Hokke

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Well done sir, continued recognition for your work in such a specialized field must be quite exciting, congratulations On a separate note, I noticed your tsuba lapel pin. Did you have it made or was it received as a gift.

Don’t listen to Jean, he’s just an optimist……plus in some cultures clouds are bad luck, you don’t want bad luck. Fortunately, I specialize in tsubas that may be cursed and I would willing to take this off your hands as a public service. You can definitely trust me, i was almost a christian once. Seriously though…….i agree with Jean….really nice tsuba, congrats

Interesting.......thank you

For those like myself who do not have any experience with armor, but curious to learn, what are the stand out features that clearly demonstrate this menpo is modern vs edo period?

Oh, one more thing….if you get this blade scanned, snap a picture of the read out on the screen, it’ll be interesting to see the alloy composition and their percentages.

If Japan has jewelry stores and or pawn shops, you will find XRF. I charge $25 to scan things for customers and it literally takes 10 seconds. The tech is getting more and more commonplace these days and with gold at $4400, places that buy precious metals can justify the 20k XRF price tag. All that said, I have seen blades made from stainless with hamon, there was a smith here in the states that made them with great success and the hamon and yakiba do not look like your tanto, so I cannot believe this is SS. Hope you find a place to get it scanned, I’m dying to know.

As others have said, this is a Paul Chen Tiger katana produced by Hanwei. It's Chinese manufacture with "swedish powdered steel". Actually a decently made blade compared to what was coming out of china at the time. New these were just over 1K....in this condition however....worthless.

If you call around to pawn shops in your area you will certainly find one if not more that have XRF. The fee should be low if any at all as you only need to test one.

The specific gender raising a child is unimportant....whats important is COMPETENCE. There are plenty of "fathers" and mothers for that matter, who have no business acting in the roll of caregiver. It is not a gender thing, period. I'll bet you say that because "when you were a kid" you feared getting the belt from your daddy and it taught you to be respectful and truthful and mind good manners. Fact of the matter is that if a child requires the belt or a switch or any kind of physical consequence, you have already shown a level of incompetence.

Shared responsibility is NOT victim blaming, it's realistic. Funny how those who cry victim blaming fail to acknowledge that no one is saying the person who committed the crime should be held accountable in full. Two things CAN be right simultaneously. You can be a scumbag who commits a crime AND a citizen can be innocent and still be responsible for a poor decision. The difference is in the consequences. I agree with the importance of parents teaching their children.......we are all responsible for the choices we make. As for politicians needing to "creating jobs and increasing educational opportunities for folks getting out of prison".....what exactly does that look like to you, im curious? Lets start with educational opportunities, its a nice couple of words, but apply it in reality. Is it funding? Is that funding greater, equal to or less than that allotted for those applying for the same funding who HAVEN'T committed a crime(s)? How about creating jobs....what jobs would those be exactly that wouldn't be taking employment away from those who HAVEN'T commented a crime? In reality does John Q. Tax Payer want to have tax money going to educate criminals? Can adult aged criminals even be turned in a meaningful percentage? More realistically though, does a politician want to be known as the person who directs tax money to criminals? Seeing the world with rose colored glasses....... Whats needed, that is practical, is a new strategy of educating parents BEFORE the become parents. Giving couple the best shot at raising children to walk the right path. Garbage parents will almost always raise garbage children, period. This isnt the worst part though is it? The worst part is mediocre parent raising mediocre kids who make REAL mistakes based on poor choices that otherwise land a decent kid in the justice system where corruption is reinforced. The last problem.....greed. There are things that politicians can do right now in the broken system we have to discourage recidivism and also save tax payer money, but you won't see them happen, why? Because the prison system is a BUSINESS and business is good. Throwing money at the problem will not solve it. Identifying and acknowledging the root of the problem is a must and that problem is PARENTING, or rather the lack of it. It has only gotten worse in the last 20 years with the rise of tech and devices that parents are making the CHOICE to allow to raise their kids. Why do parents allow devices to raise their kids? Greed......they want the time to themselves because parenting is HARD WORK if you are doing it properly and this the USA, a country no longer known for "hard work". It is what it is......we reap what we sow

What you say is true, however, the blame for the "theft" is shared by the Japanese. If I decide to create a suit where cover it completely with loosely attached with gold bars and choose to walk though an area known for crime, who is to blame if I am assaulted and robbed? Your example is one those ideas that only works in a "perfect" world but not in the reality of human nature. Of course in a perfect world, there would be no war in the first place..........

Scratch kit will not be useful if they are less than 10k. Better to find an XRF if an exact percentage of gold is needed.

Leave the chickens out of this

Technicalities aside, as a general rule, US military are prohibited from carrying their personal firearms. If they were allowed, the feelings toward “spoils of war” might look a bit different. At the end of day carrying a family heirloom into battle is a choice and so it’s unrealistic to feel entitlement to have anything returned.

This is actually a very simple question to answer. Of course swords collected after a conflict are going to belong to the victor, or anyone else who happens to collect an item once the guns cease fire. The reason is simple, the owners of those weapons did not bring their swords with the expectation they would be returned if they were killed in battle. Therefore the fact that many of these swords were heirlooms or of superior value historically means NOTHING because it was not mandatory to bring your own swords into battle, it was optional which means it was a choice. Even if it were mandated by the Japanese govt for troops to bring any weapon they owned, there still would be no reasonable expectation the weapon would be returned by the enemy. What makes this discussion interesting for me is perspective. American troops, for example, will generally agree with the idea of “spoils of war”. However, is this because they actually believe in the spoils of war concept or do they support the premise out of convenience, because in the US military, so far as I know, troops are prohibited from using their own weapons. I wonder if it were permitted for Private Pyle to bring the .45 1911 that had been in his family since 1911 and passed down through the generations, if he would be more in favor of returning heirlooms to the family if he were to fall in battle.

Well....yes and no. After all, people often see what they WANT to see, regardless of evidence......hence 2+ BILLION christians and two BILLION muslims

Sounds good to me, glad thats cleared up now, thanks for the confirmation

It’s likely one of two reasons…. Genuinely believes they have the original or Purchased it as original and must sell as original in order not to lose money im not aware of anyone here having had the opportunity to actually hold it in hand, so I don’t know anyone can claim 100% that it’s a copy, however, the pictures don’t seem to be ambiguous…

Much nicer in person.....lots going on here

Im sure we'll get a picture of them in about......36 days

Im afraid the implications are far more serious if a site and its operators wish to maintain a respected or trusted status for ANY of their items. Luckily this is something VERY easy to remedy. Additional pictures and an appropriate explanation for the likeness to the numerous copies posted would go a long way to demonstrate both competence and honesty. As for the question of Mr Haynes status......someone here either has to know or knows someone who must know.......I cant imagine that if he passed it would not have been big news in the "community".

So we have a tsuba that is both listed AND not listed for sale, the authenticity of it being both confirmed AND questioned, in the possession of someone affiliated with an individual who may OR may not be alive?