Stever

Well I'm no expert by any stretch but geez, Milt, that looks pretty good to me. What's your secret, is it all down to the magical Chicago air?

Article on the beeb: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6419913.stm

Looks like he's going surfing...:D Seriously though, what *is* that thing he's carrying?

Seriously, this gets me every time. I can usually recognize saku and mitsu now but that's about it . How do you know if a tic mark in a written kanji is a tic or a line in the actual kanji? That masa, for instance. Seems only the stroke count is the same. I assume there's some methodology involved, or is it just pattern recognition? Thanks

Wow! Thanks, Nicholas! I'm going to have to try those techniques, I've been having a hell of a time getting even reasonable photos. Gotta love the IEEE, never ceases to amaze me the range of subjects they touch on. But considering that (apparently) engineers are fairly prevalent amongst nihonto collectors, I'm not surprised! cheers

Haha! A $500.00 Ichimonji letter opener, lol! Thanks for the translation, Moriyama-san. Are you a pharmacist by trade, by any chance? cheers

Check this out: http://cgi.ebay.com/SAMURAI-HARA-KIRI-KWAIKEN-SWORD-ANTIQUE-ORIGINAL-SIGNED_W0QQitemZ220082339005QQihZ012QQcategoryZ43338QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem Apparently, the nagasa is ~6.5" and motohaba ~.5"! Pictures aren't the greatest, but it appears real. Can anyone read the kanji on the "oshigata"? I'm going to ask for a better pic of blade. cheers

The seller finally responded to me that the second listing was accidental. He has now corrected the situation. I'm glad, 'cause it looks like a decent sword (no, I'm not bidding on it!).

I've noticed a couple of nihonto auctions on eBay that appear to be identical, just in case anyone here is looking at or bidding on one of them. I kind of doubt it, but better safe than sorry. The seller may have mistakenly posted the same item twice. I have sent the seller a question to this effect and have not yet received a response. The item numbers for the auctions in question are: 130080629805 130078746111 Here's a link to the seller's items: http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZnancytulip Cheers

Very cool and good to know. Vielen Dank, Herr Schiller. It is not one I've come across previously. Not surprising, I'm pretty new at this. Thanks

May I ask approximately what percentage of the ones that you start at $5 sell below $200? thanks

I knew about exclusions, but didn't think to put them all in a bracketed list to save on space (but I did with included terms!?). Wildcards work great, which is why I have chen* (gets chen and chenness, for example) and such in my criteria. I had just been searching on title, due to running into the limit of search terms and still being overwhelmed with crap. Good point about the zero bids/low price auctions. I also only look within a certain price range and amount of time remaining to cut down on sheer numbers as well. Anyone know of a way to exclude items in certain countries? It seems you can choose just one, or all, but not a select list. cheers

Hi all, I came across this picture today, and was wondering if the ito wrapping style on this tsuka is one that was actually used. To me, there are several things that sent up red flags, but other things that made me look twice. Anyway, just looking and learning. Anyone have any thoughts on this? thanks

Thanks for the info, Brian (though the link doesn't work ). I've read every single post on this board and in the Nihonto forum on SFI, and this question comes up every now and again, but the answer is usually limited to the price ranges and sellers' country. Just wanted to see if we could get the ball rolling on a less superficial discussion (especially since I just *knew* my search was missing some good stuff!). I was just searching titles, but now I'm going to go try and build a new search (better, stronger, faster...lol). cheers

The search I use works pretty well, though some stuff still gets through, and I probably miss some stuff. Here it is: ("Japanese sword",nihonto,katana) -chen* -tsuba -fuchi -kash* -hand* -fold* -forg* -func* -prac* -steel -ryu* -san* -gladius -bugei -hanwei -ninj* -stand -shell -gsx* -suzuk* -arf* -elek* I also set typically set the minimum price somewhere above ~$200.00. That alone weeds out a lot of crap. Add any extra items you want to see in the bracketed list (such as tanto, yari, whatever), but the three that I show seem to catch most of them. (edit: added some exclusions to the search) Cheers

Bump! Beautiful sword, Stephen.

I was wondering that myself...considering Toshiro Mifune died 6 years before the making of The Last Samurai. I'd be curious if you perhaps mean some other version, Ed? Cheers

Great. Thanks for the info. I'll try contacting Mr. McCoy. Good to hear there are others with similar interests around here, Brian. I'll be sure to keep you posted on anything I find out. Cheers

?Confusion? - this is the blade. It's not a yari, but a yajiri - arrowhead (edit: I think?). Not sure if the tang is signed, I can't get it out of the arrow body without taking apart the laquered string, which I don't want to do right now. Thanks, though. Cheers

Guess not. Is anyone able to tell me if they are actually kanji or not? I'm also hoping someone might give me some advice on what to do with this piece, i.e. should I have it polished; is there even anyone who works on yajiri that anyone knows of? Or is it too small a piece for anyone to bother. Should I just keep it oiled and not worry about it? Thanks for any help you can give me on this, folks. I really like this piece (for no apparent reason) and may eventually have it fully restored, if warranted. I know this isn't strictly nihonto, but it's somewhat related, so I hope it's ok to post this here (should've thought of that first, eh?). Thanks

Is it just me, or is this not as obvious as usual? Anyone care to try and translate the 'signature'? http://cgi.ebay.ca/Antique-Japanese-Samurai-Sword-Blade-Tanto-Naginata-mm_W0QQitemZ150088769619QQihZ005QQcategoryZ43338QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem Cheers

Hi folks, I was wondering if someone might be able to help me with translating some characters I found on a yajiri I have. They may or may not be kanji; I'm totally useless when it comes to recognizing/interpreting asian script. Anyways, without further ado, here are the pics. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

Fantastic, that's really great to know. Thanks a lot, guys.

Out of curiosity, what kind of documentation is required in order to show that an item is antique for import to Canada? I'm looking at some swords from dealers in the States, and am loathe to pay hundreds of dollars in customs charges. If there's a way out of this, I'd be interested in hearing more about it. Thanks, steve r don't mean to hijack the post, sorry!?

Great. Thanks, John, for the info and Milt, the example, exactly what I was looking for. That example is fantastic, Milt! I guess I need to look around your esnips a little more.