Brian

Well done to Paul and Peter for a very good catch. And congrats to Jos for having the foresight to check up on a purchase before jumping into it. Nice one guys Brian

The honest thing to do if you received the item you bought, is to pay for it. It is never too late to pay. Just contact him, say you received it and never made payment, and ask if you can send the money. Otherwise there isn't much difference between what some say he did, and what you did. You can't make up for what happened to someone else. I would pay him, but that's me. Brian

Wow. That must have been an impressive display. Almost a million visitors? Looks like it is still travelling around..might be worth catching if it is in your area. Brian

Hi Goldy (Is this a first name?) That would depend I guess on what info you are looking for. If you are looking for brief info and oshigata to compare signatures, then I would recommend An Oshigata Book of Modern Japanese Swordsmiths by John Scott Slough. : http://www.afuresearch.com/Slough.htm If you are looking for info on modern smiths and manufacture with interviews and general info, then I would recommend these 2: The New Generation of Japanese Swordsmiths by Tamio Tsuchiko : http://www.amazon.com/New-Generation-Ja ... 4770028547 or Modern Japanese Swords and Swordsmiths: From 1868 to the Present by Yoshihara and Kapp : http://www.amazon.com/Modern-Japanese-S ... 4770019629 Another very worthwhile book is The Yasukuni Swords: Rare Weapons of Japan, 1933-1945 by Tom Kishida : http://www.amazon.com/Yasukuni-Swords-W ... 4770027540 Those should give you decent info on Post 1900 Gendaito. I am sure others will contribute a few more. Can't say which is best, as I enjoy them all. Regards, Brian

Folks, Just a reminder to be careful of slander here. We have discussed the seller here before, and most of the complaints were about odd replies and sometimes strange descriptions. I do not want to see accusations of fraud or money taken without delivery unless you have concrete proof that you are willing to supply. To the best of my knowledge, no-one paid and received nothing. My own deals with him a while back were satisfactory in that I received what I paid for, and besides the odd communications, I was satisfied. Let us not make other accusations without proof and names please, or I will have to remove this topic. As for shipping items without de-registering them in Japan, I believe those issues are being addressed there by the right people, and buyers can form their own opinions on that. Brian

Darcy, Amazing work as always! I will add the duties calculation here for South Africa, and if anyone would like to add their country's calculation, I will add it to this list so that we don't bog down Darcy's post above with a long list of them. That is an extremely detailed article, and I think Milt might have found his next JSSUS article if Darcy is willing :D Thanks Darcy. fantastic. Brian Duties Calculations: RSA - Duty Free. 14% vat applies.

I have split and moved the very interesting discussion on diplomatic gift armour to a new post in the General Discussion section. It is well worth its own post, and we will let this tsuba one carry on. The discussion can be found here: http://www.militaria.co.za/nihontomessa ... php?t=2346 Regards, Brian

Nothing much I can add to what has already been written. My thanks go out to all the veterans out there, who fought so that we could be here to study what even older veterans have passed on to us indirectly. You have my thanks and thoughts. Brian

Hi (Please sign posts with a name and initial as per the rules, thanks) Tadayoshi is probably one of the (if not THE) most forged signatures on Japanese swords. These gimei were done throughout the ages, so dating them is difficult. If you do a google search for Hizen Tadayoshi you will come up with plenty of examples. The ones with papers will give you a good comparrison. Regards, Brian

I was in contact with Ed recently. He is away on business for a while, and correspondence can be a bit limited. Great guy to deal with, and I'm sure the miscommunication was unintentional. Brian

Hi all, A friend recently picked up a really nice daisho set of Soten tsuba, and I remembered they are actually the ones that Thierry mentioned in a previous Soten post. I saw them briefly on the weekend. I have been asked if I can ask you folks to do a translation of the mei please. There are kanji on the other side too, but the pics did not come out, so I will have to get those later. I suspect they might be the name of the person they were made for possibly. Here are the pics I do have. Not very clear I'm afraid, but I am sure someone will be able to make it out. Both tsuba have identical mei, and the work is much nicer in person than the pics show. Also, we were wondering if anyone has any thought on the scene depicted? He is of the opinion that it reflects the battle of Dan-no-ura with Emperor Antoku, which I would tend to agree with. Thanks, Brian

Thanks Andreas, but I think we are ok for now. The webspace and bandwidth are more than ample (we have 20 gigs space and 200 gigs bandwidth thanks to the kindness of the raffle supporters each year) I don't think it is either of those causing the problem. The sql database requests, together with googlebot, are causing a bit of server peak loads. I doubt it is this site too...probably a few others hosting on the same server. The forum has some high server requirements, but I have them looking into it. I think it will be fine. Just need to know how often it is happening, especially when I am not around to see it. I am waiting for the final version of phpBB3 to be released (could be days, weeks or months) so that we can upgrade the forum and have some nice new features. If anyone does find the site doesn't load, just try refresh or come back in a few minutes. There is no way we are ever out of bandwidth Regards, Brian

All, I have noticed that I seem to have some downtime lately from my hosts. I am usually on to them fast, but I need to know if anyone else is having frequent downtime on the forum. They say the server has some load peaks (guess this means we are getting busy lately) but I have contacted them to try and solve these issues. If you have problems accessing the site, please try it again in a few minutes, and if it happens more than twice in a few days, please let me know here. I have upgraded the server and hosting plan with plently of space and bandwidth, but server load seems another issue entirely. Be assured that I am on this issue 24/7 and will make sure we get it sorted out. In the meatime, please let me know if you have any trouble accessing the site or slow performance. Thanks, Brian

Thought I would update you all on what numbers under 100 are still available. Let me know if you need numbers over 100. Going well, thanks folks. Brian Available: 45, 47-49, 53-55, 59, 63, 74, 77, 78, 85, 86, 91-94.

I don't think we need to dwell too much on the specific of this one to the point of argument. As someone once said...studying flaws will get you nowhere fast You need to be able to recognise them, but we don't need to disect them in minute detail I hope. Anyways..whatever the exact truth on this one, to me is seems like a genuine Japanese sword that has been abused, and probably has a false signature. The rest of the work can be discussed when it is cleaned up and more is visible. John, are you positive there is no hamon? I have seen them very hard to bring out on some swords. If there is definitely nothing there at all, then my guess would be it was in a fire and has lost the hamon. I see no reason that this one would not have had one at one time. A lot of swords were in fires through the ages. Clean it up..see what comes out and let us know. For $100, you can't cry over it at least. Brian

John(s) I also find these 2 sites very helpful, and reactive metal studios is also the one stop shop for all the patina formulas and metals such as shakudo, shibuichi etc. Try these: http://www.ganoksin.com/borisat/directo ... bject/86/1 http://www.reactivemetals.com/Pages/rmspat.htm#rokusho Lots of interesting reading there Brian

If there are minor ware that are filled in with red lacquer, then that would also point to Shinto, as that was the period this was commonly done. Also, about any ware...how about asking the seller? Logical, no? Minor ware are not an issue, simply ask the seller about any flaws and for better pics. I don't see anything too disturbing at all. Looks like a nice sword to me, and you don't get much in that pricerange. Brian

Ah..I wonder if this is the seller that emailed a while ago and had a fit that we were discussing his swords on the forum? If not..it was another one that objected to us showing his pics here. (Besides Mack of course) Silly really, you expect your buyers to make uninformed decisions? Backfires too when the item is actually quite nice and has good comments, and will probably lead to more bids and a higher price. But we'll respect the wishes of sellers who ask for us to not post their pics here. Linking to the auction is fine though. They are public auctions Brian

Dr L. Interesting theories, but ones that would be hard to prove I assume. In the interests of choosing the simplest explanation in my eyes, I would say that these tsuba with that much wear on them might simply have been repatinated at some point in the past. Whether the wear is natural or from someone "fiddling" with it, somewhere in its life someone may have decided to touch it up. The other possibility (and one that I subscribe to) is that natural patina "heals" the wear over time, and with all the handling and exposure to the elements over the years, it will probably repatina itself. We are taught that not only iron, but shakudo too, will develop a nice patina over time. Could this not be the case where the underlying metal was exposed? I have seen how easily the patina of shakudo can be rubbed off, but a hundred years of handling might well cover that competely. What are the thoughts on this? Brian

I don't see any reason for this to be a Gendaito personally. You don't see much in the way of a nice gentle notare like this in Gendaito too often, and that shinto yakidashi looks to me to be true to the period. There was a Nagatsugu working during the Genroku period, and it would fit in with the description on the auction. What makes him think it is something besides what it claims to be? Yes, it could be a Gendai sword that was gimei'd to an earlier smith, but seems like a lot of trouble to go to, and then not pick a bigger name. Nakago doesn't have a huge amount of age patina on it, but that isn't a definite as many collectors will show you Koto swords that have well preserved tangs. Looks like a reasonably nice piece to me. Brian

Have a safe trip Rich. Just a hop skip and jump from Japan to Oz Catch you when you are back, and have had a chance to recover. Hope the bags are full of new goodies. Brian

Hi. (Please sign posts with a name and initial please) Btw..you can attach up to 5 files in a single post, just add them one at a time before submitting the post) I agree with Jacques. Appears to be a Showato with a "na" arsenal acceptance stamp. Probably a non-traditional wartime sword. If you are looking for a representative Japanese military sword, and the price is good (say under $750 or so?) then this should do the trick assuming the blade and mounts are in good condition. Not traditionally made though in all likelyhood. Looks genuine though. Regards, Brian Edit to add: No, not a fake. During the war, the majority of swords were partly machine made and finished off by hand. This means they were not folded the old way, and oil tempered instead of water quenched. The steel was modern steel and not traditional tamahagane. This doesn't mean they are fake, just that they are modern WW2 swords and not made the way they were over the centuries. Still a WW2 sword, and the same as the majority of wartime swords. There were traditional swords made duing WW2, but they are not in the majority that you come across. As an item of Japanese militaria, it is a perfectly valid item, just not the artwork that we usually study here on the forum.

Maybe he's trying to reach the little leprechaun-sized shirt that is sitting on Bob's head?? :D :D :D Also..who is that attempting to make an escape attempt over the back wall? (No doubt after seeing the amount of alcohol on the table) :lol: Brian

Wow..I really do miss the big ones, don't I? :D That sounds like an amazing day/night, and a great write-up Henry! Had me laughing in front of my pc, which has my work colleagues looking at me funny. I must send out a huge thanks to Guido and Mr Hughes to taking such great care of the NMB members and other Nihonto enthusiasts there. Guido always goes far out of his way, and his generosity is amazing. Sounds like a great bunch of guys met again this year. What a turnout. Looks like this is the time of the year to visit Toyko (typhoon excluded) I'll definitely be looking at doing it next year if I am able. Looking forward to hearing who walked home, who stumbled home, and who doesn't remember going home at all :D Also hope there are a few other pics that people can post (even if some faces have to be edited out to preserve anonymity or dignity ) Thanks Henry. Brian