Opinions? Two Waks on eBay

[SwordGuyJoe]

I ran across two Wakizashi's on eBay and I am looking for opinions. They are both in bad polish, so I am wondering if they are worth the investment. I am okay on WWII blades, but non-WWII blades, I'm a bit fuzzy - one of the reasons I joined the group.

 

Blade 1: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 0303057799

Blade 2: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 0183686174

->Any thoughts on the smith?

 

Both have low prices, for obvious reasons, but I am interested in a project piece and was just hoping for your thoughts. Thank you in advance.

 

Regards,

Joe

[drbvac]

All I can say is I have used this seller and what you see is what you will get! Depends on whether you want to practice or try polishing yourself I guess, but I would not normally pay a thousand dollars to polish a blade I got for a couple of hundred dollars from a Japanese dealer!

[Marius]

I ran across two Wakizashi's on eBay and I am looking for opinions. They are both in bad polish, so I am wondering if they are worth the investment. I am okay on WWII blades, but non-WWII blades, I'm a bit fuzzy - one of the reasons I joined the group.

 

Blade 1: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 0303057799

Blade 2: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 0183686174

->Any thoughts on the smith?

 

Joe, those swords are not an investment. The first one is more of a gamble with considerable cost of fixing the grind wheel job someone has done to it, the second one is - to all intent and purpose - just a tsunagi (the kissaki has been ground down and the boshi is most likely lost).

 

If I were you, I would buy a nice nihonto book for that money. You will learn nothing from either of these blades, although in their current state they may just remind you of machine-made WWII blades

[SwordGuyJoe]

That is kind of what the low-low price tag let me know. I appreciate the advice guys. Thank you very, very much!

[hybridfiat]

As a novice myself I understand the difficulty of not knowing what nihonto is truly worth.

The temptation is to bid so that "bargain" doesnt slip by.

Truly there are a lot of reasonable swords out there and more will come along. Take the time to learn and you WILL have to let a couple of real bargains slip by before the you are ready. As Ive said before, "a bargain you are not happy with is no longer a bargain".