merry Christmas to Brian for running this wonderful board and to all those participants who help with great info. May each of you find a Juyo sword under the tree this year. Rich S

I was wondering if there are any new US postal regulations or any new laws, etc in Australia about shipping swords from the US to Australia? Any accurate info would be appreciated. Thanks in advance Rich S

Grey - There are seven or eight indexes on my website; some as html, some as zip files. Feel free to use any or all that you may need. Rich S

Just curious, has anyone had a problems with the download or the zip file and getting the file to open and work? Rich S

Looks like a nice sword from what little is shown in the pics. Need to know whats on the nakago (tang) to do anything more. Rich S

The pics are a bit dark and fuzzy to read accurately, but I think (?) it may read: Noshu Seki Fujiwara Kanehiro saku kore' Definitely a Showa period blade/smith. Hopefully others will correct my errors and give a more confident reading. Rich S

If anyone has problems with the download or opening the zipfile, etc, please PM me. Hopefully there should be no problems as I've tested it several times. Althought I can't say about Macs, as I don't have one :-) The only problems will be with folks on slow dialup connections like me. It will take about 2 hours to download. I went to the local library to upload the file in about 3 minutes on their high speed connection. Please do not share the download URL anywhere with anyone. If the system gets overloaded, I'll have to delete the zip file. Thanks Rich S

Since folks have difficulty accessing my website especially at the end of the month when Earthlink's 1 gig bandwidth is used up, I have uploaded a zip file of 7.6 meg to a different website. MEMBERS can download the zip file, open it in a folder/directory you create and you'll have the entire website on your computer. NOTE: this is for registered members only; even then, if you don't normally access my site, don't waste the bandwidth and allow others to get it. Be sure to read the "readme.txt" file, more instructions in that. For members, the URL needed is in my profile. Copy the URL to your browser to download it with your browser. Even with this new site, there is a separate 1 gig/month limit by Earthlink, so if it says site unavailable, wait until the first of the next month and download then. I hope this will help folks to get the info they are looking for more easily. Needless to say, I can't update the zip file. (I don't antipate any updates anyway). Rich S

Does anyone know if this applies to packages outgoing from the US or only to incoming packages? Rich S

I collected Japanese lacquer for quite a while and still have several nice items. I keep them at a temp of 68-78 degrees F. and a humidity of about 35%. Never had any cracking, worping or damage at those conditions. Rich S

Ichihara Nagamitsu was RJT (as you know). Yes, some of the blades with his mei were made by students and aren't top end, but then I've seen some star stamped blades that didn't come close to Nagamitsu's. There are no generalizations to be made here. Each sword must be judged on its own merits, not the smith's reputation or whether he was RJT, etc. Sorry no easy answers. Rich S

I believe it reads: Yakumo Amatsu Masakiyo saku There is one similar on my oshigata page. IMHE blades signed in a semi-grass script tend to be pretty good blades. Rich S

Smith is Kanesane (Kanezane); worked in Seki during WW II. Most likely showato. Although he did make a few true gendaito. See my webpage about him at: http://home.earthlink.net/~steinrl/kanezane.htm Rich S

Unless you can examine the item in person before the auction and are knowledgeable about all the various fees diffferent auction companies charge, you are always taking a chance. Not much different than ebay IMHO. Rich S

No problems here with Mozilla or Firefox (and no javascript :-) Rich S

Steve - My website has been offline due to Earthlink's bandwidth overrun. It will be available again on Sept 1. Earthlink only allows a 1G per month bandwidth on their websites; mine almost always runs over toward the end of the month. Rich S

Steve - If by "manufactured" blade, you mean machine made: not necessarily. The showa stamp simply means it was not "traditionally made" using tamahagane. Showa stamped blades run the whole range from totally machine made, to hand forged from single bar steel, to hand forged/folded/laminated and quenched (yaki-ire) with oil or water. You could still have a hand forged, folded blade; just not made using tamehagane. Rich S

Also remember that Nagamitsu and Emura worked in Okayama while Sukemitsu/Nobumitsu worked in Seki. So I really doubt they would have had the same person carving mei. Rich S

With due respect, I don't think the Sukemitsu/Nobumitsu mei were done by the same hand as Nagamitsu's. While there may be a slight resemblence, the mei are basically quite different. Remember a lot of Nagamitsu and Emura blades were signed by students. Rich S

There is an oshigata of Sukemitsu/Nobumitsu (nakirishi mei) on my website at: http://home.earthlink.net/~steinrl/promei.htm Rich S

Lots of info on Emura on my webpage at: http://home.earthlink.net/~steinrl/emura.htm rich S