joe424

thank you very much now i have research to do...you guys rock,,,,joe

new ko waki i just got can anyone read the mei...i sure cant....thank you joe decius

some better pics of my antique rescue...with more to come soon

no...im not a polisher....not gonna start that stuff again...i do work on them tho..i mainly study for now

i switched out the tsuba....i have a moko peace that fits this blade and it matches the habaki ....the one it came with was way too lose but very nice and fits perfect on my hizen to....

now i don't want anyone thinking i bend swords but this one needed to be straightened out just a tad....and o kissaki wen kissaki is much longer than it is wide....in a few days the polish should be able to tell more of the story.....but still not bad for 300 bucks?

i found this and bought it for a good price it was a nice black tone , now i side is cleaner ...any thoughts on age school ...i welcome all opinions...its s little on the thin side and not as stiff as most of the swords I've had...my ko mino uchigatana was about the same as far as them being thinner and more flexible than the blades I've has that wer not as old....also o found 2 very small umegane its impressive how small they are an some tiny hada ware ...im impressed that and the o kissaki had me interested off the bat...it shows all the tell tale signs of being repaired at least a few times in the kissaki and monouchi area monouchi is almost straight and very little turn back is left in the boshi....i think its old and o suriage and should turn out nice wen restored

dose this look legit to you

lol ok im down with that...ill send you any of the stuff I cant make any use of,as it comes in

the waki on the table is a mino blade but it edo period, this blade however I cant tell you much about, perhaps you could give you opinion

it was an old ko bizen den tachi that was cut down to 22 inches, my sword guy said mid kamakura period.verry hi quality,this was only a two hour evaluation so he couldn't tell me what smith made it but he new the school and said that if I could give him a couple days to go threw his books he could tell me, but I sold it before he got the chance..this was wen the market crashed so I got it cheap ,I like the shape, and its hada very tight ko itame hada and a very well done hamon with no flaws and the fittings wer awesome, I got off ebay in 2007 for 1100.00. it was listed as edo sword.the worst listing ive ever found..I had it evaluated and was told that cause of the market it was only worth 5 grand, and that was on the low side......but I find this kind of stuff alot but never get to keep any of them for to long.to bad cause if I got papers on this one who knows what it was realey worth. but I hate money, and do not sell swords for a profit im just trying to trade up to the right katana,if im not selling them for food or rent

that's funny it was early in the morning

this one I miss a lot...another ebay score

hear are some of my goodies some I had to sell to pay rent and so on...life is rough like that ...but I truly belive that no man can own a koto sword...I believe that you pay a lot of money to have the honor and privilege of being steward to that sword until the torch gets passed down yet again, these are some swords wich I had such an honor to care for, tell me what you think....thx joe

ok I seem to have gotten off on the wrong foot with this, I don't polish swords,i don't want sympathy, the pics I mentioned are of a knife I made. a 5 year old knife that the tip broke off so I did a Japanese temper on it and thought someone may want to see, thats the kind of stuff im referring to wen I say i polished ,except for a tanto I made for my selph that a real togi was going to throw away, and some plane blades from blades that wer fubar in evry way...im a kind man that loves the art of the Japanese sword and feel the same as you as far as amature polishers wrecking swords so why so hostile, I came hear to talk about the thing we all love nihonto,ive ben a member hear for all of 29 and already pissed people off,agian I am sorry and will never bring up the topic of untrained polishing again...joe decius

dig a little deeper, he's not just a kendo instructor

I don't just look at it and say its junk but in some cases wen the tip is broken off and all the hada is gone from salt water rust and the tang is rotted away so far that' only an inch or so left of it,i would say that it is beyond restoration of any kind...and then I take it to the local expert to evaluate....than if he says its fubar ,ill make something out of it like plane blades,. the blade that had higari was also ruined by some sandpaper polisher and it was bad gimei the first place hagari was 3 inches from the habaki and went up far they wer every 3 or 4 inches apart,but the last 8 inches was ok to salvage into a good tanto....im not dumb I just cant spell very well

sry about that, that's not what I meant to do...but I honestly wonder your opinions, i don't want to piss anyone off......and I am sorry if I have in any way....so what can I ask about that is more in suite with this forum

I mean blades covered with fatal flaws .fubar blades...should they be thrown away? I don't think so...what do you guys think

the very kind man who has ben teaching me is a man by the name of Stephen strauch have you by chance heard of him

ill give you an example I took three junk blade to show my teacher and he would clean them up with some water an beaking soda maby clean a small spot with a powder fine hazuya powder nugui two of the three wer two far gone to do anything with ,than we would count the hagari this on waki had 4 bad hagari they went all the way threw the hamon but after he looked over for an hour or so would tell me I could make my selph a nice tanto out of the 8 inches of good blade,so I did....and im a real mellow guy so I take no offence, infact I think we bolt belive the same opinion of people who ruin great swords

im not a polisher at all sry im new at this forum...I don't condone any one polish a real Japanese sword on their own, that was my point even good polishers can ruin a blade by mistake, wen I said I've ben studying it for ten years what I meant is in that amount of time I have learned 1 tenth of one percent of what a real polishe knows,and I am well aware of that. have a very good sword teacher who has over 50 years of being a sword expert who looks at all the junk blades first befor I do any thing to them......I would never harm a peace of history.....but I look forward to any input you can give me

these are my thoughts on armatures and some so called professional polishers....ive ben studying polishing for 10 years...im 33 years old and I still don't know anything in the grand scheme of things. After all its only 900 or so years of history you need to know to be good at it.so I don't polish anything that's not junk...I have to say that I have made some good tanto and wakazashi out of blades that would have ben thrown away. and I have done fine polish on some newer stuff as a hobby....but wen it comes to a healthy old blade be very cautious of who you let polish it...it could be a nightmare, and don't believe some of these pro polishers that claim to have don a full apprenticeship...very few in the usa have ....if any one is interested I've got some picks of some stuff I cleaned up for fun....I guess my point is it is a terrible idea for an amateur to put any healthy sword to a stone. but a cracked katana or wahazashi or any low level blade with multiple fatal flaws.....could be made in to something really cool.... unless you are a total idiot,than stay away from sharp stuff all together

it had some gold foil on it long ago but what you se is all that remaind, im selling that tsuba on ebay right now,for money for a slightly bigger one dowm the road,and I traded that t99 for cash and Remington mod 1917 sporter with a vintage weaver k4 scope...its real cool

I got bolth this sword and a Japanese type 99 bent bolt sniper rifle for 400.00.....at an antique store so I believe that great swords show up sometimes you just need to no whare to look... and having good luck helps to.one side is in bad polish but the other side is not so bad ill add better pics