Alex A

85% success rate sucks, to be honest. Good advice. Would only do bank transfer with known and trusted dealers, not many really. Having a tanto made in Japan at the moment. They say if they cant deliver it due to courier issues, they will drop it here themselves, that's service.

Ps, Had bother working out whether a small cannon barrel i had was either bronze or brass. After reading online, will state what others know is obvious. Bronze heads towards red and brass towards yellow appearance, not always easy to tell from images. Bronze has a more copper colour appearance. Also, about the stock, got be really wide to accommodate that flared muzzle. Was thinking cut from a rifle stock but then changed mind

That's a really unusual piece. The barrel appears massive in relation to the bore but seems ok made apart from the screw hole on the barrel tang which is not centered, The rest of it seems quite crude, with regards the lock, stock and trigger mechanism. Not convinced its that old. Its all put together as mentioned but im thinking the stock was put together for that barrel and not from something else. I say that because of the size of the barrel for a pistol. Just look at the height the stock has to be for it to match the tang on the top of the barrel, cant see any other pistol with a need for a stock like that ? Lock appears as though its converted from flintlock but don't look so old. No trigger guard. Elements of it remind me of something put together in India for tourists, maybe that what it is? Oddball, but kind of like it in a way because its an oddball with a big barrel.

Personally, think the days of sending EXPENSIVE antique swords by the usual couriers has come to an end, that's just my opinion. Not wanting to rub salt in wounds, really mean that but if i was to send a real expensive sword, wouldn't be looking to use UPS etc. Only sent one real expensive sword (for me) quite a few years ago via parcelforce and it was one big worry from beginning to end. There's just too much that can go wrong with theft and damage, not forgetting customs. If i were to send one nowadays, would be looking to use specialist shippers. Expensive, but with valuable antiques, that's what i would do. Better paying over the odds with shipping than throwing thousands away. Spoke with a specialist arms shipper last year, he wanted £400 to send a pistol to the US. The pistol (£1700) it was not worth it but for a sword worth £4k upwards than to me its acceptable. I would certainly pay that if i was a receiving customer, just for piece of mind. He did say he would ship swords. Buyer picks up from the nearest airport, clears customs. Quickly looked online for specialist antiques shippers in the US, maybe folks could look into using something along these lines. Antique Shipping | Navis Pack & Ship (gonavis.com) Being honest, in this day and age, to me it don't make sense using the usual couriers, too unreliable and always have been. Maybe one day get pushed into using them anyways, we have in the UK with regards using private couriers instead Times are changing.

Must admit Kirill, that one must have a few of us wondering.

Stupid question maybe, is there no way of sending stuff more securely with a private courier within the US?

Agree with Mark. From what i can gather, polishers tend to be a lot more wary when it comes to sorting out marks, rust or whatever in the bo-hi for the reason mentioned above. Had a sword turn up with the odd old rust mark in the bo-hi (cleaned out marks). It bothered me then but would bother me less now as not so pedantic on such matters. They were left by the polisher. So long as the seller/dealer makes it clear about such matters, which they didn't at the time

Aye, looks like a weld issue. (Ware) Your pictures are bad but can just make out a faint similar issues on the blade. Japanese SWORD FLAWS (japaneseswordindex.com)

To me, its just tired with a few issues, due to the number of times steel has been taken off with polish. Look at the hamachi. PS, pictures always make issues look worse, especially when they look like they been taken with a telescope. Off top of head Colin, shinshinto not what im thinking. The bo-hi runs full length of nakago and you dont see that too often. Guessing earlier like early Muromachi. That explains the wear. Doubt someone would go to the expense of full length bo-hi to hide a flaw. Just speculating.

The flaws are not bad at all. With regards the one in the bo-hi, its nothing. CANT EXPECT ALL ANTIQUE SWORDS TO BE PERFECT Doubt the bo-hi was added to hide a flaw Cant polish everything away and take steel of antique blades just because we don't like the odd little mark etc. Horses for courses though. Main thing is that sellers disclose issues

Your good at metal work Russ, you could make a a tsuba sculpture Becoming quite popular here, nearly bought a rabbit sculpture a while ago as it was a lot cheaper than one like this. From memory, think they go for around £4k, money in old horse shoes, i mean tsuba.

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.