Brian

Jussi, your dedication and effort is simply incredible. I am in awe of the amount of effort you put in.

Incredible work, lately the study of Nihonto and resources available have made gigantic leaps and bounds. I'm pinning this for now, and we'll work out how to integrate a link in a more prominent place.

Zero chance that it is Chinese, it will be a legit Nihonto, just with an altered signature, which is more than common. But the sword still stands on it's own as though it were mumei.

Indeed, Dennis did approach me a few weeks back, and I wanted to integrate it into a page here. My own fault for delaying. But as mentioned, the info is useful and the more sources the better. May still push to have a downloadable exe here, for offline use and on laptops etc. I wonder which guy is going to be the one to do this as an app for cellphones...I expect more than one guy will be working on something.

Awesome resource. I know that @DENihontocollector was also working on something similar with Jussi, so there may be more than one resource coming from this. But extremely useful and thanks for your efforts. Will add it to the links section, and good luck and thanks.

Lack of replies is probably because most agree this isn't near Goto work. It's nice...but not next level. Ford would have picked it apart relentlessly I suspect.

WOW. That is incredible. Simply superb. That whole koshirae is just top top top level. What a privilege it must be to handle it. Is it just koshirae or is there a blade? And if there is, what maker warrants that mounting?

Ray is your go-to guy that side, and making a plan to meet up with him will be a big benefit to you.

Hi, Let me try and address some of these while I have a gap. Agree. Google adverts is easier under the new software and it will be one of the ways I look to increase funds, but will try and keep it a bit discreet. Again, easy to do and I would like to do that. I could even set up a member category for people who want to be able to post hi res images. BUT, the problem is server space. Can you imaging how fast that would increase if people could upload 5 - 20 meg images? It can be done, but not without significant hosting cost to take server space. If I can be confident in getting in another $100 or so a month, I can do it, but that is quite a few new subscriptions. Agree. But it needs to be policed, there is no automatic way to monitor that. Unless we create a For Sale section that is only postable by Gold members, and another that is for regular members. The advantage is that Gold members are usually vetted by the community or generally well known and are trusted a bit more. But how would people feel about that? Can't think of a practical way to make that happen, with the limitations of the software. I'd have to investigate. Sales and Sellers is usually where people can search for someone's reputation. Maybe I need to have a more dedicated section for Go/No Go sellers and buyers. But that comes with some controversy attached. I have no "IN" with the NBTHK and sometimes wonder if they know we exist or care. If someone has contacts and would like to approach them, I'm all in for it. I'll check this out, it may be worthwhile to look at. Already the search delay for non Gold members is some incentive to take a membership. Would love to do this. Its a bit mean though, and I can see non members just getting the files from Gold members in private. But it really is fair, considering the quality of the downloads we have there. Maybe I should severely restrict the intervals etc of downloads for non Gold members? Again, I would love to do this. Happy to advertise new books and products if authors etc will give a discount to members or Gold members here. But that is up to the museums and authors etc, and I am stuck in SA without access to most of these people. Can you imagine if someone could arrange a DTI entry discount to Gold members or museum entry etc etc? I'd be down for it in any way, and provide promotion, but need people who can assist with contacting them.

It is nothing but superb, and is going to be monumental to the study of these swords. Our thanks go out to Sam for this. I can see people wandering sword shows with this on their phones to compare features.

I'll try go through them point by point over the weekend. But some of them are excellent ideas, and others are limited by what the software can do, and I can't do it all manually. Some of the stuff there can be done in the new software that I am waiting to update to, but we aren't making much progress towards the $500 that the major update requires, so a lot of it is pending along with a ton of other features people will like. As far as hi res image hosting etc, that would likely also add another $100 a month to the hosting bills so I would need to make sure we don't go backwards. We already have a crazy number of attachment files hosted, well in the high hundreds of thousands, and most hosting comments have been "what the hell....you have allowed HOW MANY files uploaded??" Yeah, 18+ years sure does increase the number of attachments, especially when they are fairly unrestricted. The rest, I'll go through later, thanks for the comments.

Hasn't been polished down much, we are just seeing the part of the nakago that was once blade, and is heavily tapered.

No, definitely not.

Some very nice work there!

Knife collectors will tell you that few of us keep expensive knives in their leather sheaths. Often the steel handles it well, but the brass fittings can suffer. I'm with Ed, you won't know what your leather supplier used, best to be safe.

Brilliant detective work as always Moriyama san

I have been advised of the passing of Brian Klingbile (Username Winchester) by his wife. She had this to say: "This is Brian's wife, Sarah.....Unfortunately, Brian has passed away. Thank you so much for providing such a wonderful forum. Brian was new to collecting, and was excited not only to connect with others with similar passions, but to have access to learning opportunities for his new passion. What you have here is amazing, and I wanted to let you know that you make a positive impact on people's lives even if you don't hear this on a regular basis. Thank you for being so welcoming to Brian. I have attached Brian's obituary in case you or anyone else was interested in it. I don't know who Brian all connected with (or to what level), so I will leave announcing or contacting others up to you. I am comfortable with this information being shared. https://www.zimmerfuneralhome.com/obituaries/brian-klingbile " Our condolences go out to those who knew him, may he RIP.

Leather is the easiest to fake, seen sooo many fake swords with what looks like 80 year old leather. Wet molded and aged a bit, and it looks ancient. I suspect they have people who do just that all day. Some fake combat covers look better than the real thing. I'm guessing labour and materials are so cheap there, that it means nothing to do a half decent job. Either way, your next one will be better. But it's vital to look at some real ones, then the fakes become very very obvious.

AI is full of shit. That's the bottom line. It's clearly a repro, and that was fairly clear without the nakago. We are very far from a world where AI can give you an accurate assessment of swords.

It is, as far as I know. I'll message you contact details of the owner.

Phew. That is about as basic as it gets....wow. Interesting sear arrangement though, first homemade pistol I've seen with that through-sear like that. Would work well as a percussion piece.

Yeah, It's authentic. Just out of polish and of mediocre quality. But likely a good pickup if the hamon is still there.

He does appear to be saying "woe is me"

I don't think there is a way, unfortunately. Maybe on the new software.

Yeah, these were definitely not acquired in Japan, as they would have been very illegal there.