rematron

A couple of focused pics of part of the blade would be helpful too while you’re at it. It’s a little difficult to see grain or texture or hamon with your first pictures.

Sorry to be super picky Hal but I guess I needed to specify that the blade should be photographed removed from the tsuka (handle). I only implied it by saying ‘butt of the tang’ which we can’t see because it’s covered by the tsuka, together with the tip of the blade in your new photos. p.s. I swear I’m not messing with you. The full naked metal piece minus all embellishments is the proper way to judge the sword. If you were even able to remove the habaki (the metal collar between the blade and the nakago (tang), that would be the very best way to view it. You can remove the habaki by pulling down on it towards the nakago.

@Bruce Pennington would be a good person to ask I believe.

Thats the first thing I noticed. You can actually see the light reflecting off the individual raised ridges.

Hi Hal. Welcome! There are quite a few people here who can help you learn more about your sword (I'm not one of them ) They'll want some clear comprehensive photos of your blade to get a better idea as it is sometimes challenging to do this from photographs. You'll need to post a picture of the whole blade in one shot from the tip of the sword to the butt of the tang. With the sword laying on a soft surface on its side, take the picture from directly above so that it is not distorted. This view will show the entire shape of the blade which is very important in determining age. Secondly, you'll want to take a picture of the tip of the blade from a couple different angles. And yes, as already stated, do not clean the tang (or the blade for that matter). I know you don't plan on selling the blade but doing any kind of cleaning of the tang will destroy its historical value as well as it's collectability. Cheers!

Thanks Matt! None of the three shikomizue listed blow my socks off but it's good to know they pop up like this.

@ROKUJUROThanks!

Yes Matthew, thanks for posting this! A little overwhelming how much goodies are listed! Is this a yearly thing or how often do these auctions happen?

This is probably a stretch but does anybody know the etymologies of the Japanese words for weasel (itachi) and the sword 'tachi'? I'm wondering if the two words are cousins in the distant past... Maybe @Bugyotsuji?

Thanks for that explanation, Brian. Learn something new every day!

Great suggestions @1kinko Thank you.

Weasels have some pretty intense mythology around them too! https://www.yokaistreet.com/the-kamaitachi/

Yeah, I’m also moving towards weasel or marten. I admit the description influenced me although the fur does have a wet slick look to it, the tail is just to bushy for an otter. Also when I looked at Japanese weasel in Wikipedia I found the caption below. So this looks like the description of a weasel hunting but considering the prey looks like a smaller version of the predator, I’m wondering if it may be a parent teaching the youngster how to hunt.

Jean, this seems like a dumb question but here goes. I recently bought a pair of copper menuki. One of them has an excess of green oxidation I’d like to lightly remove to expose the form underneath. My silly question is if I can make antler shards from Amazon purchased antler ‘chew’ for dogs. Or am I better off finding antler on eBay and smashing it.

Wow! Night and day difference there!

Thanks for moving this to the right place @Brian or whoever!

Beautiful hada!

Hi Jean. Thank you for the suggestion. I definitely will post in the "would like to buy" when the time is right. This original post was my first post back when I wasn't familiar with the forum and I was asking about an eBay seller and item (in what I know now is the completely wrong place to do that). Today I responded to a suggestion made by Volker earlier today, thus reinvigorating this old thread. Please @Brianclose this thread to further comment if you wish. The only good thing that came out of it was @jesse posting his sword which he has since moved to another thread. Cheers!

Indeed. Old thread and that's what I've done for the most part. Although I did buy a $500 koto 'polish project' in koshirae form Eric M. just to get my buyer's itch scratched and though I still do want a shikomizue, I'm pretty sure the one above wasn't the one for me and I'm glad I didn't continue bidding on it. However, they seem to be rare and that one did look to be decent quality and I've not seen any since but it's only been six weeks. Seems longer! lol. But I'm patient. I've got quite a nice collection of books at this point and am learning more and more every day from this forum and those books. Long live NMB!

It better come with ectoplasmic residue for that price tag!

I think one of the possible reasons is it was just easier to make the blooms from the iron sand that was available. Sure it was time consuming but what would have been the rush? When things take time there is attention to detail and specialization. To the average smith a bloom could have seemed like a more obtainable goal then the energy and technology required to melt iron. And maybe they liked the meditation of the long effort. I’m pretty sure I’m repeating sentiments and opinions that are elsewhere in this thread so I apologize for that.

That’s it! That’s exactly what I’ve been searching for and the inspiration for my tsuba! The little holes are even in the same position to the design. So my tsuba is just oriented strangely and would be accurately viewed (as per the subject matter not as a collector) on its side with one tree being a reflection of the other. Nice! Thanks for the pic David. Made my day.

.50 is 50% of 1 (50 hundredths of 1 ) so 50/100 or 50% .02 is 2% of 1 (2 hundredths of 1) so 2/100 or 2% .05 is 5% of 1 .20 is 20% of 1 .01 is 1% of 1 (1 hundredths of 1) so 1/100 or 1% .5% is half of 1% so instead of 1/00 it is 1/200 or .5/100 to further clarify or confuse

I’m having trouble distinguishing if the tiger is carved into the surface or if the rest of the surface has been carved away lower than the tiger. Either way it is beautiful work.

Yeah! The Visible Nihonto. Lol