But is it 500 years old?

[WillFalstaff]

(Mods please move if needed to MSJ.)

 

I was living dangerously and poking around on ebay when I came upon this listing from smallsword:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/304331768358?hash=item46db964226:g:DzUAAOSw-5Rh7tbj

 

Civilian with koto blade. The price and the Buy it Now gave me a bit of pause. Thoughts from all welcome. 

 

 

[SteveM]

Could be koto, but its mighty scratched up and has a lot of forging flaws. 

I think I would argue with the seller's descriptions of "great condition" and "active hamon", unless he is talking about active rust in the hamon. 

[Alex A]

id save up a bit more

[WillFalstaff]

10 minutes ago, Alex A said:

id save up a bit more

 

Yah, I wasn't planning on loosening my already tight purse strings, but it wouldn't be anything I'd think of buying if I was ready to do so.

 

I just wanted to make sure that my newbie judgement was in the same ballpark as those here with more experience points.  

[Ken-Hawaii]

I'd pass on this one, Will. Few redeeming properties. Spend a bit on books, study, & then check out the For Sale section on NMB.

[PNSSHOGUN]

Keep an eye on that seller, he has good swords without so many condition issues for cheap quite regularly.

[Soshin]

The sword on the eBay link was not at all interesting to me. I would recommend you keep saving your money and avoid the eBay impulse buys that myself and other have made when we are new the hobby. If you just want to buy something I would invest into some good reference books to expand your knowledge. This is just sharing just my own personal opinion. I hope you find it helpful.    

 

 

[noneed2hate]

I believe this seller has a pretty high turn over rate and prices his stuff to move accordingly based on what I've seen on his page over the past few months, so I can only assume the descriptions are pretty haphazard hence potential inaccuracies. He does have a good variety of swords at various price points with some that actually may be worth consideration as John mentioned, but concur as others have stated that it's best to save up and study as much as possible. 

[Alex A]

On 2/4/2022 at 8:37 PM, WillFalstaff said:

 

Yah, I wasn't planning on loosening my already tight purse strings, but it wouldn't be anything I'd think of buying if I was ready to do so.

 

I just wanted to make sure that my newbie judgement was in the same ballpark as those here with more experience points.  

 

Not been on Ebay for a good while but used to find it very educational.

 

The faster you sift through the junk the better your getting, occasionally something looked interesting and i would stop and get the books out then work out it all dont add up for one reason or another.

 

Read there are better items on lately though, by some sellers.

[Surfson]

Will, I think that your instincts are pretty good, and we have seen so many newbies come up with much worse than this.  

 

I do imagine it is 500 years old+.  It appears to have a ko-kissaki.  

 

The tsuba is in poor shape but has an Umetada vibe to it based on the hitsuana.  

 

It has a nice kurikata, indicating that it was probably in handachi mounts.  

 

Finally, it looks to me like it was covered in cosmoline, and has never been cleaned.  One of the lines that looks like a ware in the shingoi ji is probably old cosmoline.  Having all of this old cosmoline suggests that it may not have ever been in the hands of a collector.  

 

I'm not saying you should buy it because according to the seller it has a few ware.  However, I think that your interest in it was not unfounded.

[Utopianarian]

Smallsword is a dealer in swords and Generally knows the value of what he is selling. There are no gems and if there are they are priced accordingly. Until you gain enough experience to at least know a good sword from a bad one you will make less costly mistakes. There are rare finds on eBay but rare. In 3 years I’ve seen maybe 4 blades that were a gamble and only 2 were what I would call diamond in the rough finds. If you want to save yourself pain and second guessing and making more than a few costly mistakes that add up then I would recommend buying from a knowledgeable reputable seller such a Raymond Singer for example so you know 100% what you are buying with confidence. Ray has some interesting old authentic blades on Swordsofjapan.com he is also listed on seller on this forum. Other reputable sellers as well. Good luck

[WillFalstaff]

Thanks for the input.

David S - while I can't claim I haven't made impulse buys (nothing i regret and def nothing $$$), I do feel the pull of the dark side of the force that's encompassed ebay. I am building my personal library, as you recommended (Also, never thought small, southeastern Texas libraries would have books on blades, but here I am reading Sinclaire's Samurai. Who knew?)

Bob s - Thanks for the details. I'm always judging my very pre-pubescent, nay newborn, kentai abilities.

George - Agreed on Ray. He'll be one of my few picks for when my wallet is about to burst.   

 

 

[Utopianarian]

Will, I am still very new as well. You definitely are not alone here. I frequently have to go back to my reference books constantly. I feel like at times I have a hard time grasping knowledge of things and often have to look up the same thing over and over again. I have gotten better. Spend a lot of time on evolution of the transition of sugata and shape of the blade Tachi —->katana. That takes many years to just start to begin to know what you might be looking at or era. Then more detail of measurement, Geometry, symmetry and relation to nakago. Original shape of blade or estimation before blade was altered or modified. The Sori or curve of a blade is something that you can always perfect on. I think to get really good you almost have to develop a 6th sense for what your looking at. As far as 500 year old blades. When I first got into swords I couldn’t believe I could actually buy a 500 year old samurai sword and jumped right in and bought it. Well now in retrospect most 500 year old blades are actually a lot more common than you think. Most mass produced during Muromachi period Sengoku wars. Condition /school and quality is what you want to look  for. That’s when the books and knowledge help with all the other features too many to list. It’s fascinating to know we all can be a temporary custodian or caretaker of the long journey of a piece of history that surpasses many countless lifetimes and will continue when we all are dust in the earth. To hold that in your hand feels like what I can best describe as a primal sense of perspective and extreme humbling into our own mortality and existence. I believe that’s the smack we nihonto junkies are always looking for. Once you get a hit you can’t help yourself Lol 😆 

[WillFalstaff]

It's especially worse when you've been a fan of history for most of your 40 years of meager life like me, even getting a degree in it, studying it incessantly daily like breathing and eating, not just one area but worldwide--ancient to recent--, multiple book cases spilling with papyrus, and then you go and bump into the art of kantei. As far as I'm concerned, I'm happy to have joined this particular crack-den!