The Blacksmith

@Ray Singer Thank you so much for the links! I have never come across these before, though I must admit that I know next to nothing about tsuba anyway, so will be very interested to read them all. Thank you again. Though I have owned quite a few over the years, I must admit that apart from Sasano's book years ago, it is an area of Nihonto that I have greatly and woefully overlooked. I was mainly a collector of swords used during WWII, and as most of them had standard Shin-Gunto fittings, it was a subject that I never delved into.

Whilst reading Vic Harris and Nobuo Ogasawara's Swords of the Samurai, saw on P. 70, plate 37 a tachi, which the caption states that the tsuba is made of leather. I have had tsuba covered in thin leather before, but have never come across one actually made of leather before. So. I wondered if anybody has such a tsuba in their collection, and how common was this? Thanks in advance.

In my case the tech is probably Ok, but I need a five year old to show me how it works! A colleague of mine at work, her two and a half year old daughter got round the code on her mobile phone and called the firebrigade! Me, well making calls is about all I can do with my mobile phone anyway, but to be honest, making calls is all I want a phone for anyway!

Thank you so much for that, it is much appreciated! But I don't think I will be buying it.

Or any jeweller Curran should be able to test it immediately for you.

Unfortunately, none of the links work here in Norway. But thank you for trying gents!

No, no problems for me either yesterday or today Colin.

I agree a belt fitting, but it doesn't look remotely Japanese to me, either in its design, or workmanship.

No, not banned, but many dearlers simply don't want the hassle, and possible risk of losing the item and its possible destruction. As for Japan not sending items, I have this very day received a tanto for a friend in the Uk for this very reason, the Japanese seller wouldn't send it to the UK! I will forward, and hopefully, as it has before, will go well.

Also remember that many dealers and auction houses in Japan won't send to the UK at all now.

That new link doesn't work for me either I am afraid.

IIRC. There are also instances of officers having blade shaped objects made locally so as to swap the blade before surrendering them, knowing the the allied officers receiving them wouldn't know the difference. Perhaps @Bruce Pennington or @Scogghas some information on this.?

I'm not sure about the top one, but I'd certainly give the lower one a miss. It's almost certainly a Chinese fake.

yeah, for that kind of money I'd want it to come with a fully equiped kitchen and Gordon Ramsey for a year! Nice knives, but some people just have too much money......Alas, I am not one of them!

Claude isn't the only one who does this Bob, we know several dealers who are very good at story telling too!