fan

jean, so you are lucky one who bought that wild looking sword. how does it look in person? eric

i think i have their direct email because they responded to me once before. i have tried to contact both persons and they jstu ignore me. i included the item number and even the date of the paypal transaction, but to no avail. i think they might have sold the sword to someone else and just will not admit it. they could just as easily return my money but they wont even do that. it is not like they have no way to make this right. eric

justin, do you contact them directly? i am still after them for a sword i bought in may. after countless emails, i have had very few responses. in one earlky response the simply told me they have not sent it. i think they dont like to be told that they made any mistake and knows that most people not in Japan can do nothing about them. that's pretty dishonest. eric

hi peter, here is a pic of the ji and shinogi ji area. the grain in shinogi ji is different from the ji area. however, it is the finess of the jihada that prompted the nthk to determine the sword a hizen sword. eric

CANT really find the togari in these

hi peter, here are some pics. can really find the togari in these.

milt, i have a sugu katana that nthk put to late generation tadayoshi den. however, i almost think i detect a very mild bump on the sugu as well. and the yasuri is kesho, not typical hizen. but i kind of like the tadayoshi den attribution...... eric

hi mike, do you mean that they use sanbonsugi exclusively? the condition of the blade prevents me from seeing clearly the sugu to see if there are togari. but even if togari is present, does it still seem unlikely that the kanemoto line would have anything to do with it? eric

yes, the file mark is typical mino shinto or later. the clarity of the mei cut also suggest a nto particularly old blade. eric

hi grey, yes it is kanemoto. my question is, when i tried to match it with other signatures, the lower strokes of my "moto" does not look like the lower strokes of other "moto". the typical ones have a sharper bend at the lower right stroke. so this not one of hte big guys, but does this match up with anyone in particular? eric

hi all, i have this little wak, slender, with a suguha. the limited resources i have does not have anything that match the strokes on this signature. can anyone peg this one? thanks. eric

hi uwe, speakingof low end, i think my blade is just a low end tanto that happens to be very thin and has a maru mune. i dont think my blade is a boy's sword because while it is thin, the mihaba is of normal width at 2.5cm. eric

yes, good idea, but i gotta get the digital camera working first.

the blade is a regular shinogi zukuri shape and pretty deep mihaba, proportionally. it is at about 2.5 cm. it has a short, tanto like nakago and so does not seem suriage. no core steel showing. it has maru mune as well.... eric

thanks henry, yes, a floppy sword would not be very useful. the blade i have is definitely not pre heian or close to that age. it has about 14" nagasa and so is still stiff due to its proportion. still, i have never seen anything that thin and was wondering if it is characteristic of any particular school or style. eric