Surfson

You have done very well Michael! Most of these swords are authentic samurai swords that would make respectable starter swords for a collection. While there are a few that may be worthy of restoration, I don't see any that would recoup the cost of polish (meaning that after a polish, shirasaya and maybe habaki, none will be worth more than you have invested in them). This is just my quick assessment of the collection. If I were in your situation, I would take great pictures of all of them and sell them one at a time on ebay. You should have proceeds in the range of triple or quadruple your money I would think. You can then take the profits and buy yourself a beautiful sword in nice mounts in full polish with papers. You can sell them in a couple of weeks with slightly more work than you put in to post them here. And hey, nothing wrong with picking out one or two of your favorites and hanging on to them or even restoring them if you get the urge. Congratulations on a great find!

Bob Benson is there and has an active business. You should probably contact him in advance, as I don't think he has an actual store. You can reach him through his website. https://www.bushidojapaneseswords.com/index.html

My pleasure Ken. I bought all of my favorites from him on ebay when he first started selling them. I picked out groups, contacted him directly and bought them from him at a group price. I bought a lot of his books too, to be sure that I have a copy of the book for each tsuba pictured in the book(s). I really like nearly all of them. Especially the early Heianjo have both power and appealing art, at least to my taste.

Never mind Steve, I found him. He is seller GDME; here is one of his listings, and the others can be found easily. https://www.ebay.com/itm/384240123111?hash=item59767efce7:g:EJkAAOSwElhfTkwr

Hi Steve. Where are they available? I haven't seen them on ebay for a while. He did have a very nice collection of Heianjo, Onin and Yoshiro tsuba.

Hahah Allen. You got me to thinking. Without a doubt, the first four cars I bought were all a POS! Best of luck with your collecting. Let me know if you need advice when you decide to buy a quality blade.

Welcome back Joe! I do recall when you were putting all of your swords up for sale here on NMB - I was sad that we may not hear from you again. But here you are, like a phoenix rising up! Have you considered shifting to samurai era swords? Shinshinto, shinto, even koto? There are some collectors that stick with gendaito all of their career, but it is a common evolution. I'm just saying.....now that you have a clean sheet, maybe you could at least build a collection containing great examples from all of the eras.

One important question is whether the hagire/crack was present at the time of purchase or arose after. If you can find it on the original photos from the listing or that the dealer sent, then you have a strong claim for a refund, in my view. If not, then the dealer can take the position that it had no hagire at the time of sale. Sorry if I missed a detail in the thread as I skimmed it.

As you look for swords, condition is very important. Poor condition can result from abuse by past owners (chips, broken tip, alterations to the sword, bends etc.), by the ravages of time or battle (sword strikes, rust, pitting, loss of steel by many polishes or fire damage) or sometimes by poor forging techniques (ware, fukure, poor finishing of the tang, poor tempering etc.). It is helpful to recognize these condition issues and try to avoid them in general.

Well, Allen. NMB members are generally kind, and after you stated that you love this sword, it becomes hard to criticize. I think that most collectors on NMB would find those "issues" to be distracting (to put it kindly). There are threads about first blades though, and about half of us have held on to our first blade, even though most of those blades have "issues" too. I hope that you have advanced your collecting.

Well done Rob, you worked your way through it very successfully. Slough is just a selective compilation. I remember when he was going around at sword shows taking oshigata. Obviously mostly represents the common and rare blades that he ran across.

Jon, a couple hints are that often the core steel is composed of shingane, which has less carbon in it and is "softer", making it more malleable and ductile and protecting the overall sword from the likelihood of breaking since it isn't brittle like harder steel. This core steel can often have a slightly darker color, which is what Grey is referring to. Also, in my experience, the shingane also has less "hada" or grain in it. It may be that shingane is not folded as many times as skin steel (kawagane) or that since it is softer the polishing stones don't bring out the grain. I would love to hear from others about this last speculation.

I agree. I have watched that video more than once - it is magnificent. Also, you might well have the largest collection of original Hallam work around. Do you actually own the two tsuba in those videos? You are a true patron of a great modern artist.

Not touching that one Luis. Collectors care about length, without doubt!

I just "discovered" this thread. Wonderful pieces and fabulous discussion and input. I will have to check back as they keep rolling out.

I like the choice of menuki Glen, as the clams fit in well with the ebi theme. Be careful of kokatana on Yahoo.jp. First, there are many fakes. It apparently is pretty easy to fake these things and make them look old. Second, be careful how they describe them. I am having a problem with one right now where the seller included the word "sword" in their description, and Buyee is so inept in their automated way that they keep telling me that it is a prohibited item. Just an FYI.

I agree with Jussi, Georg. As Geraint mentioned, this one is also signed tachi mei, meaning that it may well be a bit older than the rest, possibly made during the 14th century. Also, the tang is very long, presumably since they kept the mei on when it was shortened. The tsuka is very long as a result. I get the impression that the sword is not particularly long though. Do you know the length of the cutting edge?

Thanks for sharing these. Georg, your friend has some nice blades, all but one of which are hand made true samurai swords it appears. I agree with Geraint's quick, but clear comments. I gather you are surprised by the few responses. I suppose that you are spoiled by having the first sword you post on NMB turning out to be a "sleeper" Kiyomaro. That certainly gets our attention and excitement!

I concluded that it was likely too short to consider restoration.

I forgot to mention that once I became more knowledgable about swords, I realized that my first sword wasn't that great, as it was a mumei (cut down) wakizashi with a kizu, so I sold it. I started to feel bad about it, and bought it back a year or two later.

Most sellers also accept returns, I believe.

Yes, still have mine, a wakizashi that I bought in the mid '80s. I think I described in an earlier thread how I accidentally smuggled it out of Japan in my suitcase without realizing it has to be surrendered to the police and de-licensed.

Hi Volker, I didn't realize that you follow NMB. It is already in Japan and is getting good reviews. Polish, shirasaya and habaki are being arranged now. I will keep you posted.

The swords were owned by a big time gun collector that went for very flashy things. One blade is mumei and the other likely gimei. I am debating whether to go have a look in hand, since they are about 3 hours away.

Just saw this thread after a long respite. Tom, the sword has lots of utsuri throughout.