Paz

I personally avoid ebay. The best you can do is depends where you live and go to some shows or fairs. The best thing to do with 600 bucks is buy books. But I understand some people want a work in hand before books. Buy books, learn. And then get something worth it.

About to say the same thing as @Brian said. The boshi and everything looks poor in my opinion. it will need a polish which will cost you another 1k and then you will have to ship it out of the UK to someone to polish it. Thats 1k saved and you could put that towards another better quality work. Who is the auction in the UK by the way ? Thanks

Very true. I went into the show expecting not to be impressed, came out with a wishlist. Kind regards Paz

Thank you all above. I will attempt a deal at it. His asking price is 3.7k , which I plan to bring down or trade. Kind regards Paz

Hi all I'm interested in a shinshinto blade I saw today at a show. I don't have any photos but. The sword had a large o kisaki, beutiful hamon, wide thick blade but no signiture. It defo resembled swords of the Nanbokucho era, thus why I agreed with the the seller that it looks shinshinto. However, the sword has no signiture even though it is ubu nakago. No suriage full healthy nakago and blade in decent polish. We're there swords unsigned ubu during the shinshinto period ? As I tend to beleive that most swords shinto onwards were signed. Thanks. Paz

Hi @Brian I have my own website dedicated to blog and sword study of Japanese antiques. I recently wrote an article on a ko uda sword. I started collecting chinese handforged katana many moons ago, and can easily write an article comparing the two. I am also happy and would appreciate if I can link the NMB forum in the article, so that it can give some exposure to this forum. Please pm if you needed to discuss. Otherwise I'm happy to crack on when time allows. Thanks Paz

Thanks. I'd appreciate if anyone has a photo comparing the two.

Thank you soo much for the above info and the pdf I've been going through. But I have another question that needs answering. Is there no way at all to tell if a sword had been forged using traditional tamahagne or muncharian steel / western steel. And handforged using traditional techniques ? From the book I gather that's its literally impossible as they will show the same activity ie nioi, sunagashi, kinsuji ect Thanks Regards

Hi all hope you are all well. I'm new to gendai swords and have a question regarding stamps. From research, reading leon kapps book I understand that swords which were stamped, are to indicate that they were not made from tamahagne. However I also read that some swords which were stamped are made from tamahagne and Leon was incorrect in his book. My question is, are there ww2 era swords which were stamped. And then the stamp was removed so that the sword can't be identified as being made by manchurian steel or any other non traditional steel ? . If so, how can you tell that a stamp has been removed ?. My understanding is, a sword is stamped so that one knows that's its not made from tamahagne. Also any sword made by kasama shigetsugu or his group at the yasakuni shrine is made from tamahagne as they were comissioned by the army to make traditional swords after any era they wanted. So the mass produced swords for the army were all stamped. Unless they had a special stamp from the yasakuni shrine which indicates otherwise. Thanks Regards Paz

@Swords Another big flag is the registration papers. This has illegally been taken out of Japan ( if its out of Japan). ebay sellers usually do this to entice unknowing gaijin Regards

Just to bring this topic up again. Does this involve swords coming out of the USA and abroad. As usps turns into EMS. Thanks

This is the only thing I could allude to. As it could scratch

How do you know how he handles it and what oil he uses. ? He could be wearing mask gloves and condoms while handling it for all we know.

That's alot for a production katana. Looks around 200 dollars pr 150. Recognised the samurai image from masahiro swords

Hey Rob. Can I ask what is the length and motohaba Thanks

But when you have an authorative body / a family of reputed status. Saying that sword A was done by this smith. It takes guts to disagree at that time. And their word is taken. So of course they would have had full freedom to attribute when they saw fit to whatever smith they wanted. Even though many could disagree.

Hey Tom well done. I'm new here and I like when things like this happen. I went back and read your old post from 2020. And most members on this site seem to have had promising thoughts of this sword. I've driven 6 hours for a sword lol. Regards Paz

From what I read in one particular book. The Honami were known to " cook" up swords when it served their purpose. Basically this is why gimei are so common, and the subject of why mumei swords exist. Nakahara for example believes that some suriage were done on purpose to remove the genuine mei and then attribute the sword to a higher smith.

Thanks all for the answers. I also think that time periods would come into play. Such as nanbokucho swords to sengoku, where its very likely the original owners lost those swords.

Hi all. This may be a complicated question, and newbie question. But I haven't found this topic mentioned in any of the books I read. Is there any research or work done on which sword schools provided for which samurai, and their status/ rank/ clan. ?? For example. I doubt swords by masamune or Norishige, osafune kagemitsu would have been given to some low ranked samurai. Doesn't this add importance to certain schools. As I don't like to beleive some of the greatest smiths got famous over night. Is there any article or link available which mentions this subject. Its that I see some beutiful blades, and just marvel at who may have owend them. Thanks

Hope you didn't spend too much

Well I have an opinion formed on evidence and not here say.

Sorry fella I'm afraid to say that your talking out your back end, to put it politely. You "heard" so you don't actually know. I also heard that a dinosaur is roaming around up in Loch Ness. Back in January I was looking to buy a sword and reached out to the token society, also became a member eventually. No one offered me a sword or opened up their long coat full of swords. I ended up going abroad. I beleive you can watch zoom meetings and even actual lectures on youtube by people such as Paul ect. I've also reached out to members of the society for buying advice on certain swords I was looking at, no one again tried to sell me there own stock. And I would love nothing more than to buy local. Regards Paz

The elitism that comes with this hobby. 😆

Hi @Lee997 I also begun my collection and study at the start of this year with genuine nihonto collection. I've been lucky enough to own 5 and sell some on. I do encourage you as mentioned prior to join the Token society, and attend if you can or near any arms fairs. This forum will allow you meet fellow UK collectors, and some may even have swords on offer. I for one found this very useful and was able to get a fantastic blade off this forum. Keep an eye on the sales section. However. I must inform you that the boogie man of UK collectors at times seems to be the mention of imports. By not going the import route you are closing yourself off to a whole world of swords for great prices. There are many great dealers in Japan and USA, who sell you something that you won't be able to get in the UK. As you study more, you might specific about what you actually want, and may have no choice but to go abroad. There are UK dealers that are good. And one I won't mention, that you should steer clear of. But my main point is that the UK market in terms of shopping online, isn't comparable to what you will get in Japan and America. The best swords that I owend were imports and from Brits who had to import them. Since January I have imported 3 blades successfully. As long as you know what to write on the invoice, have token membership as back up. There should be no problem, as antiques and traditional made swords are legal. There are the odd stories you will hear, but there usually is a mistake in the paperwork. Many Brits here will give you the best advice of what to put on the invoice for customs. There is a whole thread dedicated to this, and once you get one you will feel comfortable to try again. Hope this helps Kind regards Paz