Contact details for Eric Roush

[cuttingedge59]

Hi,

Would like additional contact details for the e-bay seller ejroush. I have a private e-mail address plus usual e-bay contacts. I also have a phone number for his online Restoration business. He seldom answers any of these points of contact. He must have a domestic phone number prehaps .

As an international buyer I can't access details provided by any of the search engines.If Anyone has used him for restoration and has this contact number it would be very helpful.

 

Chris ,

New Zealand

[estcrh]

Chris, you should do some searching before proceeding further.

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=12605&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&hilit=Roush

 

viewtopic.php?f=15&t=9882&p=82155&hilit=Roush#p82155

[cuttingedge59]

Thanks Eric,

NOT having him do work , but have purchased two items from him , one a papered tachi .Both are paid for but I still Don't have them

despite promises, so wish to ring him to give him the hurry up.

Chris

[Art Torano]

Chris,

 

I dealt with this guy a couple of years ago, he is a mess. He loses things, he has his phone disconnected and the list is too long to bother with. I hope you purchased things thru EBay and or Pay Pal. Go to them directly and they will put alot of pressure on him.

 

I can tell you that this is the worst individual I have dealt with since I started in this hobby and would caution anyone that considers using him that no good will come of it.

 

Regards

 

Art Torano

[Sam Elliott]

I'm not sure if this will help, but if you type his name in here it comes up with multiple contacts, one of which might be an alternate number.

 

http://www.whitepages.com/?site_id=1527 ... QgodQA4Alg

 

Sorry you are having such a trying time with him. Please let us know what the end result is.

 

 

Best of luck!

 

Sam

[Jiro49]

PM me I have horror stories dealing with this guy and I have what might be current phone/addresses..

 

Sorry to hear that your having issues!

[GARY WORTHAM]

Greetings to all;

 

Very interesting and diverse responses, contacts, and opinions on the dealings with Eric. For a further expansion of his works as an Ebay seller, I can provide personal contact feedback. if one looks at his selling feedback from a lot of buyers, they seem to be in agreement, except for one, on a very positive experience with him.

 

Myself, from the Ebay sale of Eric's, was a direct as stated tachi, fully mounted, with Mino Goto mounts, in a reasonably decent polish. I opted to drive to his location, south of Monterey California, for a direct pick up of the item, with an inspection before approval and money exchange. I found Eric to be a very mature, educated, and very pleasant person to deal with. Just seems that he is doing his best, at his level of experience. I remember several individuals in past years, that were given a bad rap, but time improved their technique, and healed all wounds.

 

I have found, over the years as a collector, student, and participant of this most complex lifetime hobby; that one must be sure in their monetary adult decisions, as it is an extremely complicated expenditure of money, with a most eccentric group of individuals, and you must do your research, on your choices, as you will have to live with them in the end.

[Jiro49]

With all do respect, he flat out lied on multiple occasions about the progress of the work and I had to tell him I was sending my friend to pick up the blades and then magically he started to communicate and the swords were shipped back ASAP, though ruined anyway.

 

I gave him many chances through my dealings with him and I like to think I'm a nice guy and I give people slack sometimes but after the 8th month of getting the run around you tend to get angry!

 

Respectfully,

[GARY WORTHAM]

Matt;

 

I hear and feel your pain. That's why I have learned to do my homework on occasions such as this, to prevent the headaches that seem to evolve in life. I am a firm believer in being face to face with a transaction, as I did, or maybe it is just not in my cards to be involved.

 

 

When you see Eric's website, his before and after work; one can believe that it looks to be great work. But, in the real world, things can and do go off center. Would I deal with Eric again, yes, but in the same fashion as the original purchase. I did seek to buy a second fully mounted koto tachi from him at a later date, and again met with him in person with the item to be examined. At this time, it was not what I wanted, once I saw it, yet was a decent item. He has shown himself to me to be straight forward, and honest.

 

I find that in this diverse world, communication & understanding are not so simple; as the internet allows us to communicate with culture diversity that we still do not understand.

[Jiro49]

I respect tour opinion but I guess I'm jaded..

[Kajihei]

EJ Roush has a page on Facebook. Perhaps you can post a message there. He's added new posts since yesterday, so he must be monitoring it.

 

http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Takono ... 4311361671

 

His page is named: "Takonomakura Japanese Sword Restorations"

 

If this information has already been posted, I apologize for the duplication.

 

Good luck,

 

Kaji

[cuttingedge59]

Hi All,

The tachi has turned up in New Zealand , waiting for it to clear customs

 

Chris

[Bruno]

By looking at the Facbook page, it seems that Mike Yamaguchi (Komonjo) is not very happy either of Mr Roush's commnication. :?

[Brian]

In my opinion, all of those blades show signs of ferric chloride etching on the hamon.

:?

 

Brian

[Jiro49]

I feel Mr. Yamaguchi's pain!!! It is scary to have your blade and money in no man's land!

 

Brian, is that why they all look frosted? I noticed that on my swords that he destroyed, I mean polished...

[Brian]

That's a very good way to describe it. Yeah.

It looks different to acid treated hamon...it has a harsh frosted look to it, and a very unnatural look. Makes it very visible, which novices often think is a good thing, but collectors recognise as a really bad look.

 

Brian

[GARY WORTHAM]

Greetings to all;

 

Ok, I've thought over the many concepts and aspects of this discussion on " a proper polisher ", and feel compelled to add my thoughts.

 

Yes, to send off your sword to Japan for a proper and trained polish my be the logical choice. Yet, the 2 > 3 year wait, is a stretch on patients.

In addition, how sure I am of the polisher being that good, or the sword even being passed to a student for the work. They have their good days, and I'm sure their bad.

 

We expect perfection in our contract for the work on the blade, but this deviates dramatically from our real day to day life. How perfect is your choice of a doctor, a CPA, an attorney, your auto mechanic, your friends, your spouse; you get the point.

 

If the time comes to polish the 20 year collection of my various blades; it comes done to trust, friendship, and tenure; of which I have a Japanese trainer polisher / friend on my mental retainer. So many seem to look for the easy way, the economical way, the blind way. This is a serious choice of serious finance.

 

Even more to the thoughts, are the huge number of friends, show members, collectors I have spoken with; that do their own work with " fingers stones " !!

I wonder how many swords that come up for sale, that have been altered, abused, or screwed up by these amateur attempts.

 

Who said this was an easy study; and i remain just a student / collector of Japanese swords & fittings.

[cuttingedge59]

Hi All ,

I now have the papered Tachi from Eric, Not perfect but for the money was a good buy. It would seem Mike is learning some hard leasons like others regarding Eric.

 

Chris

[cuttingedge59]

Forgot to mention That Mr Roush has mentioned in a recent e-mail (communication is not his strong point unless it involves money) that he is preparing to travel to Japan to train under a Japanese polisher. Fact or fiction ? who knows but if true one would hope that his workmanship will improve. I have also learned that he uses Diamond lapping paste in his finishing work

 

Chris

[cabowen]

 

 

Yes, to send off your sword to Japan for a proper and trained polish my be the logical choice. Yet, the 2 > 3 year wait, is a stretch on patients.

In addition, how sure I am of the polisher being that good, or the sword even being passed to a student for the work. They have their good days, and I'm sure their bad.

 

We expect perfection in our contract for the work on the blade, but this deviates dramatically from our real day to day life. How perfect is your choice of a doctor, a CPA, an attorney, your auto mechanic, your friends, your spouse; you get the point.

 

 

People can be incredibly short sighted. 2-3 years is no time at all in the grand scheme of things and the results are almost always more than worth the wait. A bad polish lasts an eternity, or until the next one. In my opinion this impatience is a major shortcoming unfortunately endemic to Western society,

 

Sure, there are people who have been disappointed with the work they received in Japan. But it is rare and the result of not doing one's homework. This is hardly reason to give it to someone without the proper training who will disappoint with certainty.

 

I can honestly say that the work ethic in Japan I experienced in 14 years of living there is light years ahead (or is it behind?) of what I have experienced in the 7 years since I returned to the US. This work ethic is part of the training of every traditional craftsman and a large part of the reason I am always pushing people to do the right thing and use a professional polisher. Find the right craftsman and you will find that they strive for a level of perfection you will probably never find elsewhere. I had several people contact me in the past, asking if my polisher could do different (read: cheaper) levels of polish, or if he could do "touch up polishes". When I asked my polisher about his, after being hounded several times, he said, "I only offer one kind of polish: my best." On the topic of touch up polishes he said,"Most of the time, old polishes have a less than ideal foundation. If I simply touch the blade up, my name gets attached to the polish. People will look at the blade down the road and all they will see is the foundation polish and all they will hear is my name."