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Surfson

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Everything posted by Surfson

  1. Does anybody have examples of hakogaki made by Kunzan?
  2. I have met Udo several times at shows in Chicago and Las Vegas. He has high quality items with fair market prices.
  3. Thanks for your candid views Steve. I may submit them to NTHK-NPO when they come to San Francisco some time. Anybody know if they have top experts for kantei of fittings?
  4. Thanks all. It adheres to my desire to restore and preserve. Cheers, Bob
  5. What do you think Steve? Shoshin or gimei. I love it either way....
  6. Sorry it took me so long to extend this thread. Since we last discussed it, it has gone to Japan and received Tokubetsu Hozon papers to Kanemitsu. It now has a nice Tanobe sayagaki as well.
  7. Forgot about this post. Does anybody have any opinions about whether the mei matches validated examples? The work is so good that I would be surprised if it isn't shoshin....
  8. Nice sword and study piece Charles. And the Mino/Ko-mino tsuba is quite fine as well. Enjoy!
  9. Thanks Chris, and I hope you make a speedy recovery.
  10. Ben, I love your enthusiasm, and you have the makings of a Nihonto collector. However, I have to say, that you can do better than the pieces you have chosen. You have spent a little over $4000, and for that amount you could get a very nice NBTHK papered (modern accepted version) or NTHK papered blade in full polish, with nice mounts (or very nice mounts if it were a wakizashi). The comments so far have been very respectful, and reflect the fact that most of us made questionable choices early in our collecting career. I have put my honest opinions about the four blades you have bought below, trying to be kind and helpful, but have also added some suggestions for your future plans in collecting. 1. This looks like a genuine Japanese samurai sword in edo mounts. Probably early shinto or perhaps late muromachi, and Bizen Sukemitsu (as it was listed) isn't a bad guess, though whether the signature is "good" is not known without papers. You didn't pay too much for it, but you ended up with a sword that is not in particularly good polish that is not worthy of the expense of a polish and appraisal for papers (my opinion). My advice is to study it, learn about the five schools and where Bizen fits into the early sword making, enjoy it for a while and move it along. A general comment that I hope you take to heart is that it is important to test your ability to sell a Japanese sword. They are easy to buy, hard to sell. If you take good photos, or recycle the ones from the listing, you should be able to sell this one on ebay for about what you paid for it. 2. This is signed Bizen but is not in very good polish. As you can see, it has many ware (pronounced wah re, Japanese for forging flaws), along both sides. Because of the ware, it is also not worthy of polish or papers. It's very hard to find treasures on ebay in general, but particularly on items coming directly from Japan. Again, my advise is to enjoy it as long as you can and then move it along. 3. You know it and you said it. This one is junk and probably not genuine. When you see the kissaki having no curve in it (just the tip looks like a triangle), that is usually a dead giveaway of a fake. Sell it right away or use it to cut weeds in your garden. It is a 100 bucks well spent if it teaches you to control your reflexes in the future and don't bid on such things. Although it was many decades ago, I too went through a phase where I bought my share of basket cases... 4. This is a shobu zukuri wakizashi - possibly a cut down naginata. It has the old papers attributing it to Kanebo Masatsugu (a Yamato smith). As you know, these old papers from the 1970s are disregarded. However, since it is mumei, it doesn't really much matter, since it doesn't have a fake signature on it. It is probably late koto, the Yamato school is possible, and is in decent polish. You bought it from Showa22, who, along with Komonjo, should probably be viewed as a US dealer selling stock that comes straight out of Japan. The price wasn't bad. Again, my advice is enjoy it, study it, but don't bother to get modern papers or do anything else with it. Then move it along. The last one is a Chinese fake, please don't buy it. You have received good advice so far in this thread. Buy books and read them! Become an avid student of NMB. Go to shows and meet people - there are lots of friendly collectors that are happy to help a new collector. Don't get depressed about these early purchases, most of them sold for what they are worth. Just learn how to sell them. If you can't get your money back out of them, you may have overpaid or have to refine your sales technique. As your taste matures, you will hopefully look for two types of blades. First, ones that have no issues and need no restoration - are in good polish, have papers, have nice mounts if that is what you like, etc. This is the best way to build a fine collection these days. Since you and your wife go to Japan, you might do some shopping at sword shops (probably best to avoid those in the Ginza and super high priced establishments elsewhere). You can comparison shop though. Set a budget, ask to see what they have, and by the time you have visited four or five stores, you will know what you can buy for your budget. The dollar is very strong now and you may be quite surprised. Also, if you look on the NMB "for sale" section, you can find some very nice blades in excellent condition with papers and mounts. Second, eventually, you can try to find ones that are candidates for restoration. Twenty five years ago, this was easier on ebay, as there were many GI families selling their father or grandfather's sword on ebay and it was possible to find good signed shinto or shinshinto blades, and good mumei or signed koto blades, that needed restoration. It is a thrill to find a neglected blade that has been sitting for 70 years in an attic or garage that is worthy of restoration. Even then, to do it right, one needed a good reference library to make your own estimate as to whether any signature the sword had was genuine or not. These days, the frequency with which these candidate blades come up on ebay is dramatically low. One can still find them at Japanese sword shows such as in Florida, Chicago, San Francisco, Vegas (your home!) etc. This second approach takes more study than the first approach and I recommend that you focus your next purchases on category 1. Even buying fully restored and papered blades is best done after significant education. Most of us build our collection from the top. To do that one should be in search of better and better pieces and only buy ones that are better than the average or the top of ones collection. When you buy one, sell the ones at the bottom of the collection to get the funds for the next purchase. And finally, enjoy these amazing, historically important objects!
  11. Jeremiah, swords have to be "deregistered" by the Japanese police and that is said to usually be done once a month, so that may be a significant part of the delay.
  12. Hi Khalid. There are a number of threads on NMB about great finds that have been made by NMB members. As an early collector, it is easy to get drawn into thinking one has found a treasure when coming across a common blade in "the wild". (for example a mumei wakizashi in so so mounts). It has gotten harder to find treasures, but dig around and you will find these great threads in NMB about fantastic finds. For example, have a look at the "Japanese blade from court" thread.
  13. Dave, sometimes there will be a "surrender tag" that lists the name of the swords owner at the time of surrender. Although there are exceptions, efforts to reunite a sword with the family that once owned it are often very difficult and sometimes that is because the family on the other side is not interested.
  14. Hi Steve. Generally, they don't wear off, they are cut off. If you have closely inspected the whole tang and don't see a signature, it was probably either unsigned to begin with or cut off. You never told us the length of the cutting edge. It seems to have a rather small kissaki, though I don't see much koshizori based on the only photo of the whole blade, which is at an odd angle. These are features that might give us some idea about age. The glimpses of the hamon and hada are encouraging and I look forward to hearing about the results after polish. I hope that you plan to have it polished by a qualified polisher. If you haven't decided who will polish it yet, you can ask for advice from the NMB group.
  15. That ayasugi is beautiful Bryce. I have found that it is a polarizing feature - people tend to love it or be put off by it. I am in the love it camp. As to the tanto - very few modern smiths' work has been copied with gimei. You know a maker had a good career when his work was faked by others. Enough said about that particular tanto. I just hope that it wasn't bought by a NMB member.
  16. Looks like a hand made blade in WWII military mounts Steve. Somebody took an abrasive to it at some point, so it's hard to know much about the steel, the forging and the shape. It is probably several hundred years old and has value as a collectible piece. Are there any writings on the tang, or handle of the bare steel blade? The part that has the holes? If so, please send us some photos of the writing.
  17. I have gotten some wonderful koshirae on Buyee/Yahoo. Although years ago, I was able to buy great, mounted swords straight out of the woodwork on ebay, the last few years, the good ones are very rare.
  18. Sometimes Buyee is worse than customs, since they appoint themselves as arbiters of the process. Many times, they just wouldn't advance the koshirae without explanation. Once they started giving me the option of destruction or payment of storage, I had to play hardball. I have a friend who has had this happen to him many times.
  19. George, there was consensus you should submit it to shinsa. You could have had it back by now and we could have a better informed conversation about your interesting sword.
  20. I have had problems with several koshirae getting stuck (no pun intended) with Buyee for various reasons, or no reason at all. They will sometimes give you the choice of paying storage or to have them destroy the item. Their communications are often either bad or non existent. My solution to this problem was fairly direct. I have canceled payment (through Paypal or the credit card company) on more than one occasion, which puts them in a bind. They don't mind holding a "stuck" item if you own it, but once they own it, they suddenly get motivated to solve the problem. I hope this helps.
  21. If that habaki is solid gold, I agree with the others - it will be noticeably heavier than a typical habaki. If you don't want to take it to a jeweler, you can get a simple acid based test kit. You would rub it on an abrasive stone, and then treat it with the different grades of acid. I have never used one of these, but they seem fairly simple, and as long as you are careful to choose an unobrusive part of the habaki, the rubbing part won't be overly destructive. https://www.amazon.com/Silver-Platinum-Testing-Stone-Jewelers/dp/B000OVHWLK/ref=asc_df_B000OVHWLK/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=312270791747&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=7381579657912300181&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9021715&hvtargid=pla-569657247504&psc=1&tag=&ref=&adgrpid=62213987215&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvadid=312270791747&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=7381579657912300181&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9021715&hvtargid=pla-569657247504
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