Brian

Hi folks, Just a friendly reminder to occasionally check your private message inbox, send messages and save box for unneeded and old messages. There are about 50 uploaded pm'ed pictures that can possibly be saved to your pc and deleted, and I know a lot forget to delete old messages (not only in your inbox, but sent messages and saved messages too) This all counts to your overall pm quota, and allow you more space to send and receive. In your inbox, you can see the stats on how much space you have left. Don't let your boxes get too full, or you won't be able to send or receive until you clear some or ask me to raise your limit. Thanks, Brian

I did increase your limit..try again? Thanks for the offer, much appreciated. Can I ask you to hang onto it for a while? Still need to check with the members if they are ok with another raffle, and want to take some time gathering prizes and sorting out shipping etc. Don't aim to do it for a few months, as I would like to make it a good one with lots of prizes. I'll start another post soon to see if the members are happy with another raffle, and see if we can work out a deal with some of the dealers and perhaps some of the organisations for memberships or books. Will also have to come up with a nice "grand prize" that is enticing enough for everyone. For now, I'm still trying to adjust to my first day back in SA after a Japan trip that was beyond my wildest dreams. Regards, Brian

Ouch..I agree. I also thought it best to leave that one alone. Don't want to know who did it please. Let's keep that one off the NMB for obvious reasons. Brian

How about more bandwidth for you to upload pics here? :D Nah..already raised your limit, so uploading should be fine again. Your offsite esnip or whatever is ok, but having the pics showing directly is much better, especially for those of us on dial up. No worries..I'll come up with a good cause if and when I do anything about another raffle. Was hoping to have enough prizes to make it more for fun than serious fundraising. Nothing happening soon, just throwing out some ideas. I can dig up some books or fittings, and am sure we can come up with more. Can even offer a JSSUS or NCJSC etc membership that the NMB can pay for. Lots of ideas. Regards, Brian

At the Kyoto sword fair, the All Japanese Swordsmiths Association was well represented with a display and table, and was manned by a smith by the name of Jiro Kuniota (Kiyota Hiroki) and an apprentice, as well as a westerner from Canada (Pierre Nadeau) who has been studying to be a swordsmith for the past 2 years, and is dedicated to completing his apprenticeship. Great guys..all of them. I was very chuffed to be able to buy a book on shinsakuto that was only done in a small run a while ago and had sold out. They found some copies at the show and sold me one at a great price, and Kiyota san signed the page for me that featured one of his swords. Will have to post a pic of the book when I have a chance, as I cannot remember the title, but his sword is on page 14 for anyone who might have the book. See here http://www.tousyoukai.jp/english/member_e.shtml in wakayama prefecture. Anyways, they had kogatana for sale at good prices, but what I really loved was tiny miniature swords (katana, wakizashi, tanto and ken) that are much smaller than kogatana, but still made from tamahagane and forged and tempered. Really beautiful, and going for around $275 to $350 each. Exact tiny replicas even with a mei and mekugo ana. I will be buying 2 of them for myself. Also bought a small boxed piece of tamahagane for a really cheap price. Lots of eye candy. So to keep this on track, there are lots of kogatana from modern smiths around in Japan. If you get them second hand, the prices are around 20-30% cheaper than new. I will post links to some of the shops that I saw there once I get through all my paperwork I brought back. Btw..Pierre has a webpage at http://www.soulsmithing.com/PERSONS/NAD ... eauEN.html and you can probably organise a kogatana or some of these miniatures through him there. He will make contact with the smiths he is studying under. Tell him the South African who bothered him so much says hi and thanks Regards, Brian

Stephen, We'll have to decline the gift idea..we don't want you retiring from the sword world or the forum. So just out of spite, no $40K gift for you! :lol: Brian

Doesn't have to be a forum thing, although I have no problem co-ordinating it if requested. Just basically a raffle where everyone pools money and the winner get's the total to spend anywhere they like. Not sure about how many would participate though. Probably best to determine a fixed budget, and then only offer that many tickets and no more. Hmm..dunno. Work it out and let me know if I can help :D Regards, Brian PS - I would at some stage like to organise another forum raffle..but this time with quite a few prizes. Maybe books, fittings, tsuba etc etc. Think it might be fun, especially if there is a bigger chance of winning something. Milt...you better search those 100's of tsuba of yours and find a reasonable one to donate to a good cause :lol: We'll even give you the chance to win it back. Regards, Brian

At the Kyoto sword fair yesterday (and today :D ) I saw huge amounts of kogatana for sale. Prices not cheap though..around $150 and up. Lots of modern shinsaku kogatana too...at high prices. There are SO many shops here that do not have online pages, and some only work by regular mail even. After the first few hundred nice tsuba, I was just brain numbed. But the kogatana are plentiful in Japan, even in the antiques shops where they go around $80 to $150. Sorry I can't help with an online source right now. Regards, Brian

For those of you in the Kyoto area, there is a sword show running up until 4pm on Saturday. Not 100% sure of the location (I just tell the taxi driver to take me to the place on the flyer :D ) but I think it is the Kyoto exhibition center or similar. Also a Iaido show and a few other related activities happening concurrently. Amazing little show with quite a few dealers, and LOTS of swords and related items. If most of the dealers had taken credit card, I would be seriously broke right now :D Met Tom Helm there doing his Iaido thing (great guy..TALL!) and lots of other dealers. Wall to wall swords, lots of collectors doing business, with brisk trade. Many hundreds of top tsuba ranging in price from the low $100's up to whatever you can spend. Boxes and boxes of everything I have not been able to find anywhere. Going home reluctantly tomorrow, but will post more details when I get back. Regards, Brian

Wow..I am jealous. Looks like a great collection. If you have other pics (and they are reasonably sized such as that one was) then by all means upload them for us all to drool over Will they only be for sale at the shows, or will there be pics and prices available online sometime? Regards, Brian

Yes..plastic food is everywhere. But so are restaurants! Never seen row after row of food places anywhere in my life. Japan is a food country..most of it brilliant. Came across a small antiques shop here in Hiroshima that had quite a few tsuba and other items. Lots of koshirae (not good quality though) and yari poles again. Kills me that these yari and blades are either hidden or cut in half because they are scared of the lack of licences. I saw 3 portions of blades that had been destroyed, one looked　really good with horimono remnants both sides :? I couldn't resist, and spent all my excess money on a few items. A few tsuba, f/k and menuki. I will post pics when I am able..one tsuba I particularly like, but not sukashi. Tomorrow we head for Himeji castle and Kyoto. Right now I am passing out for lack of sleep. Later all. Brian

Too late once it arrives to discover if it is or isn't a hagire. I would certainly ask a seller if it looked like a crack or not,　and determine what kind of post sales service you can expect if it turns out to be one. Always pays to be cautious. Brian

Rich, You would have gone nuts over some of the sukashi tsuba I saw at the Kyoto shop. One keeps comming back to me in my sleep...so I am going to see if they bring it to the show in Kyoto and maybe buy it. But there were many great tsuba there. This one seemed to have a theme of clouds, geese and perhaps stars (looking up at night theme?) but will have to examine it closer. Not speaking any Japanese is a HUGE drawback here, and can be very frustrating. You spend the first half hour trying to convey that you aren't just some wandering tourist with just a passing interest in swords, and the rest of the time trying to remember basic Nihonto words that you have known for the past few years, and suddenly can't remember :D Off to Hiroshima now, catch you all soon. Regards, Brian

Hi all, Just taking a brief few minutes to update you all on my current travels through Japan. I've been here for almost 2 weeks now, doing a tour through a few areas. So far I have done Tokyo, Takayama, Koya-san and Osaka. Touring with my girlfriend and her parents. We have a few days to see Hiroshima and Kyoto, and then I am going to have to face reality and head back home. Although not specifically a Nihonto tour, I seem to have spent most of my days running around chasing shops and museums. I'll update later and fill you all in on what I have seen. This is the most amazing country I have ever seen, and if it is up to me and I get the chance,　I will move here in a heartbeat. Me and Nicky had an amazing evening with some of the Tokyo members. Huge thanks go to Guido for all the arranging and generosity. Erol took me to a special sale/show held by Taibundo where they seemed only to happy to thrust at me swords by the likes of Soshu Yukimitsu and Sadamune. Featured in the room were swords from Heian up to Shinshinto. Names included many Rai smiths, Ichimonji (Fukuoka etc) Shinkai, Suishinshi Masahide, 2 x Kiyomaru and so many other top level smiths that I will have to consult my notes when I update you all. A room full of Juyo and higher was enough to make me stop breathing for a half hour. The NBTHK museum couldn't come close to the swords in that room. Too much to take in. Nihonto overload :D This trip is teaching me that the average Japanese person has no knowledge and little interest in Nihonto though. Ask an antiques shop owner if there are any tosogu in the area, and he will look at you strangely and tell you there is nothing in the area. Then go　next door, and there are a few low quality tsuba etc in the display cases. The more you look and ask, the more turns up. The antiques markets turn up quite a few items, as do the smaller antiques shops. Nothing great though, so I haven't purchased much. Antique fairs do turn up swords on enquiry, although low quality and expensive. If I had more time,　I think I could turn up some nice items. In Osaka today, I found a shop (not sure of the name) owned by a Yoshii san. Great shop, with wonderful fittings. Was going to buy a tsuba,　but I was told that there is a small Nihonto show in Kyoto on my last day, so I will be there shopping for something nice (and within my humble budget ) I saw some really nice tsuba at the shop, including a shakudo tsuba finely cut out with that manji design seen on that thread that we wondered if it was zogan or sukashi. Amazing to see..some of the best sukashi work I have seen with such fine detail. Unfortunately my camera never made it on the trip with me,　and I never did get around to purchasing one here. It was great meeting the members in Tokyo, a really great bunch of guys. Thanks go out to Guido, Erol, Koichi, Henry, Simon, Steve and Matthew for a fantastic evening. Who knew you could extend the drinking time limit that many times? :lol: :lol: Thanks to Simon too, for meeting us that Sunday and showing us around and letting us abuse his wife to do translations for us. Much appreciated! I'll keep you all updated, and thanks to Stephen for keeping everything under control while I am away. Wish me luck, I am still after that elusive great tsuba at a low price. Regards from Osaka, Brian

Benoit, $3550 is just a little extreme..even if for the scarce copper handled NCO shin-gunto I know pcay handles good quality stuff..but that is a real excepttion. Wow...can get a nice Nihonto for that. Brian

The carp theme is a very polular theme among Nihonto fittings. I am quite partial too, and have often thought it will make a great theme. I won't post all the links here, but if you google "carp koshirae" you will pull up many links. Lots of the carp themes depict the koi, but I think I am correct that there is a strong link between the 2, and they are family. Good luck with your field, you should easily be able to build up a nice collection if the funds allow it :D Regards, Brian

Easier to look up if spelled shiiremono http://www.google.co.za/search?hl=en&q= ... arch&meta= Regards, Brian

Try http://www.keepvid.com It will allow you to save many of the online hosted videos as an .flv file. You will need a small flv player, but they are freely available for download. Regards, Brian

Nice one Reinier, and good for you for taking advice and doing things the right way..asking questions, buying from known dealers and not looking for the $200 bargain :D Enjoy it. Brian PS - Louis..I assume Henry's cheque is in the mail? :D :lol:

Hi Henry, Most of the star designs I have seen, have involved star constellations. I have a nice pic in one of my auction catalogs, but have to go find it. For constellations, here are a few links: http://www.trocadero.com/faganarms/item ... store.html http://www.imagine.org.uk/details/index ... WHM:G11.84 Saya: http://www.japanischesschwert.com/pict/nag-wak1.jpg Stars (according to Kurt?) http://www.trocadero.com/kurtholz/items ... .html#item Regards, Brian

Paul, Check out this thread: http://www.militaria.co.za/nihontomessa ... .php?t=973 I only know how to remove the covers that have the snaps at the top, and were removable. The others seem to be shrunk on permanently, and removing them would involve unpicking the threads and basically destroying it. I am one of those that advocates leaving it on as part of it's history. Sorry I can't help more. Brian

Bob, That is a difficult question to answer. Something is only worth what someone else is prepared to pay for it. But yes..I would have to say that standard Shin-gunto are going typically around $750-1500..machine made. Many/most of these are not bought by the Nihonto collectors..they are bought by the militaria collectors with a Japanese field of interest. Japanese swords also seem to be in fashion again with collectors, and the prices have been rising. Cast aluminium handled NCO shin gunto used to go easily for $350...now they go for around $600 or more. This is competely apart from genuine Nihonto such as Gendaito which are traditionally made, and fetch much higher prices. So are machine made swords worth that? To collectors of non-traditionally forged swords and militaria, I would say yes. Often the collectors will start with those though, and eventually discover they have an interest in the history of the swords, and migrate to genuine Nihonto. Seen it happen very often. This is why the machine made ones still have some relevance to this Nihonto forum Regards, Brian

Well done Stephen and others. Small victory..but every bit helps. Nice one. Brian

I doubt that any dealer will do that. If they are sure it will paper, then the reason they haven't sent it themselves is that they want to avoid the hassle, cost and time that it takes. So if they do complete the process, they are firstly going to want extra compensation for the trouble, and secondly the sword would probably be worth more than just the sum of the work. Sounds a simple request, but I don't know a single reasonable dealer that would take you up on that. Plus..before they start the work, anyone would require part payment to ensure you keep your side of the deal. Just my 2c. Brian

Stephen, Ouch. Did they ask you if you wanted to continue with the polish once the hagire became apparent? I don't have too many regrets. One hagire so far that the seller gratiously gave me the option of half the money back and keep it, or return for a full refund. I kept it (very cheap) and traded it for a profit to someone who wanted a project piece. Low end stuff here sells like a bomb (no swords here means ppl fight for anything that comes in) and I sell my low end stuff for a small profit, and use that to upgrade to better pieces. Still working my way up to that one really good piece, but will get there. No hurry...take your time and never get the buying frenzy/urge. My bad buys usually stem from not asking for pics I should ask for. I learned early on that even from some of the better known sellers..the part of the sword that hasn't got photos usually has the pitting or damage. Also read the measurements! A good looking sword can easily have a blade thickness of just a few mm from too many polishes. Sometimes just before the shingane starts to show. But overall I have done ok. The trend on eBay is for lower end stuff to fetch disproportionately high prices, whereas the higher stuff goes for low prices. I agree eBay is not for beginners...and even more advanced collectors should always pay a price that they can afford to lose on. As some can tell you..buying from dealers can just as often be a disappointment, but if you have a good seller, then they will take it back. Regards, Brian