Alex A

Yes Piers, its my lucky tsuba

Dont understand Dale, looks like a perfect horse shoe tsuba, possibly Late Edo, maybe earlier. Heres mine, Kanbun era, displays perfectly Good iron.

He cuts his own horimono, cant remember whether he did or he didn't. Good vid, like the hada. Ps, was watching a vid the other day by another smith. One of the dudes with the hammers was not Japanese, not a clue who he is.

Wow, 3 weeks, Not like parcelforce then, don't think they ever delivered anything without sending the bill first, often miscalculated bills. Thinking the way things are done in Japan with regards UPS may be done differently compared to something coming from other places such as US. Something to bear in mind.

What bill Russ?, maybe you missed it

Looked Shinogi-zukuri above in the first images, its not. As expected, rough nakago. Its a proper oddball. Nakago ana in the wrong place for an ubu sword and the nakago looks like it was finished terribly, even with the strange and unnatural patina. Get the impression its not that old but someone has tried to make it look old. Cant make out hada. Sorry, was hoping for a better result.

I always thought that UPS have their own customs, i say that because ive imported various antique pistols from the US and Europe and always dealt directly with UPS when it comes to paying any import duty, never been any mention of borderforce. The reason folks have used them overseas is to avoid borderforce. Maybe things have changed. A friend is importing a tanto from Japan at the moment with UPS, will report back after seeing how that goes.

Just an heads up about alternative couriers within the UK. The buyer of the Kanetsugu organised a private courier, Action delivery services. Not cheap at £160, same price they used to charge me for picking up and dropping off motorbikes within the UK. Price was for North to South of England. Courier was outside of my house, bang on time. Expensive, but if you don't want the worries of sending via the likes of Yodel and are sending expensive items then i suppose its acceptable. Dropped off following morning for an 8am ish delivery.

That's the most unusual auction combo i ever did see, Appears a Conan the Barbarian type sword in the mix too. Ps, Cant say for sure with the habaki, maybe it is. Kind of hoping its not the tip of a longer sword, also hope the habaki is silver for you. In fact, the best im hoping for is that its ubu and was once in shirasaya but someone cobbled the rest of it together at some point. Do see dodgy looking horimono on some ww2 tanto. Reminded of a tanto at an arms fair, it was at every arms fair for about 3 years. Signed but not the best horimono of a dragon. Sure that was Shinogi-zukuri.

The main thing is your happy with the sword and its priced accordingly. If it were genuine then you would be talking maybe upwards of $3500.

Don't know much about this smiths work without spending an whole lot of time looking into it. If you look closely you will see some peaks of the hamon that resemble "crab claws", which is a known kantei point for this smith, though would expect maybe the next generation to produce similar hamon in one way or another. All i can say is it could be genuine or perhaps a mumei sword from that school where someone has added a gimei. Something ive become more aware of lately is the little known smiths that worked around the more well known smiths, helped out but seem to get little mention. Folks like little known Yokoyama Sukenari working alongside Sukenaga. Theres a yari for sale at the moment by an Hizen Smith called Tadasada, id never even heard of him. He worked along side the more well known smiths in the famous Hizen school. Point being, sometimes its hard to know exactly who made what, without a legit mei. Even then students signed daimei. You really will need to know the fine details and need far better images than the one above and do some serious digging.

Looking at the image, it certainly has the Yokoyama vibe with the Yakidashi. For me you have a few options. Ask for more details, get the books etc out and work it out yourself and live with the papers, just see if it all adds up. Or, if in Japan offer to pay for current shinsa, if it passes you will buy it. Re-sale will be much easier. What i have found in the past is that sellers in Japan on ebay seldom go the extra mile with enquiries. For various reasons, from language barrier to they know a sword is gimei, and so on. It looks interesting and strikes me as one to look into, for sure. Looks potentially a nice blade anyways.

What is SHINGANE? (ksky.ne.jp)

Its never desirable but acceptable for many. Especially folks that don't have deep pockets that like to collect old Koto by the more prominent smiths. We are talking some rare antiques that have survived 500 plus years and considered "artworks", hence such accolades, even if tired. For folks that struggle to live with such issues, there's always later blades that have seen less polishing. Saying that though, some folks cant live with shinshinto or later, just don't have the same appeal. Having seen the effect of many polishes, kind of struggle with some old blades. Shintetsu don't seem so bad compared to other effects of over polishing, with regards the hamon for example.

Just curious about the nakago. Know Tanto in that form are rare, but seen a few in recent years. One on Aoi about a year ago by a well known smith that had me curious. From memory it was described as a gift tanto. Agree that the tanto above is likely put together from the tip of a longer sword but still a little curious about the nakago. Chances are its rough.

Lewis, there are guys in the UK that don't oil their blades either, nothing wrong with that if that's what folks want to do. My personal experience is this....... In winter there is no heating on until the evening as im a tight ass and dont like paying extortionate heating bills, would rather just put a fleece coat on . So in that respect there are temperature fluctuations that have me concerned when it comes to storage. Other concerns such as burst pipes etc whilst i am away on holiday or whatever makes me wary enough to try and give the swords the best chance of survival should the worst arise. Might sound like some kind of over the top antique "prepper" but **** happens. Next door had to move out of their house for a month when they got back from hols and the interior of the house had to be totally rebuilt. Call me a born worrier.

Be good to see the bare blade showing nakago clearly.

The thing about buying at arms fairs, Colin. Its difficult, is for me anyways. Need time to go home and do some research about what i just looked at.

Colin, I just use cheap cotton cloths off ebay, throw them away regularly. They are kept in a plastic bag in the cupboard Don't put them down anywhere where they can pick up dust and give them a shake before using them, check them over. As you point out, saya rubbing can be a real issue. See it in write-ups on sales pages occasionally, "marks from in and out" lol Beginners reading this.............ALWAYS ON THE MUNE!!!!!!!!!!!, as someone eloquently told me off when i started

Ps, tried sewing machine oil (Singer), didn't like it as it seemed too thin and hung around in globules Hence gun oil.

This is what put me off Choji oil, from Aoi Art care guide................. Special notes ; 1. Generally, Choji oil has been used to treat Japanese swords. This is a sticky vegetable oil traditionally used in cleaning swords. It promotes oxidization of the blade that will result in rust in the future. In our opinion, and based on our experience, we do not advise you to use Chyoji oil. We suggest that you use high-quality machine oil on your sword. This is the same type used when maintaining guns or sewing machines, and it is the only oil that we use with our swords at Aoi Art.

I just refer to this, Colin That was enough to put me off, don't see it as necessary on a blade in good polish. Though do see modern smiths using it, even the smith in the vid i just uploaded is using it.

Never used it in 15 years, Sam Maybe once, quite reluctantly. Just of the notion that cloths and oil do no harm (not talking choji oil) so why potentially add a concern (as mentioned above) when there is no need to. Don't use choji either, just use gun oil very sparingly and it wipes off very easily. It doesn't go off or turn into anything that requires alcohol to remove it. An horses for courses thing, whatever works best for folks

Ps, would have never found this on youtube without the Japanese translation. This is the smith, Matsui Ken (Kiyotomo) Tokyo. Vid from 2008, taught at Miyairi school.

Fantastic Brian, thanks. I didn't see that link but found the smith in particular that i was looking for, so it appears he is still working. The last info i can find on him, on the internet was from 2014 so i was thinking he no longer made swords. Don't see many swords made by him . Perhaps Paul Martin could help with further inquiries. Nice one Also, cheers Jean, appreciated.