Veli

Hi All! Some time ago I decided I needed a katanakake. After searching for makie lacquer ones I finally realized that all the really beautiful ones go for USD 1.5k upwards. Thus I started looking for a deer antler katanakake. I found one at Ebay that finally cost less than USD 300 + freight. It was duly shipped by the seller, and I drove to the local customs office to pick it up and pay the V.A.T. At the customs they asked me what it was and I told them that it was deer antlers. The ladies at the customs office were startled at this: "what, a piece of animal?" First they seemed to think I might be smuggling living tissue, but I showed them the antlers and we agreed they were not dripping blood, so that was not a problem. Then they got worried about CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species) regulations. They wanted to know which deer species the antlers belonged to. Luckily I hunt deer myself and was able to answer "Japanese (Sika) deer". It took them 20 minutes and a couple of phonecalls to find out that Sika deer in Japan is not endangered. But they warned me that some related species are endangered. All in all, if you order a deer antler katanakake, be prepared to report the exact species of the deer. (Usually, if the katanakake is made in Japan, the species is Sika deer (Cervus Nippon Nippon). I attached a picture of my new katanakake. Before anyone gets worried: no I do not store bare blades on my living room table . They are there only for the photographs. BR, Veli

Although the blade in question does not fulfill the tight criteria for an art sword, it is genuine and thus may lead its owner into the path of learning. I have recently seen people repeatedly paying up to 300€ for ugly Chinese fakes. That's where the harsh language would have its place, but unfortunately those sellers and buyers are not within the reach of this community. Low end, gimei blades may serve a good purpose when a new enthusiast is learning the basics of terminology and handling. It is fair to make it clear that they are not the kind of swords one should seriously start to collect. However, every real Nihonto is worth a quick analysis, and during an analysis we all learn something. I would be delighted to see a close-up picture of the kissaki and hamon.

Hello All! I wonder if this mumei wakizashi with naginata-hi went to somebody in the NMB. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=290306446819&ssPageName=ADME:B:EOIBUAA:US:1123 Although many of you might disagree, I found this blade aesthetically very pleasing. I guess it is not naginata naoshi, but was originally made as a wakizashi. However, I decided to let it go after the price exceeded 1300 USD (the final bid was 1525 USD), since the photographs were not very informative (e.g. the boshi could not be seen), and I did not know the seller. On the other hand, the wakizashi had Hozon papers attributing it to Shimada school. I would be delighted if it was bought by a member, and if the buyer would be kind enough to share with us some decent photographs of the wakizashi after he receives it. It would help me to rank the seller, as well as to learn whether I made a mistake or a huge mistake when I let it go... BR, Veli

TAD 37 (70 points) and TAD288 (25 points) are both referred to as "2nd gen" in Hawley. 25 points would place Nidai among chu-jo saku, which is difficult to accept. Maybe we just state that Hawley's points are unreliable?

Great! I am looking forward to reading Paul's article! One last question: is there any reason why Hawley listed Nidai twice, with two different ratings: first with 70 points and then with 25 points?

Hi! There has been some nice Hizen blades for sale lately, a Shodai Tadahiro listed in NMB as well as a Nidai Tadahiro that sold out in a few hours after being listed in AOI Art pages. So I have been leafing through the books for info about Hizen smiths. I am more than a bit confused about Hawley's listing of Nidai Tadahiro: Nidai is listed as TAD 37 (70 points) and TAD 288 (25 points). Then there is TAD 38 (listed in Fujishiro as "Omi Daijo") marked "son of Tadayoshi" who signed with "omi daijo",with 25 points, and active years almost the same with Nidai Tadahiro. And last, there is TAD 287 (Tosa no Kami) who worked around the same period as nidai, with 90 points, but no mention of the generation; in Fujishiro, he is listed in between Shodai and Sandai. According to http://www.hizento.com (excellent pages, by the way), he was probably a different person Anybody more knowledgeable than myself shall have my thanks for clarifying! Or is it just that Hawley's points are not logical?

Could we then conclude that the yakiba of my Tegai waki has been reduced by 1-6 mm :D Seriously, maybe the 2-3 mm estimate was not too far Thanks to all of you for your valuable opinions!

I measured the maximum thickness of the nakago: it was 7.5 mm. The maximum thickness (shinogi to shinogi) of the blade approximately 1 cm above hamachi is 6.5 mm. We could assume that the blade dimensions have been reduced by a factor of 7.5/6.5 = 1.154. If we multiply the motohaba (24.6 mm) and sakihaba (17.7 mm) by 1.154 ,we should have an estimate of the original width: motohaba 28.38 mm, sakihaba 20.42. Thus the original yakiba width has been 1 mm (average present width) + (28.38 - 24.60) = 4.78 mm at the hamachi, and 2.3 mm (present width) + (20.42-17.7 mm) = 5.04 mm at the yokote. The original yakiba width would have been about 5 mm, and it has been reduced by 2.5 - 4 mm. Doesn't sound too much. Could this be correct?

Hi! Thanks for info! Sorry! Uwe, thanks for the correction! the situation is luckily not that bad :D . The correct measurement is 0.6 cm. Yes, there is a difference in nakago and blade thicknesses, but nothing too drastic. Maybe I could calculate an estimate of the mihaba reduction by assuming that the togishi have preserved the original cross-section geometry and using the abovementioned difference as a scaling factor... John, what is the approx ha width of your ko-mihara blade? Can you estimate the average distance from the hamon to the cutting edge? You probably meant sakikasane-0.7 cm??? Or else I win (after correcting my unit mistake) the second place only in competition for the most slender blade . If you have a measurement for the sakihaba, it would help me a lot! Steve, do not worry! I still have the two fingers needed for typing replies Martin, what a beautiful jihada you have there! Yes, near the hamachi my waki's ha is very narrow, but as you can see in the photos, it has a couple of millimeters more ha width closer to kissaki. In any case, we could estimate it has lost something like 5 mm. Thanks to all of you for good answers!

I bought a Yamato Tegai waki from AOI Art some time ago. I could afford it because it was "slender" i.e. seen a lot of polishing. Still, it had hakikake boshi, nice jigane, raised shinogi, bright suguha hamon and it is probably very old. It also has Tokubetsu Kicho papers. But still - no more polishing for this blade. I had this blade with me in a local gun show, where I discussed it with a friend that knows something about Nihon-to. He stated that the blade has lost "a lot of millimeters" from its original width. I replied - optimistically - "well, 2-3 mm, I think". Then it occurred to me that I simply do not know. I was mentally comparing the ha width with the photos of high-quality Yamato blades. But how much width have they lost? I'd be happy if any of the more experienced members would like to give a guess about how much the wakizashi in question has lost from its original width. I have attached a few photos of the blade. The present measurements are: Motohaba 24.6 mm; Sakihaba 17.7 mm; Motokasane 0.6 mm; Nagasa 51.2 cm;

Hello Everyone! Greetings from Finland! I started in early '90s with European swords, then bought a shin-gunto, and finally got addicted to Nihon-to early last year; I sold all the other blades out and started to buy literature as well as less expensive Nihon-to to start learning with. Now I have Hawley's, Fujishiro's koto & shinto, Nagayama, Tokuno, two koto and two shinto blades, and an incurable addiction. There is not much Nihon-to -related activity in Finland (sadly enough, Chinese copies are abundant), although some valuable blades may hide in here since Finland was a part of Russia during the Russo-Japanese war. Russians took the beating, but they got away with a number of Nihon-to. This is a great forum with a high level of expertise and also very well moderated!