Andi B.

Good point! As long as only the the old tsuka has to be replaced by a new one, there is no need to change the mekugi ana... But if you cut the blade you can also drill a new hole - the 'damage' has been done already.

I think shortening a blade doesn't make any sense nowadays... (I wouldn't have my leg amputated to look better just because my kneecap was broken.)

...I think this stuff is called "Kiku-Mol' now (or maybe Kiku-Mol is a similar polishing paste)...

Ok, that's what I think is sunagashi:

If you have luck, some of this small pieces from the Nittoho Tatara have nice colours...

Sad news! (I met him only once - end of October last year when he won the Kantei-Session at Tokyo Sword Museum...)

Dave, menuki should be a matching pair, but that doesn't mean that the menuki are identical! See below examples. Also the correct placement when mounted is important. I read somewhere in this forum: - in case of an animal motif, the “heads” should be oriented toward fuchi while the “tails” should be oriented toward kashira; - in case of a plant motif, the “roots” should be oriented toward fuchi while the flowers, leaves or fruits should be oriented toward kashira.

Hello again, What is the best solution to clean the urushi parts of an armour? I want to remove dust and grime and maintain/preserve the surface. Dry microfibre, oil, wax...? Thanks! Oh, I should stop cutting missing horn parts and better play with the cat...

Not sure about wabi sabi in tsuba but here's one with an intentionally "matured" surface...(?) And for entertainment a knothole (church pew in Amsterdam) and a railing (pavilion, Okochi Sanso Garden, Kyoto).

Hello, here is a nice kinko kogai with a wild boar motif. It has a distinctive warabite carved in and is inscribed on the back with gimei Kikuoka Mitsuyuki (kaō) – 菊岡光行. How would you experts classify this piece? Any idea about school & age?

I think, that could be the reason. I made a DIY tanto with habaki before I started collecting. Here you can see the file marks on the habaki and the yasurime on the nakago. I'm left handed and I'm simply not able to file in the common direction, so I did it my way...

Ken, but check in advance if your new player can be set region free (not every model can be switched). ...that's why I need two players - one is for (the real) Zatoichi only...

Obviously there is a bent part of the rim still at the feet. What else is this??? Should be easy to draw a rim over the picture and then we see how it looks like. Probably similar to this: https://images.app.goo.gl/f6uyRA79NwF8JxFN6

While performing initial yaki-ire the blade should still have an unsharpened edge to avoid any hardening cracks. After a fire damage isn't it required to reshape the blade to a 'new born' shape to withstand a second hardening process? This followed by a new foundation and final polish, I assume the blade will lose a noticeable amount of steel. So could mizukage on a very healthy blade speaks against a re-tempering?

Currently I'm trying to built my first tsuka so I had to cut a piece (cleaned area) out of a big ray skin. Such skins have lot of different areas with different nodule sizes. It could be used for more than one tsuka but the others would look a bit cheap/boring because of too small and even nodule sizes. I think a full wrap adds much strenght to a tsuka - the dried skin is incredible hard!

Great tsuba! But I assume this piece is in a non Japanese private collection...

Hi, while thinking about OP question I ask myself the following: I assume unhardened low carbon shingane has a similar hardness as unhardened high carbon kawagane. The parts affected by heat treatment are kawagane only, so I wonder, why shingane is used at all... Has it impact on stability or is it rather used to save on expensive and rare high carbon steel...?

A sword without hamon (means no heat treatment = no hardening) doesn't make any sense. Maybe unhardened kawagane is slightly 'harder' then shingane but it's still too soft. There is a reason for yaki-ire...

Hi Tom, maybe this tsuba was part of a kabuki play sword (theatre props). Some are made to rattle if handled. But I don't know, how old 'naritsuba' look like...

Hi, for beginners it's always difficult to verify sellers statements by looking at the sword with unexperienced eyes...Try to see good blades and fine mountings as many as possible. My advice is: Hear to your gut feelings and buy a sword only when you can judge the quality (in relation to the price) or if you can ask trustworthy collectors/friends (NMB!) to guide you...

Guckst Du hier/ Have a look:

Hi Michael,the way of covering Higo fuchi with crane leg leather was e.g. mentioned at the 2018 Samurai Art Expo lecture (M. Radburn?)... So always worth a visit!

Ok, ok I'll come of course...

...I would prefer the traditional wooden stand (antler is a bit too rustic for my taste), but because I don't own an old authentic one, I have to use modified acrylic stands for shoes ...

Guido, yes it was this blade. [Edit] I should check my books - it's listed in Markus Seskos Koto-Kantei compilation...