eternal_newbie

I've seen some people refer to that design of a triangle with two semicircles as "insect eyes":

Good luck Mike, we could definitely use some options Down Under even if they're just for low-to-mid level blades. Looking forward to seeing some examples of your work!

Also folks who go in with a relatively low bid, knowing they can probably resell at enough of a premium to make the profit worthwhile on any items they win by default. The kinds of folk who show up on eBay/Yahoo with a bunch of eclectic blades with very different photography styles.

Unfortunately dodgy polishers aren't just something you find outside Japan; I've been watching some blades on auction sites in Japan in which a "polisher" has absolutely butchered the blade by 'painting' on a hamon/jigane matching the kantei points for famous smiths which the blade is then attributed to.

Slightly off-topic but that guy had something else that might be of interest to the various polearm data gatherers in here: https://www.facebook.com/raymond.yan.950241/posts/pfbid0UicaokdPan3LXQAGrdZnFEmmb5cWgaqdmBc6JJubhLxHwdFp33VxudWtyuQWt2gBl It's a sankaku-yari (sold now, sadly) in which the entire blade, aside from a small section near the base, is hardened (more pictures in the link).

Saka-choji (逆丁子) is the correct reading, yes. I don't believe the pronounciation changes to gyaku depending on the direction they slant (happy for someone with more knowledge to correct me). That said, I've only ever seen saka-choji that slants towards the kissaki on non-Japanese katana, so maybe it simply isn't done and therefore an alternate name isn't needed. Sesko's kantei blog simply refers to it as saka-choji: https://markussesko.com/2015/06/04/kantei-3-hamon-boshi-1-2/ As do the Kashima sisters: http://www.ksky.ne.jp/~sumie99/hamonpatterns.html Those links both have a pretty good visual glossary so if it's not actually saka-choji you're thinking of, there's a good chance you'll spot whatever pattern you had in mind.

Not at all, this was regularly done as part of the routine maintenance process for Japanese swords. Just don't be too rough.

"The requested page could not be found". Looks like it's the same as the old link, did you copy and paste it correctly?

Not much we can tell with such small photographs, unfortunately. The WWII-era fittings at least look like they might be legit but we won't be able to discern much about the sword without some higher resolution shots (preferably with the tang out of the handle). Maybe you'll get lucky and one of the WWII sword experts on here will recognize something at a glance.

Interesting hamon, looks like kobushigata-choji (fist-shaped cloves), or possibly kani-no-tsume (crab claw), depending on how well the hadori matches the underlying hardening (assuming there is any underlying hardening and the hamon wasn't just put on for appearances' sake). This could suggest the Kunisuke line in Shinto times for kobushigata, or Sue-Bizen (or later) for kani-no-tsume. Or, of course, someone more recent doing an utsushi of one of those styles.

Yes, it's one of the few remaining examples of what folks in IT diplomatically refer to as "the Geocities era of web design." It's a historical artifact in itself.

Is there anyone out there with knowledge of Shinto swords willing to venture a guess as to how this attribution was made? My own study and collection has been heavily focused on koto and shinsakuto, so I'm curious to see what someone with more experience thinks of it.

It can be a little hard to navigate, but when it comes to timelines and provinces for individual Koto and Shinto schools https://www.sho-shin.com/ is an invaluable resource.

Yes, I thought of the kenuki-gata tachi tsuka as well. Kenuki (毛抜) means "hair clip/hair tweezers", which is what that shape is meant to represent. https://picryl.com/media/tsuka-of-kenuki-gata-tachi-at-ise-shrine-ef881e https://nihontoart.com/shop/a-museum-one-of-a-kind-kenuki-gata-tachi-by-suishinshi-masatsugu/ https://samurai-jpn.com/kenukigatatachi_en.html

Yup. Part of the process of brute forcing a password is figuring out the username that each password unlocks. If you can't log in with your username (which is visible to everyone) that effectively gives you two passwords that they need to crack to get in. Which is why you shouldn't ever share the email address you use to log into the NMB in here; if you must put an email address for people to contact you, use a business or personal one that isn't linked to your NMB account.

You're looking for the Jūyō Tōken Zufu vol. 36 (重要刀剣等図譜 第36回). I can't find any English-speaking dealer who has this volume for sale, so it's worth a) making a post in the "Wanted to Buy" section of the forum so anyone with a copy can see there's a buyer for it and b) getting in contact with a couple of well-known dealers of Nihonto and related books and let them know you're in the market for it, as they do often encounter a bunch of books in the wild but often have to make an educated guess on which ones they'll be able to find buyers for.

If you find yourself at an impasse, some photos here could help us at least narrow it down to a specific period or school (or, if it's a non-Nihonto, the production company or smith).

This also illustrates the difference between non-traditional blades off a production line and traditionally hand-forged blades by a well-trained smith (which these are), even if that smith is Chinese or American. The contrast is night and day, regardless of the country of origin.

Howard Clark is a big name in contemporary blade makers and works by him tend to be quite valuable - handle with care. Paul Chen is an important name in the early days of mass-produced Chinese shinsakuto, and these range from entry-level beaters/mat cutters to high-level emulation of art Nihonto.

There was another Kimura Sukemasa mei on this forum a few years ago if you wanted to compare yours:

"Those who know do not speak. Those who speak do not know." This being a forum on the Internet, however, means pretty much everyone speaks, know or know-not.

Agreed, they look like a koshirae-shi's attempt to make a somewhat more ornate version of the formal Samurai koshirae required by the bakufu, probably for a rich client (merchant?).

It'll be a genuine nihonto of some historical value; it will always sell, whether on here, on the Sword Buyers Guide, on Reddit or on Facebook marketplace or even the 'Bay. Just don't expect to turn a profit, and don't be surprised if you lose a little (especially taking postage etc into account).

To add to this - at the price range you're looking for, and even up to double that amount, there's always going to be something 'better' (or at least compelling in a different way) than anything you can get. By the nature of the market, anything in that value range is going to be lacking in some way, so what you're really hoping for is someone selling something decent at a lower price than it should be; and you're not going to find that here or at a reputable dealer, because anyone fitting that category would know what they have and roughly what it's worth. I would recommend spending at least a portion of that money on some good books; if not the usual Nihonto guides then at least one or two catalogues from a museum exhibit (the Sano Museum ones have English indexes, which is nice) so you can look at the best of the best and see what sort of shapes, hamon and jigane appeal to you and then look for scaled down versions of those in the range you can afford. If you must have a sword, right now (and I can understand the urge, I really can) then look for something that appeals to you personally, even in spite of any flaws or shortcomings, even if you can't really explain why. Something that, when you look at it, you just feel really moved or inspired on a personal level, and then when it's in your hands and the initial buzz starts to fade, use it as a jumping-off point to learn more about your own personal tastes and goals in the field - the things that drove you to pick that particular piece. At this lower-end, the best you can really hope for when it's time to move the piece on is to get back roughly what you paid for it; abandon any hopes of selling at a profit and using it to buy something better. The real value you gain will be knowledge and understanding - if not for the blade itself, then about your own aesthetic preferences and desires that led you to that point.

Something to think about for the future, as this will eventually become an issue for Hozon/TH papers too.