Robert S

Very useful to something I'm working on currently!

It's not that, it's that the hadori work completely obscures and disrespects the actual, rather marvellous, hamon. For a significant juyo level nihonto, this sort of work is verging on amateur.

That polish is a crime.

Just like zen, or martial arts, in the end we come back to beginner mind, beginner eye, without logical discrimination

That sounds like the time I had to give a presentation at a meeting in Honduras... in Spanish... and realized afterwords that I had referred to myself in the feminine gender the whole time. Huge kudos to all attending for keeping a straight face

Outstanding! The RHPS (Rocky Horror Picture Show) of tsuba.

It does look a bit like a slightly acidic liquid may have gotten on the blade at some time. Don't think it's a forging (deep) issue.

Interesting thought. I think there's a subtlety here. My 50 years of experience with craftsmanship suggests to me that when you get really good at something, as the great swordsmiths were, you've gotten there because you have always danced on the edge of loss of control... and you want to cross that edge constantly, and lose control just a little bit. If you're not doing that, you're probably not learning anymore, and it gets to be rote. The better you get, often the harder it is for others to see where you've let the process and the object take over, outside of your control, but you know. One of my professors many moons ago used to say "no threat no thrill", and I think that's pretty universal. I'd add "no threat no learning". Clearly swordsmithing is not raku... but neither is a pure industrial process, where absolute repeatability is the goal.

To my mind, it's a sword that exemplifies the best aesthetics, forging and metal for its place and period. Sometimes its also a sword that was part of breaking new ground in practice or aesthetics. Speaking as a craftsperson, there's also the personal masterpiece of a given smith - that one blade where everything just came together at a level at the limit of their ability, or almost magically beyond it. Often now we know too little about the smiths and their history to be able to identify that piece, or it is long lost, but at the time the smith, other smith's around him, and his customers will have known that there was one blade which just stood out.

I have a suspicion that tsuba like this were never designed to be mounted - they were always show pieces... which considering the craftsmanship is fair!

I really like that approach. Not all blades can be fully brought back to perfect condition, but they can still be preserved and appreciated.

The problem that I see is that if a full polishing was done which eliminated those chips, the boshi would be close to running off the edge... and once the pitting had also been dealt with, it probably would run off the edge. Just based on these photos, the blade is edging toward being unrecoverable, although of course it can be preserved with the chips and pitting remaining, but stabilized. Did Les have any thoughts on that?

My experience is that if someone thinks history ended in 1945, they're on the older side, like me, and actually probably believe that history ended with the end of the Vietnam war. Some younger people I know seem to believe history began when the internet began, and everything was effortlessly online. Everything before that is prehistory . They have a certain point . My nihonto will definitely not be buried with me. I love the idea of gifting them to a younger person who is excited about them, but has limited capital. I have so many amazing things that I've inherited from previous generations - that kind of passing things on is really meaningful to me.

I wonder if there was some collaboration there - two makers.

I'm just starting to work on something similar. My problem is that I don't even have what anyone would typify as a "collection" - focused in one area. Instead I have a carefully curated grab bag of global current and historic arts and crafts - many of which are exquisite examples of a specific time, place, and craft, but which would be of interest to wildly different people. A list of descriptions and valuations will help in the case of a "hit by a bus" incident, but otherwise I'm actually planning on selling off these things before I die - probably a combination of a big "proceeds to a designated charity" type event and targeted consignment to specialist auctions. Otherwise, I pity my executor :-)

I believe that David Hofhine will work on it if you can ship from and to an address in the US - depends on how close you are to the border and a US postal address service. In Vancouver they're in Point Roberts :-). But he has at least a 2 year waiting list, or did last time I checked.

Thanks for that. I built a quick excel calculator using that math. Nerd, I know

What was interesting to me was the very low number of shinto blades passing - only 3. I don't know if this reflects what was submitted, or if it is a current style preference being reflected.

Rayhan: Wow, that's quite the journey! Thanks so much for illuminating the goals you set, and the problems they led to - it's extremely useful. I do think that those specific goals - looking to create a "complete" collection in some specific way, are perhaps unusual, so many others will make different mistakes. In addition to your general point - study deeply before you start buying, I would add "study deeply things that you are particularly attracted to, and know why you are attracted to them.", as well as "identify your own goals clearly, and understand what they imply". Based on that guidance, I think "save more, so that you can buy a really good example of what you love, and reduce the liklihood of losing money on it" is often, but not always, true. Understanding whether not losing money is important to you, and whether more expensive blades will better meet your goals, is a critical part of the journey. If the answer is "There's a $2,000 blade that just speaks to me, and I don't care how anyone else values it", then that's also a perfectly appropriate way to buy and cherish nihonto. Every one of these blades is unique, has its own story that we will mostly never know, and was made by a master craftsman, so every one is worthy of being appreciated and cherished!

The other way that I have heard "mono no aware" defined (and which I really like) is as "nostalgia for (or of) the future" - in other words, both the notion that everything that is now will only be nostalgic memories in the future, and further, that even the future can be subject of nostalgia now, since it too will be impermanent and fleeting.

100% agree. Or 3 figures

Hope you get better soon, Brian. Hospitals are never fun...

A fellow here where I live had made a few extra dollars (in construction) and wanted to build a boat. His wife said "not until you've bought these specific lots so that you can build more houses in the future".. The lots were on the waterfront in Vancouver BC . Today he's worth tens of millions. Some wives are worth more than their weight in gold .

I agree that it's entirely possible that things go as you suggest. But certainly at the Juyo level there seems to be a lot of uncertainty, depending on the session, the other swords presented, etc. TH may be less unpredictable, but even there. If it was completely predictable that would be an arbitrage, in financial terms - zero risk - and I don't believe that. Anyhow, I like low cost nihonto. For me, they're more of an adventure than a papered, signed blade.

That's a lot of conditional events. You could equally buy the blade, polish it, send it in for TH, and it doesn't pass. Now you're out way more than with the $900 blade. My philosophy is to be willing to lose the entire amount you spend, either because it doesn't hold value, or because you love it so much that you'll never sell it, and good luck to your estate!