md02geist

I liked that one a lot but sadly it sold before I was able to really look into it. The language barrier with that particular vendor makes it hard, I only know a little Japanese and they don't seem to know much English. Our communications were fairly confusing.

Awesome thank you Ray! I'm not sold on the old NBTHK paper and condition for that price but it's not a bad piece.

Sure. It will be interesting to watch.

By the way, it's available on netflix.

I've got a copy. Figured it was probably worth the price of admission.

I'm planning on simply trying to find similar fittings or a complementing theme rather than going full on same school / same maker. At least for now. lol.

Well I believe tsuba will be easy, but FK / menuki may be much tougher....lol.

I think it's probably a reasonable item but I feel like the price itself is high. It's an Uda school katana from the late Muromachi so not particularly rare or exceptional, that is in pretty solid shape but nothing amazing. It has no koshirae or anything although the shirasaya appears OK if nothing particularly special there either. It has a decent hada, and I personally enjoy bohi swords. I don't think it's a bad piece to have but I do think it's overpriced. I'd pay 1500 for it or so maybe? Ballpark guess. Of course I'm quite new in the world of Nihonto so please take what I say with a grain (or tablespoon) of salt.

I'm sure it would still make a wonderful iai blade, and there is still quite a lot of history behind it even if it's not in the form we'd all love it to be in.

Thanks, I'm happy with the grabs. Got a very good price on both of them individually too so that helps a ton. Now to find fittings!

Not a big name guy I suppose. Didn't have a huge filmography. I bet if they were Mifune-owned swords they'd be up in the thousands or better (with documentation).

I would think piece by piece on the board would work the best. Make like a thread with all the f/k for instance with labelled prices.

So begins a daisho project. Two Chu-Mihara blades, both very similar in features and both from same relative time period. The sori is certainly more extreme on the wakizashi but both show Mihara features very prominently. Both in pretty good shape; they could both use a polish but they're not bad at all. Most of the specks you're seeing are dust etc that I wiped off afterwards. Both Hozon, purchased separately. A family reunion! Forgive the poor pictures! Quick snapshots.

http://en.rocketnews24.com/2017/03/30/sword-of-one-of-japans-last-samurai-discovered-in-house-in-america/ Tanto identified as belonging to one of the last samurai. Pretty cool.

They're somewhat rare yeah. That one on ebay is in bad shape and those papers are basically useless.

Pretty cool.

Thanks man but that sword sold almost three years ago

Sadly still looking.

You ain't kidding. I just recently got my Chu-Mihara in and it's around 600+ years old give or take....I get chills looking at it. Simply amazing. Thank god the culture was so respectful towards passing down family weapons (plus it's helpful that the warrior class ruled so strongly for such a long duration) etc.

Please forgive the poor pics.

Great grab by the purchaser!

Great looking blade.

Anyone happen to have one they'd like to sell? Neat blades!

There's a ton that goes into pricing; who made it, when it was made, what condition it is in, the particular market at the time being hard or soft for a certain sort of sword, whether the fittings catch someone's eyes or not, whether it's papered or not, if it has a horimono, is there some special provenance surrounding it or was it a temple sword or something, is it signed or not, is it dated or not...there's an insane amount of variables and none of it is easy to nail down. There isn't any hard and fast rule as to the value of something in this "world." You can take an educated guess on it based on past and current sales but there simply is no way to predict it properly. We've all seen swords we thought would go for a lot more sell for a pittance and vice versa. Also keep in mind sometimes ebay sales have shill bidders etc. Ebay isn't a great place to get a sword but you can find some good stuff there. As a new collector you probably want to go to a respected dealer such as Aoi or similar where you will be far more guaranteed to get what you believe you're purchasing. Regarding handling your sword; don't be afraid to hold the tang (nakago) with your bare hands. Never touch the blade with your bare hands. Keep a light sheen of choji oil on the blade (but not a ton of it, don't let it goop up on you). Don't use uchiko (the powdered ball) on it please. If anyone thinks anything I've said is wrong here please do feel free to speak up, I am still in the early stages of learning too. By the way: show us your sword! I love pictures and I'm sure a lot of other folk here do too.

A few pics. Forgive my crappy photography skills!