Brian

After checking it out, there doesn't appear to be a full download, and you can only preview a very limited number of pages. So I expect that one is ok and legit. I know there are full pdf's of the book floating around, I'd be more concerned about sharing those. This one should be fine

Just bear in mind those download links are to illegal downloads that break copyright. Tempted to remove it...not because I'm a stickler for law, but because I'm wary of the forum liability in sharing stuff like that. Hmmm....I need to think about this for a bit

The percentage of ones fully forged, folded and with decent hamon are a very small percentage of the total seen, and when you see them, they are usually in shirasaya or apart from average kozuka. Yes, of course they exist, but look at the way yours is signed compared to the usual "chicken scratch" type mei we see on most. Now show me one like yours in full polish in that condition that is original to an average kozuka and mounted that way from the Edo period? Again, they exist, but best to always consider them gimei until proven otherwise. Once you see a hamon with nie and hataraki, you can start looking closer at the mei.

Please add a price and do the advert in the for sale section, thanks.

Alex, I LOL'ed! Seriously good Photoshop skills. (Or is that AI work?) Is that a Lightning cable?

As per previous advice, kick up a HUGE storm. Email everyone from the CEO down. Emphasize that this is a unique, one of a kind item and is a cultural item, and that you are going to have to warn Japanese dealers against using USPS. Ask them who you put down as the person to contact since you will be opening a case with the police. Remind them that the Nihonto community is close, and that there have been a spate of these lately. Really go all out. It is my personal experience that the more you shake up the guys at top, the more change the item is "suddenly found" You have nothing to lose.

I'm pretty sure they are assembly numbers. Why stamp a longer number if you have less than 10 you are working on at that time, and want to make sure the parts go back together with the right sword. Lack of numbers on the other parts likely just means they were swapped at some stage. Or all the other parts were in a box marked 8, and they just had to find blade 8 to reassemble.

Damn. If only Gold membership would get you 500 messages in your inbox instead of 100. Oh wait...

Just a reminder to all, when you copy/paste a link from eBay, you can cut aaaaaalll those extra tracking cookie and sid and other data after the item number, then the link is very simple. Edited the one above.

Blade length is measured in a straight line along the back, from the tip to the notch where the habaki sits, the mune-machi.

The kogatata you can usually ignore the signature anyways. They were mostly honorific or a homage to smiths, and mostly not made by the person in the signature. The few that are, you'd need to be able to see the workmanship, hamon etc to know if it is, and it doesn't really affect much either way. Focus on the sword.

No such thing as tsuka being too difficult to remove unless it was glued in and that is unlikely. Have a search of the forum for remove tsuka, he should be able to do it without damaging anything. They were made to be taken apart. It's vital to see the blade complete and without fittings. Looks like a nice sword.

Why? Brazil has the largest population of Japanese people outside of Japan.

Homemade. Shinogi zukuri tanto are just....wrong...in most cases. At best it's the front part of a broken wakizashi or katana, at worst, a homemade project.

Kudos to you Colin, and to them for actually listening. A small victory, but a victory none the less.

But you're forgetting this "fact".... "In over 100 years we can recollect only owning three before, and we have likely handled in that time more original Japanese swords than any other still remaining antique sword dealers in the world today." Umm. Suuuuure! Good luck with that. Also... "As of this time we know of no other original length Nagamaki available on the worldwide collectors market today" Does anyone with decent Google-fu want to see if we can smash that claim?

Received, many thanks.

Oh good grief. Someone please tell them. Some moron is going to pay thousands for trash

Should be fine here, guys like Piers etc with a background in these items have a good chance of working out the mei based on their knowledge of the makers and styles.

2 Amazing replies. Alex, thank you for the update and that wonderful story, and to Ted who may not realize he is one of those pillars of the community like the great names he mentioned that came before him.

Huge thanks guys, to you all, and especially Marius. You guys are the reason we can do what we do. Payment received from all the above. Marcin, I keep all the Paypal in $'s in a balance. Withdrawing in SA is complicated and expensive, so I keep it in $'s and make sure all the hosting etc I take accept Paypal, and I just use it to pay bills. Never withdrawn any, it pays all the bills directly and in $'s. Paypal would screw me bigtime if I withdrew, they make money on everything including their fees they take to withdraw. Bad enough I lose fees accepting all donations. Thanks guys!

Well done, looks awesome.

Since there were no other bids on it, and it's a fundraiser rather than a strict auction, I think we can forgive late bids