Wickstrom

Hey, everyone makes mistakes. Hang in there and you'll start to learn how to separate the fakes from the treasures. Good luck out there, and welcome to the community.

Jason, Go to Nihontoclub.com, there is a rather large smith database there. Also, I suggest you get in contact with Grey Doffin. He's a member here who sells a great set of sword kanji flashcards for around 20-25 bucks, which are very useful.

I don't know all the different ways of tsuka wrapping but it looks like it's a battle wrap?

Hey Guys, I Just got done taking the measurements, They are as follows. Also I took a couple pictures of the sugata and Hamon now that I found my tripod. I think they turned out relatively good considering I'm using a digital camera that's almost 6 years old. Nagasa: 65.7cm Kissaki: 2.1875 cm (length) Nakago:13.59 cm Length (tip to tip): 78.125 cm Kasane: 0.6 cm Mihaba: 2.35 cm Ha-Machi: 0.1 cm (roughly) Mune-Machi: 0.1 cm (roughly) Sori: 1.8 cm Hamon: Chu-Suguha Your comments are very much appreciated guys

Thank-you Keith, I look forward to the day I can accumulate a response like that out of such scant information. The gentleman that traded this to me believed it was probably Yamashiro-Den (Tegai or Rai school) but maybe once I post the measurements in the next hour or so more can be revealed. I am waiting for my photography assistant to get back from a meeting before I take the sword out again.

Last few pics

Hey guys, I recently acquired this sword in a trade from a guy out in North Carolina. Judging by the size of the kissaki, gentle sorii, and age wear of the blade; I believe this could possibly be Late-Kamakura ? I have not been able to get some good shots of the overall blade, but I managed to get a few okay shots here and there. I'll have another go at it tomorrow when I take the measurements. Anyway, let me know what you guys think.

Kantei of some sort? Might be of interest to some of you. http://cgi.ebay.com/Orig-Japanese-Woodb ... _500wt_949

Scott, Judging by how thick the blade is and the visible features of the blade, In my humble opinion looks like it could possibly be Nanbokucho era (1300's). This era is well known for the massive and thick blades produced to accommodate the need for bigger swords to be used on horseback.

Jean, Nihontoclub has a couple listed smiths that signed with this mei. http://nihontoclub.com/smiths/NAG50 http://nihontoclub.com/smiths/NAG52

Nice to see there's a show coming close to home , perhaps some of the attending members would like to take the opportunity to put names to faces over some award winning Japanese cuisine at Kikugawa?

Thank-you Chris and Jean for correcting me. I definitely see what you mean when I compare My Sukesada to the yoshimitsu you posted Jean. I'll make sure to keep that in mind next time I shop around for Bizen-den swords.

There is definitely something spiritual about nihon-to......But I don't think your going to evoke the wrath of the samurai because you cut 1 too many floor mats.

Please correct if I am wrong, Jean as your knowledge of nihonto greatly supersedes mine. Anyway doesn't Bishu usually indicate a blade of low or mediocre quality and Bizen is typically saved for higher quality or custom ordered blades?

Makes me wonder why it was signed Bishu instead of Bizen, Seems like a pretty deserving blade

Imagine trying to keep that thing evenly heated during forging, Wow. Thanks for sharing the article, Jock

My guess is it was probably traded not knowing what he had, ended up on the black market a couple years later and is now sitting in a rich collector's safe somewhere. It will eventually emerge in a couple decades, Much like all stolen cultural property ex. Marquise De Lafayette's saber, Kensington Runestone, maybe even one of the "original" Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi are still out there. Just have to wait until it gets to the right hands.

I definitely see the resemblance between the papers, especially in the nakago rubbing. I bought the blade from a fellow member here who I trust, but I will contact him and try to find out the origin of these papers as it does look questionable..

Hey guys, I recently acquired a katana attributed to Tensho Sukesada school with these papers. I was wondering if any of you fluent Japanese readers could possibly tell me if their is a attribution to a specific smith on the kantei sheet. I've been waiting for a nice sunny day to take some good pictures so I'll upload some shots once the opportunity arises.

Skip to 4:55 in the video Pegasus posted. ouch!

The only evidence of Ninja's that I have ever seen is a type of armor that had chain-mail sewn on the inside of normal peasant attire. Although stealth was probably the key to executing their missions, I think they mostly just tried to blend in with the crowd (probably carried an O-tanto or wakizashi like a regular merchant). Not like Hollywood's version where they're throwing hailstorms of shurikens and knives out of the shadows to take out their targets...

I must say Mr. Hallam, the magnitude of craft you put into this piece is astounding! Especially cutting all the stripes of the tiger individually, wow.

I looked through all my previous searches from today I can't seem to find them anymore, they might have possibly ended already as well.

http://cgi.ebay.com/FANTASTIC-19th-CENT ... 519699466c I always think it's interesting seeing what people manage to fashion out of old sword parts. There also seems to be some kitchen utensils with kozuka handles on E-bay as well if anyone is interested.

http://www.nihonto.ca/sadazane/