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mtexter

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Everything posted by mtexter

  1. I'll have a lot more pics once I get it in a couple of weeks, but if anyone can take a look with more experienced eyes, how do you think I did? https://www.ebay.com/itm/203072504206 Thanks! And if I messed up, be gentle, it's my first attempt at buying a real blade
  2. I just commented on a 3-month-old sword cleaning video on Paul Martin's channel, I was curious to know his thoughts on the subject of uchiko. (He does use it in the video)
  3. I never knew that Bruce. it makes sense, and I guess it beats being burned or melted or dumped in the sea, still sad though
  4. Best I can do is $200 -the pawn stars guy probably (American TV show based in a Vegas pawn shop) I actually think I saw a blade like this (reversed edge) on that show before, apparently for tending ones garden during peacetime or some such. Pretty neat
  5. Thanks for the recommendations, Mark and I are emailing back and forth now. What a community
  6. Dave, unfortunately they have been largely untouched these last 70+ years. I remember getting them out as a family once when I was younger; this past 4th of July holiday was the 2nd time seeing them in my lifetime (Grandpa died last summer and left each of his grandsons a sword) Now that I'm learning the basics of caring for them, I'm making it a point to ensure their longevity.
  7. Unless you get an endoscope like someone linked the other day on another thread. I bought one on Amazon for $20, seems like a useful thing to have around!
  8. Is WD-40 an absolute nope on a nakago? I feel awkward for even mentioning it here, but it sure can get some rust to go away. I'm with Dave, scrape off what you can as gently as you can, then rub by hand to get the rest.
  9. Adam that's not a story I am aware of, you must be mistaking mine for someone else's
  10. Hey Adam, I actually have another thread (http://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/32831-grandpas-wwii-cache/?do=findComment&comment=340033) with a link to more pics (still limited by the 6.84MB cap or i'd put the pics directly here) - https://imgur.com/a/zSkLM62 It's been a month since I've been near these, but i'm hopefully taking a trip back within the next month to take many more pictures. I'm a doofus and forgot to actually get pics of anything with the saya off
  11. That's an amazing letter Andrew, it's such an interesting snapshot of history. Thank you for sharing!
  12. Gotcha, thanks Ken. Totally agree Chris, it's an incredible concept in this age of consumerism and wastefulness. And I'd posit that the culture existS, not existED, thanks in part to this forum I guess I just expected everything he (grandpa) brought back would've been wartime-made. All the history behind these is just so interesting - how they get passed down generation to generation, how the soldiers had to buy their own swords (or use the family sword?) I've been reading so much but then I've only been doing so for a month. It's like peeling an onion; layer after layer of amazing things to discover. Thank you all again. More pics of everything to come within a month, I hope!
  13. Are you telling me this might be 300+ years old? Whoa... Also I'm not sure if you saw the link but there are a few more pictures of the koshirae and part of the saya here: https://imgur.com/a/rLVsD7L Hopefully I'll have a chance to get more pics of it soon, especially now that I know what to look for. Thank you!
  14. mtexter

    Auction I found

    Those are incredible! They'd be the centerpieces of someone's collection. Unfortunately WAY out of my price range. Other thoughts about this auction in general, any time I see "incredible" "rare" "exceptional" or other adjectives leading off a listing, it gets my hackles up and I'm instantly suspicious. Looks like there might be a few good pieces but, as an amateur in this field, I'm gonna pass entirely. I'm not good enough to spot an un-obvious fake in person, much less from a handful of pictures.
  15. mtexter

    Auction I found

    To my fellow amateur eyes, a lot of this stuff looks very legitimate and interesting. Edit: Also quite a lot of questionable / unknown / possibly fake or beyond repair items. Curious if this was a longtime private collector who recently died, and his family is just liquidating assets? Definitely seems like there's a little bit of everything. I wonder if one can bid online... Starting prices for some of the pieces seem insanely high to me, but I'm also very new to this. Thanks for sharing!
  16. I unfortunately once again don't have many pictures of this, but here's what I do have. It was brought back to the US from Japan by my grandfather after WWII. Overall length, if memory serves, was about 24-28" Here are the only pics I currently have of it, but hope to have more soon (This lives several hours away from me). Also, i'm limited to 6.84MB of files per post, so imgur will have to do. https://imgur.com/a/rLVsD7L
  17. This one is quite short, from memory maybe 12-14 inches from end to end. No koshirae or shirasaya, just the gold/yellow fuchi you see in the picture and the copper(?) habaki. No hamon that I recall, but then again I didn't know what that was last time I saw it. Unfortunately this may be the worst condition of any blade in the collection, so if it's the oldest / most interesting, shame on us 😕 I'll get more shots of it next time I'm in front of it. If memory serves (we were last together over the July 4th holiday and all had a look at the collection), there were a total of 5 blades in the collection. I was so excited (and clueless) at the time that I didn't get proper pictures of all of them. Next time I visit I'll make it a point to be much more thorough. I've also done quite a bit of reading on how to properly handle and care for these sorts of things, so I'll educate my family on the subject to the extent that I can. I've learned so much over the last month of research, and I'm extremely grateful to all the resources available on this forum. Thank you all!
  18. Hi everyone, I figured it's time to show the community what has been sitting boxed up for 70+ years. The pics I have are poorly organized, and I forgot to take pictures of the actual blades, but there is certainly some interesting detail captured. Next time I'm near the collection I'll try to take the more of style of pictures I've become accustomed to seeing with nihonto. For now, have a look, and if you happen to know anything specific or interesting about anything you see, I'd be grateful to know! https://imgur.com/a/zSkLM62
  19. Couldn't agree more! I love the idea of someday having my own daisho. (Is there a term for a matched katana/tachi + wakizashi + tanto? (tri-sho?(lol))) Mark, that sounds fantastic! I'll shoot you an email soon
  20. looks like it's still alive and well as far as I can see... hmm
  21. I've been browsing eBay and other auction sites, but they seem absolutely riddled with fakes, or they're blurring lines / not taking as detailed pictures to really be able to tell whether a piece is real. Does anyone have a trusted source or any advice in buying my first Nihonto? I have a budget in mind, probably too low to get anything of substantial quality, but don't want to gamble on something that might be garbage. Maybe my money is better spent on books to start.
  22. Good advice. I'm more concerned with getting rust off of the blades so they don't deteriorate. I'll continue reading!
  23. Greetings, I've been reading an awful lot about Japanese edged weapons after my grandfather died last summer and left some artifacts in his will (brought back from his time in Japan during WWII.) I am eager to learn as much as I can about these, and hopefully start my own modest collection. My #1 goal is to learn proper care and storage techniques, and maybe someday learn how to polish a blade somewhat properly (although I doubt I'll ever go through the multi-year apprenticeships they have in Japan.) Anyway, this definitely seems like the best/most active/most knowledgeable forum about this subject anywhere on the internet. I hope to share some pics soon. Cheers,
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