Alex A

Reminds me of some I once owned Ed.

Im so sure id bet a fiver.

Will do Malcolm, il get there in the end, thanks.

Be good to know what that 2nd sword was ?, Bizen Sukesada ? anyone know Mike for an answer?

Aye, they don't like it when when folk try and save money

Hi Chris, Not so much a "bad" experience, just a bit of disappointment and a few hassles thrown in. To cut a long story short, a TH sword arrived from Aoi in excellent polish, but some rust in the Bo-hi. I'm not talking full on "in your face", but under light, enough to distract. Aoi art have been good about it, apologized and offered to pay to get it polished in the UK. Tsuruta San then stepped in and offered full refund, even though its a consignment piece. Ive been dealing with Aoi a good while now but this is the first time I have returned a sword. As said many times, buying from images can be difficult. I spoke to a few gents at the weekend, gents with a lot more experience than me. After taking on board what they had to say I felt it best to return. I would need the bo-hi polished for me to be happy, but at a risk, as bo-hi go deeper. There is also a worry about rust returning, sometimes its there for good. I'm a few quid down on return postage and import VAT. It occurred a little earlier that I might be able to claim the VAT back, thought it may be as simple as speaking to someone at HMRC and giving them the card details and vat bill you get through the door and providing proof of return, but OH NO. You need to fill out a BO286 form with LOTS of details such as "customs black and white charge label on the box" and "customs declaration form from seller, also on the box" and "evidence of refund" etc etc, all stuff that's in the bin or heading back to Japan in the same box covered in brown tape ,I'm an idiot. Anyways, no hard feelings. I'm usually a pain in the ass when it comes to buying swords with questions and stuff, obviously this time I wasn't a big enough pain, live and learn.

Thanks Jay, left it with the Misses to post, lets hope all goes well, don't need any more palava with this one

Hello, can someone please confirm this as Aoi arts address, I read somewhere that they were moving. I need to ship an item and tomorrow is the only day I will get the chance. No point emailing them as they are not in until tues. I got this address from the site. Aoi Art 4-22-11 Yoyogi, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo, 151-0053 Japan

Sorry Chris

Look on bright side Chris, miss three or four of these and you will have enough for a WW2 Koshirae with a gud un

Well, the smith certainly didn't go out of his way to recreate a Koto masterpiece, tourist piece maybe

A chance to own a large Ko-Katchushi, pity its not sold separate.

Yes Chris, I was just referring to the sword. Im not convinced in either direction with regards age, thats up to the new owner now.

Easier for him to judge than us, difficult from images, but educational nonetheless, and funny

Old is a broad spectrum, I have a pair of "old" socks that are almost 8 years old

He left it open to the buyers imagination by stating "Old", Description bottom of page Age.................. Old

Sometimes I need to remember that not everyone over the years thinks like us lot , why did he not have a Dotanuki or a Tadayoshi??

Hi Chris, I could have worded that better. I didn't mean that you stated it was "low end", I meant I agreed with you that it may have been handed down. It was me that stated "low end", flaws, mumei, etc Maybe the owner was proud, we will never know.

Hi Chris, that's what I was wondering about. I would ASSUME an officer would have a far better quality sword. It crossed my mind that this sword may not be original to this koshirae, but just a thought, don't know. Then it crossed my mind that why would an officer carry such a low end sword?, unless it was handed down, as you point out.

Chris, don't know much about these fittings, would they belong to an officer?

I could be wrong paul, not much to go off, could just be marks on the blade. Ive made it bigger and added a shaky arrow.

Just looking over the blade again, i see hada and i think i can see activity within the hamon, always difficult using photos. Dont know much about Guntos (or anything else ) and what was stamped and what wasn't.

I'm with you on that one.

Sticking with 1700ish. Chris, you have good blades like the Tadakuni (that I want back ), why look at this? This is a ? blade.

As a start, look at the Hamachi and compare whats left of it to what you will see on a more modern blade, an indicator of a blade seeing a number of polishes. Ps Chris, could do with dimensions, hamon appears to run into nakago. original or not, the last time that nakago was messed with was no older than 1700 approx., but likely newer, judging by condition and patina. 5MIN age opinion, love EBAY, not