Mark Green

Very nice Stephan! Thanks for sharing. Mark

Hi Jorgenson, Yes, as Matt said I have a very nice long wakizashi by this smith. Wonderful shape, and hamon. I lost most of the good pics of it in a crash. But I will look for what I have. I would love to see your swords too. PM me.

To me it looks just fine. I think it is just the state of the polish. I wouldn't be too worried. Nice tanto! Mark G

Steve88, Great posts. I agree with some of your points. As a truly awesome debator, you may want to think about your chopping up of peoples words, to swing them. You surely don't need to do that. I was shocked to see you didn't get Reinhard's meaning about democracy. He is right on, with that one! So, are shinsaku Tsuba valid yet? I know my Ford Hallam tsuba sits at the head of my small collection of old rusty iron. I apoligize to everyone about my defensive marshal posturing. If you want to learn to ride, and stab things, and you live in the SE US, pm me. Great topic Ford! Mark G

Geeze Steve, Did Franco really imply all that? You are a pro., my man. Cheers, Mark G

That!! is the best point so far Franco

Yes Patton designed a great Rapier. And a puncture wound is much better than a slashing wound for sure. But just as the Rapier was a great Cav weapon mostly due to it's great reach out and touch you length. It takes great skill to thrust this, or any swords like weapon. And, even with the chisel point, if your thrust goes to far in, it may be very bad for your arm, and sword. I have seen and held the Patton sword. I was not that impressed. I can chop the heck out of watermelons, and even good size pumkings, with a slash from a meduim speed horse, with a good saber, or Rapier. I have done both, many times. I have good friends that are as skilled at this, as anyone alive today. There is nothing fantasy about it. And, you can do nice pokes on them if you do the angle right. But, in a straight on thrust, if you are not very, very, practiced at this, it can hurt. And in a real fight. No matter what your skills are, vs. a Man & horse. You may end up on the point of a sword just as easy as your enemy. I have stabbed grain bags at standing man level. However, the few times I tried stabbing the pumkin we were using for a head. I bent the crap out of my nice rapier, and nearly ripped my arm off. I can imagine what a man in armor may have done if I ran my sword 8-10 in to deep. That is a very hard thing to control. Did the warriors of the day practice this all the time. For sure they did. But when two 1000lb moving loads bump. I'm sure you can get the picture, even if you have never been on a horse Carlo, Yes I know that. I was just making a 'point' I am a spear fighter. That is all I do at war. The yari is the Queen of the battlefield. And opponents faces are the prime target. In a real battle, if you get stabbed in the eye, or through the cheek, or just cut bad over your eyes anywhere, you are likely done for the day. But, if your nice battle tsuba blocked that yari from taking your eye out, you could go on fighting. Mark

Great one George! Horseback? Not so sure you want to stab much from horseback with a sword. Maybe if your standing still. Use a yari if you want to stab. Slash with your nice sword. Much less chance, your sword gets caught, or broken. Not to mention, your arm getting ripped off. I know people that do this a lot, and I have done it some. Even at medium speeds, the shock on your arm, and shoulder is not a good thing. There is a whole lot of kenitic energy involved in doing anything from the back of a horse! It is great fun though! But I would still like a big iron tsubs to protect my hand. :D

Hummmm, That may be true Ford my friend. But it is the closest thing you will find in this day, that will not kill you. Kendo is not even close! We use Kendo shinai for practice with no armor. What I do in the SCA is only safe, due to armor, and training. And I still have broken many bones. The only thing we can't do is grapple. For obvious reasons. (people would really be getting hurt) And that is not so much fun. And you would likely be surprised to learn what I know about life and death with live steel. That is a kind of excitement nobody needs. I have heard that is a great book. Many of those battle damaged tsuba may have been scraped for new. Plus, they are very hard to damage! But, I would think if there was a big chunk out of my tsuba, I would replace it, and reforge the old. Cheers, Mark

Hi Gang, Jacques, and Ford, You must have missed my other post. I will start by saying that tsuba, "without a doubt" were mostly made to protect your hand. I can not say how many times my hands have been saved by my tsuba. I am a Knight of the SCA. We fight 'full on' with ratan weapons, in full 'real' armor. I use full steel gauntlets when I fight with my katana, as well as a good tsuba. If I used samurai style hand protection. My only protection from having all my finger broken, would be my tsuba. I know that I have taken hundreds of blows to my tsuba, that would have broken many fingers. I am sure that 'in the day' many a thousand hands were saved by tsuba. Hatake, seems like a good teacher, and knows his stuff. However, on all those short films. I did not see him fighting 'FULL ON', in full armor. That is the trouble with most of the 'Sword' marshal arts. With live steel, you cannot fight full on, for obvious reason. And with wooden swords, most practice is just kata. In the Marshal art I play at, it is 'full contact', in full 30+ lbs of armor, with 30+mm thick ratan weapons. These swords, and polearms, would break my bones, or kill me, if I didn't block them correctly, or did not have armor on. I practice to 'HIT' my apponent, with blows that would likely do very serious harm, if it were not for the strict safty standards we have about armor. I have trained in Kenjutsu, Kendo, Akido, judo, and about a dozen other MAs. These were all good training, but most were not 'real' danger like what I do in the SCA. I have fought thousands of tournament bouts, as well as been in battles with whole armies. I get to live through these fights, win or loose. The experience of this is immeasurable. I dare say, that I am as qualified as anyone, in these times, on the subject of tsuba, as handguards. I do this on a near daily basis. Tsuba protect your hands from great harm. They are great for leverage, pinning, and if it were the real deal, for smashing someone in the nose if that was the shot you had. REAL fighting, is about staying alive. Tsuba from any period will protect your hand. Even a pretty, 'trip to the tea house kinko' will stop a sword. I have tested this on everything but shakudo, and I'm sure that would work as well. Because copper does. I would love to test my skills with Hatake, and his students. That would be great fun. And he would likely say the same thing as I. Tsuba are handguards! And wonderful art too :D

Steve, That was a great post, your post is well taken. However, A tsuba, buy any other name, is still a tsuba. Even the massed produced, cast, crap, that comes out of china, are tsuba. In 300 yrs., The "purist", cultural relevance, romantic, collector, will still feel that way. And the simple beauty of a folded steel disk, with maybe a few rough sukashi will always be his dream. These tsuba, survived to these times, first because the Samurai of the Edo period felt it was likely good to have a good set of "war" fittings, to go along with their fancy 'go to town fittings'. And like some of us, many of them were likely "purist" collectors as well. Otherwise, most of those old tsuba would have been melted down into cannons, and machine guns. Their age, and simple beauty saved them. In 300 yrs, the tsuba art collectors will look at the 20th, and 21st centuries, and see that there were still a few people making 'hand made' tsuba They will be very rare. Far more rare, then any other tsuba of quality. But I'm willing to lay down a bet to your great, great grandkids, that they will not only be very treasured for their rarity, but will be called TSUBA. Mark G

Fun posts gang, I will start by saying that tsuba, "without a doubt" were mostly made to protect your hand. I can not say how many times my hands have been saved by my tsuba. I am a Knight of the SCA. We fight 'full on' with ratan weapons, in full 'real' armor. I use full steel gauntlets when I fight with my katana, as well as a good tsuba. If I used samurai style hand protection. My only protection from having all my finger broken, would be my tsuba. I know that I have taken hundreds of blows to my tsuba, that would have broken many fingers. I am sure that 'in the day' many a thousand hands were saved by tsuba. I have done many a test on new tsuba, and chainmail, with an old beat up WW2 sword. And, tsuba do hold up very well. A 3mm ko-tosho style tsuba will save your fingers. All this silly crap about blocking with 'parts' of your sword, are just that. When a sword is coming at you, you block with whatever part of it will keep you alive. Period! That is why a lot of swords had to be made during the war years. Swords get chewed up in real combat. As for the art. I am bias. I always looked at tsuba in amazement, and said "how the hell did they do that"? Well now I have a much better idea of that. So, now I look at tsuba from the other side. I know the hours that went into that old tsuba I hold, or see. And the skill involved in the artwork upon it. But, when I make a new one, and I'm sure Ford is the same. It is first, and foremost, a Tsuba, that will function as a tsuba, reguardless of the art upon it. Are old tsuba better? Likely. But new tsuba art can be used, without the risk of destroying something old, and irreplaceable. Not that it would be better to loose something new that is irreplaceable. And some are just plain pretty. One of Ford's that I have. One of mine that is made for an SCA Katana.

I feel that these variations in mei are more common then most experts like to admit. If you goob up a bit with your chisel, what are you going to do scrub it off? No, you will continue best you can. My guess is is C/2, I don't like the depth of the yasurime.

I'm pretty sure this is the real thing. The Bo-hi may have been a later addition. Price seems a bit high, for a cut down with no papers? Mark G

Hi gang, Ford, great post. As you likely know I fall into the third pile. As an infant tsuba-shi, I have come to love all tsuba for the 'ART'. I like to copy old tsuba, mostly for the practice, and do my own designs once in a while just to see if I can. I don't really care if anyone likes them, but I don't do it for a living. I do feel that tsuba-shi of the past did do a bunch of 'copy work'. You see many copies of the same tsuba from Edo times that are not cast. Schools seemed to copy popular designs from other schools. I'm sure this was all about selling them. And once in a while you see nice old Ko-tosho designs that were made in the Edo period and beyond. You see masters, coping other masters. This is more likely their expression of an 'I would like to do that', much like the people that make tsuba today. Sometimes they succeeded, other times they didn't. I would like to post one of those success stories now. As I have not seen it here yet, and that is only due to Fords humility. This is the true work of a Master, by a modern Master. For those of us that know the kind of skill this takes, it is truly awesome, and inspiring. The sword world is very luck to have a person of your talent to carry on this fine art. And, for those of us learning this art, you are a true hero. Mark

Hi Matt, Yup, that was a nice find. It is right at 24 in now. I plan to get it out today, and do all the info measured up. Im thinking that first ana, may have been the orig. I see some file marks. Better pics, and measurements to come, for all you experts out there that like to play. Mark G

A few more close ups. Wonderful use of mixed alloys, and to my eyes, very good detail. Shibuichi, Shakudo, gold, silver, copper. cool. I love the expression on this guys face. Inlayed mei. Not sure wht is up with that?

Well Steven, About twice a year I stop in downtown, in the old antique store section, and walk through the stores. I usualy just ask the owner if they have anything Japanese. It was just a lucky day. The owner of this one store had just recieved a few swords from an old ww2 vet., for consignment. The sword I ended up with, And a wonderful Koto Yamato,Masatsugu. #1 I'm pretty sure, as the mei matched very well., with wonderful iron Higo fittings, with great gold & silver inlay of flowing Paulownias. The sword was in great shape, near flawless. (if anyone is interested, I will go back and take some pics. I think he wants around 4K for it). So, I did the research for him on the Masatsugu, and he gave me a great deal on the old katana, with the nice fittings. That is about it. There are old antique stores in every town. The old WW2 vet. , know nothing about ebay, and computers (mostly) So, they go the next best place. I must have had some good karma coming I guess. The sword is in good shape, and the fittings are great. As I have a little bit of experence with mixed metals now, I can better judge what is good quality inlay. I'm posting some good close pics of the fittings when I'm done here.

Thanks guys, Yes Ian, I was thinking the same thing. Ford & John, It is a copper inlay for sure. I guess there is no telling who made it without paper. But, it is very nice work. I have looked at over a hundred of these signitures. There were very few the same? The quality, and skill of the carving seems very good. The patina is wonderful. I may softly clean it up a bit today, and take some more pics. Thanks, Mark

Thanks Craig, Yup, one of those just plain lucky day finds. Check out the fittings on the togu page. They are even more stunning. Mark

Thanks John, Yes indeed it is. Mark

Hi gang, I went scouting today, and found this nice Koto (likely) cut down katana, with some wonderful fittings. Wavy Saguha, Mokume hada Except for being cut down, nearly flawless. What do ya'll think. Better pics later. Mark G

Hi Gang, Went scouting today, came back with a new sword, with wonderful fittings. If anyone knows the maker. Please fill me in. Thanks. Mark G

Hi Hinoki, and Gang, I'm with George, I think it is likely koto mass produced. To my eyes it does look very tired, and the boshi, looks like it is just hanging on. But, It could just be the shape the polish is in. And, as it has survived to these times, the quality my not be that bad. It looks like there may be some interesting 'things' going on in that steel. I feel that is mostly the original Nakago, likely messed with for ww2 mounting as stated. Was it found in any kind of mounts? As the habaki fits well, it may have been made for the sword, as is. Just prior to it's last mounting. Not so bad, if you got it for a good price, and it is giving you joy to behold, as it seems it is. Mark G

Great looking sword. I would do some serious checking on this one, with people in the know! jmo,, Mark G