Mark Green

Hey Ricky, It sounds like you had a great time at the shinsa. What great fun to see how it all works, and being able to hang with the people doing the work. I didn't get out to meet people as much as I would have liked to. Sat. eve we went into the city to go to the Met., and eat $100 steaks. I was a bit blown away by a couple of the pink slip 'reasons'. It was as though they hadn't even looked at one blade. At least, one of our pinks turned out to be 1500's Bungo'ed. Just the wrong signiture. Or at least a signiture that nobody could make out. I was thinking it was Yamato. Bungo is good for me. I guess I should have brought all my bungo swords, that should all paper very easy. All signed by guys nobody would likely copy. But from others I talked to, it seemed like if they didn't have a copy on file to go by, it didn't get paper. I could be all wrong about that. You having been there, may be able to shed some light on that. Lessons learned. Mark G

Hiya B, Yes, Nagi poles are split to just below the length of the nakago, then carved out to fit the tang, then holed, and rice glued back together. The whole mess is then held together by many extra fittings that act as bands around the 'split' area. Often hemp twine is used as well. Yari are the same way as well. Hope this helped. Mark

Well Dave, Moses, spent a lot of time with the Shinsa teem. At least your sword had someone to lobby for it. Best wishes, Mark G

They were being " conservitive" with all names Milt. If they were not sure, it seemed they pinked it. I heard they ran out of pink paper. When I picked up my swords, there were only about 6 out of obout 50 allong the wall that had papered. We only got one for nine. And a few of the write ups just seemed way off as it could be. We did have 3-4 that we knew were likely gemi, and just wanted to be sure. But a few others came back with questionable opionions. I went to the Met. so I didn't get a chance to question them about those. Not worried about it anyway, as these were on the most part keepers. The Show was kinda sad. Not much there. A lot of overpriced starter blades. The Naginata fighting was good. And a few good displays. 5-6 realy nice swords on display. Moses's stuff looked good as well. Mark G