Lee Bray

I'd stop looking if I were you. Looks to be a Chinese fake.

Hong Kong shipping is generally very, very efficient. Big hubs, small country and no import taxes on antiques. Do you still have the contact details of your receiver, Brandon? Perhaps you could pass along my details to them on the basis of a meeting?

Have you tried Roger Robertshaw at Hizento.net? Nakago jiri looks good, as does the yasurimei and the overall look of the nakago. The mei itself perhaps looks weak at first glance without referencing his papered works but that's just an impression rather than a firm opinion. The tight hada and active suguha would also support Tadahiro's work. Give Roger a shout and get his opinion then think about shinsa based on that.

As far as I know, it is illegal and 'cannot' be done. I use the quotes because in China it seems not to hard to buy your way around the law. I've heard that it is possible but it is against the written laws, which I seem to recall posting somewhere in here before. It is legal to ship to Hong Kong, then tell your buyer he has to make his own cross border arrangements. At present, there is a big local outcry regarding blatant goods smuggling through the Sheung Shui border crossing so it would be very easy to do but probably not the wisest course of action.

Just throwing this out there: there are direct flights between Hong Kong and Japan and direct flights from HK to most other destinations. Theoretically, that would make EMS a feasible shipping option provided there was a middle man in HK. I wouldn't object to forwarding parcels if anyone wanted to go that route, bearing in mind that the shipping would be approximately twice as much and I wouldn't mind a couple of quid for my time and effort. Not putting this out as a 'business' idea, just maybe to give someone peace of mind.

Just for an update, this has proven to be not possible. Roman tells me he has no experience in shipping blades and Pavel declined to answer either myself or the Czech owner. So, unfortunately, the sword will stay in the Czech republic on butchering duty.

I have a very similar shaped kojiri in iron that is certainly genuine. https://plus.google.com/photos/10838600 ... sGU8vnx4gE I considered it(and the other matching fittings) to be early to mid Edo period but no particular school.

My friend came through with the pictures so adding them here for reference. As I remembered, the menuki are exactly the same as Mike's. You can't see how thin the ana is in the tsuka and fuchi but the ana of the seppa shows it well enough. As can be seen, the 'blade' is not functional and merely holds the koshirae together.

Their wealth may be new but their postal system isn't. You cannot ship a sword into China as it is a restricted weapon to them. Hong Kong is the only part of China that you can legally ship to. Ship a sword to mainland China and you'll lose it.

I think no more needs to be said. Interesting to see these two tsuka as my friend's is the only one I've seen like it. Although not great quality, they are still well made, as the little reinforcing strip soldered inside the fuchi seam on Mike's shows. It is the same with my example. I get the impression Mick's is in the same league but has utilised a 'proper' fuchi and kashira. Certainly doesn't look like a real blade could be mounted in that tsuka. I get the impression they are movie props which would hold up to reasonably close camera shots for period correct costumes. Or possible re-enactment activities...anything where a proper blade or koshirae wouldn't be allowed or wouldn't make sense to use in case of damage.

The fuchi ana on yours looks regular but the hole in the tsuka itself is similar to what I was talking about. Both the tsuka and fuchi have thin holes on my friends replica. Is it from an actual mount? If not, try inserting something that will measure the length of the hole and see if suitable for mounting. The depth of the recess in my friends tanto would not allow a genuine blade to be mounted. If I get over to my friends soon, or can coerce him into taking pics, I'll post them to this thread. I could just be talking nonsense if Mike's ana is regular size...

Hi Mike. Is the ana in the fuchi/tsuka unusually thin? I ask because I have seen a 'tanto' koshirae that was a replica and utilised pressed/stamped fittings. It housed a tsunagi of thin metal in the very rough shape of a tanto but with no heat treatment or really any effort to be a real blade. A collector friend of mine uses it as an armour embellishment - tucked into the sash on a suit of armour it looks the part. It's been a while since I've taken any note of it but I swear the menuki are a match for yours. I don't think it is intended to deceive but is meant as a prop or ornament. From your pic, the ana looks thin and that is what prompted my memory and this post.

Thanks, Brian, and co.. I forgot Roman is in the Czech Republic, thought he was in Poland. I'll send him a message today as I'm on speaking terms with him; don't know Pavel Bolf although I've seen his work. Fingers crossed.

After hearing back from both Fedex and UPS Czech branches, it looks like it's impossible. Great. Nice shakudo tsuba from the Yoshioka school with superb nanako and gold kirimon on the mimi. Reasonable looking, long wakizashi with bo-hi one side and futasuji-hi on the other...and is currently used for butchery on a farm... Oh well...

Anyone have experience or knowledge on shipping swords out of the Czech Republic? I've potentially bought one there but the owner is now saying that swords are classed as weapons and cannot be exported, though he has found one method which will cost $500, possibly more. Thanks for any help.

He is not in the book, I'm afraid. Good book nonetheless.

Cody/Cory/Corey/Colonel(?) Barrymore/Baltimore? I've heard enough dodgy translations of my own name here in China to realise you may as well open the phone book and pick a name. Be it through their understanding or lack thereof or my own inability to speak in an accent they can comprehend.

I think it is called a Kuwagata habaki and is styled after some old maedate on kabuto. Here's a pic stolen from ebay, with a link to the maedate for sale since I stole the pic... http://www.ebay.com/itm/Japanese-OLD-MA ... 3f3e45562c

Thanks, chaps. Much appreciated.

Hi Guys. Having trouble with the second kanji of this mei. I get Sada X Kitaeru Kore. Looks to be done in that nasty, chippy WW2 style. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

At least you wouldn't bleed out due to the cauterization...

So surely that means that the February/August temperature is not so important? Besides that, isn't it the case that quench water is heated to the right temperature anyway to prevent shocking the blade during yakire?

Given that February is coming to the end of winter and August is the peak of summer, I don't believe the water temperature theory. In February, the average temperature is between freezing and 11 degrees celsius. In August, it is between 23 and 32 degrees celsius. Brian's theory makes much more sense to me.

Hi Graig, I take back what I said about the fuchi/kashira. I have a zinc alloy wakizashi with fittings that look very like yours which have the cast shitodome but, of course, I'll trust your word and if your shitodome are removeable, then the set is likely genuine. The visible seam in the new picture backs that up. The triangle and two square stamp makes me wonder at their age, though, and they could be modern but made 'traditionally'. I've never seen that stamp though, so it is mere speculation on my part. The casting flashes on the new pictures of the tsuba are very visible now so I'll stand by my cast call on that. Obviously, your call on what you do with it but I'll post these pictures of mine that show the problems with cast tsuba. This one was an obvious cast that I broke with a single, light hit with a hammer. This one was part of a daisho set that a friend bought on ebay. In the pictures, they looked good. In hand, I thought them cast but they were finished very well with no casting flashes anywhere. I was asked to add sekigane to them so I warned him that they might not survive. One survived, one burst apart when I started to peen the copper sekigane into place. As you can see, the grain size in the broken piece is very large, hence very brittle. The 'survivor' - The 'splitter'(for Monty Python fans) - That said, I have a modern cast tsuba that withstood some serious abuse with a hammer and is solid. Modern cast steel will take the punishment needed to be a useable tsuba. Telling the difference without a destructive hammer test? That's the question...

The tsuba looks cast. Look at that central ridge on the mimi. Same for the fuchi and kashira. Kashira has those 'cast in place' shitodome. If the sword is real, it has been cobbled together with some pieces from a zinc alloy replica sword.