Alex A

Great blade with plenty to see, well done.

Cheers guys. Had a bit more time for messing with it today, not had it long. Its all good when I push the tsuka on tight, holes line up, no movement in tsuba. When I leave that job up to the mekugi peg, it goes a bit loose again. Will try a new peg, reckon that might do the job.

Been looking at seppa, got a slight wiggle on a tsuba. Most seppa I see on fleebay are thin, around 1mm. Not something I look into on a regular basis but does anyone know how thick antique seppa get up to? Looking at some of the prices on fleebay for aged (bent, rough) seppa, seems their worth their weight in silver lol. Thicker seppa would sort the problem. 38 x 22mm. cheers

I often look at at a sellers feedback, read comments left for neutrals and negatives and get an idea how any unhappy customers were dealt with. Some sellers have sword sales into their 1000,s with few negatives, in this game I find that quite surprising. I would not have a problem buying from such sellers, to keep their shiny feedback they must handle complaints pretty well. But. I do wonder what percentage of their customers actually don't know whether they should be complaining or not

Well done Steven, good to see a beginner who "mustn't" have a katana, I look mainly at wakizashi.

Hi Paul, I agree, but every so often I see a sword with Sayagaki, and cant help wondering whether its legit?, but that's another discussion.

To answer your question Paul, I would simply pick whichever sword appeals to me the most, regardless of paper. Hozen is enough opinion to back up my opinion. I don't take much notice of sayagaki, although it looks pretty. Would need to be verified for me to take it seriously or backed up with Hozen Juyo reminds me of these posh car shows were the winner gets a trophy, best in class etc. I was at one recently, there was a line of Ferrari, lamborghini etc, not much interest from the general public. In contrast, there was an old pristine Ford capri, folk were all over it like ants. My point being, folk quickly loose interest in stuff they cant afford and see the beauty in stuff they can afford When it comes to Juyo prices, I'm reminded of tale in "facts and fundamentals" were the guy said to the dealer "Actually I don't need the Kanteisho, just the sword, so take off the price of the kanteisho and il be on my way". Each to their own I suppose, Juyo is for folk with deep pockets.

Nice story Barrie, if my wife was a plum tree, id be heading down town on a regular basis

Cheers Lars, curiosity is satisfied . Seems some folk in the Sengoku preferred short Sukesada, an example here at 51cm (slight suriage)http://new.uniquejapan.com/a-bizen-1514-sukesada-wakizashi/

For anyone interested, just read, the hamon has to be heated, too hard to file, according to this site http://www.ksky.ne.jp/~sumie99/suriage.html . "On the work of blade shortening, the hamon area is too hard to grind it off with file. So some part of hamon is heated to make it mild."

Lars, cant see were the hamon ends from that picture, habaki needs to be off. Just read you cant move back habaki, no worries, was just being thorough

Yes, its the fact that the sword is 51cm that has me a wondering, that and the middle mekugi-ana, I'm wondering if maybe it was a longer sword, then suriage, but then nakago would need re-finish and the mei would have to be added afterwards, just a wondering It is a wakizashi, another term for compact katateuchigatana.

Hi Lars, ive read there were over 40 Sue-bizen Sukesada listed in old records, and more recently 80!. katateuchigatana 片手打刀 were the main swords being produced at that time. Ive seen a similar mei, but that's were sometimes speculation/head scratching can begin. Any chance of a picture with the habaki off, were the hamon ends?

I used to sell quite a bit but had a number of bad experiences, Ebay looks after the buyers. I had one guy recently open a case because he had not received an item. I posted the item recorded delivery and signed for. It arrived within three days but he was not in to sign for it. Rather than contact the post office (they left a card), he opened a case, hit me with a barrage of insults. This went on for over two weeks, yes my item was stuck in the post for two weeks. The post office tried to redeliver another three times. Drove me bananas, I cant imagine how annoyed I would have been if it was an expensive tsuba or sword. I can understand why someone might not want to sell there, especially nihonto. Ive had at least 5 annoying episodes in over 450 sales, but that's enough to put me off putting anything of value on there.

Hi John, thanks for pointing that out, looks well done, never noticed one like that before. I used to have a suriage Shinto katana and the suriage certainly was not finished to that standard. Like a lot that you may see, the hamon continued down the nakago. I wonder how many we see are not actually heat treated, but just cut. Cheers.

Hi Ken, they would only need to store blade details and shinsa result with a reference number.

Has someone spotted a niche in the shinsa service department by any chance?

I suppose they do provide a (not expensive) opinion, but that opinion has a dramatic effect on the market price, so in reality, they have a responsibility and in my eyes shouldnt bury their head in the sand. Be interesting to hear what the Japanese sword community thinks, issue is still the same there, or is it not?

Ted, true, Shinsa papers are there to back up what one should already know, but I suppose there are new folk coming into the hobby who simply rely on them, these are the folk most likely to get taken for a ride. I personally have never checked if a paper is legitimate of not, I go off the work, but that does not mean the paper is legit. To me its simply a piece of paper with an opinion, nothing to back it up, but feel there should be. I sometimes watch tv shows were someone has signed guitar or something, although the signature is accurate, the authentication certificate is a forge, they have quick ways to check the legitimacy, we should too, iimagine it could be a drawn out affair for those not in the know. Over this last year ive seen one or two dubious papers, they are out there, although luckily few and far between. Darcy, every sword as a type of finger print (so to speak), number of mekugi-ana, length, colour, lumps and bumps, file marks, mei, shape, condition. Admittedly, it would have to be a quality photo, but all this with measurements of nagasa, sori etc, then I would assume it would be a rather large hurdle for fraudsters to get over and would put the vast majority of them off. I suppose they could add a photo of a particular part of the hamon for good measure or maybe employ someone like Aoi do the full works with pics Its not like there is an epidemic as mentioned, but in my eyes this is the way forward for these organisations, I would go with whomever offered it. Add a fee maybe for this service, employ a few more office staff to cover the work. These organisations have set the standards, I think it would be good for everyone if they moved forwards and arrived at 2016, handing out these papers is taking on a responsibility, like it or not. As for liability, how about a clause?, I certainly would not hold them responsible, they would be doing all they could after all Anyways, I expect it will never happen, but would be nice if it did.

One last thought on this subject. Would it not make sense for the these organisations to have an accessible database online?. (if there already is one, new to me) For example, if I was selling a sword with Tokebetsu Hozen, I could simply tell the potential buyer its number 23456 on the website, you will see a brief description and clear photo of the nakago. Makes everything that bit more formal and straightforward for the seller and there will be more reassurance for any buyer, its 2016 after all. Just a case of someone uploading the files, bit of filing I don't think its too much to ask. We don't need their opinions but try selling a potential big name for good money without one (so we do) Just a thought.

I have to say, seeing all these wonderful tsuba makes me want to start collecting tsuba (again), please stop, funds only go so far No, keep it up Ian, really like that tsuba, would like start with something like that

John, plenty of useful information there, thanks!. Your right, I suppose we have to look at each blade individually. Went through Aoi,s site myself, comes in handy Il be taking a longer look into this, Uda etc, see what crops up. Cheers.

Thanks Gents for your time and detailed replies, much appreciated So, way back in the Muromachi period, Yakidashi was less prevalent (cheers John) This is a similar example to what ive been looking at, http://www.sanmei.com/contents/media/N49617_T3545_PUP_E.html Hope the owner don't mind, just the only way I can add a pic of what I'm referring to. A few ive seen have been Uda, some katana with the hamon travelling a bit further down the nakago than the example shown, but beginning to taper off slightly. This is where the confusion lies regarding Machi-Okuri. With regards to were the hamon ends, they may resemble machi-okuri when infact they are unaltered.

Difficult to say Ken, but all swordsmiths/samurai had preferences for various reasons, and I'm assuming that like everything else in this hobby, there are exceptions to the rule.

Hi Darcy, i see. Interesting point and good to know, bit of a grey area. Just a wondering if some blades could appear machi-okuri, but in reality are unaltered, just thinking out loud, as usual