Henry Stewart

Gentlemen; I seek begginers books about Tsuba; I have just encountered one on the internet at £119.00 and yet another at $824.00. Can anyone help with affordable suggestions as to such a book. Thank you in anticipation. Henry

Gentlemen The moderated auction site I mentioned I was setting up is nearly complete. Its seemingly a complicated buisness; However weve reached the dry run stage and i'M PUSHING MY GUYS AS HARD AS i CAN. Henry

Gentlemen. A social enquiry please; does anyone know of a smith Kazutsugu. who signed his name on nakago using only two kanji. Believed @ 1940s; His lineage, did it include any other smiths? how is his name regarded in contemporary circles, and what was his ranking. What class of sword did he produce please; Henry

Gentlemen As I pass from entry to entry I was waiting for some one to mention the viscosity difference of the two liquids,which can I believe have a marked effect on the rate of energy transfer. Henry

blueboxer,Doug, Jaques.Stephen, Gentlemen; My sincere thanks for your contributions,I intend they do not disappear into the aether so have taken,, I hope with your permission, hard copy of each,to be printed as the explanation; This especially for persons new to our fascinating hobby. To this end I would invite further comment so I would be able to get as wide a view as possible.This will greatly aide me in my studies of this particular area and oblige. A glossary of attribution will be maintained. Thank you Henry.

Paul; I can understand what you say and to a great extent I agree with the standpoint. I am searching though for a Japanese article I read by a specialist who stated that the patterns formed on the blade were to some serendipidy;I will find it. The patterns were a bye product of the method of forging and not done deliberately and did not dictate that the steel was either good or bad. I wonder if its possible in time to say approximately when the sword changed from a purely battle implement to an art implement, or is it that it was always both,just that different people took a different view. That as it gained popularity many different ways would be found of manufacture. Some therefore are regarded as a "true sword" and others faithful replicas. Henry

Gentlemen I now have a photograph of the Kissaki end of the blade and have requested that Brian publish it. I have also examined the sword furniture carefully,it is I would say all early 1900's and Japanese in orgin. But if it has been specially polished as claimed,for the martial arts, then it would wouldnt it!. Henry

Alan, John, Brian and Paulb Gentlemen What about No.5 on paulb's list, partialy forged with its promnent hada?? Henry

Gentlemen All; My sincere thanks for the input. I now know the specific steel I am after thanks to this veritable wealth of information which has explained to me not only the specifics such as striations,but its treatment of forging to blades. There is much more to this than is first evident. One thing though, how would the learned gentlemen classify such a blade, Nihonto or not. How necessary is it that the blade scource is Tamahagane or Orishagane; In all other respects some of these striated blades were forged and tempered traditionally. I suspect I know the answer but confirmation would be most satisfactory. Henry

Sir, I think the illustration by Jean is one I would need a closer look at. It might well not be fatal but it sure is ugly. Henry

Frank, KM, John; Gentlemen; Thank you all for your kind wishes. I am under no illusion what I'm taking on,and am very well aware we have some odd persons claiming to be genuine Nihonto collectors. It is one of the reasons the site is Moderated. I come at it from a slightly different angle which will become readily apparent as we go on. One of my principle objectives is transparency,so we all know just what is going on. Henry

Thank you Stephen. A volunteer is always worth ten pressed men, Henry

Thats a good advert, I cant even spell my own name----------------butterfingers

Gentlemen I hope in about 10 to 12 days time to launch "Nihontoden" a new venture dedicated to the auction of genuine Nihonto.It will operate as a specific auction site on the WWW. It will be established with an Escrow facility for thos who wish to use for a small fee plus.. POSTAGE AND INSURANCE. It will also allow for a chat facility,but will seek only to compliment and not compete with other sites. It is hoped this will compensate for the actons of others banning Nihonto. It is a moderated site whose staff have reasonable expertise to spot fakes. It is well advanced in construction and will I hope fair better than others who failed. We shall see. There is no apology made for specialisation,yet will I hope fill a need. It is up to others to make use. Hnery

Gentlemen; I have encountered a steel described as follows:- Starts off with single bar of drawn steel,usually used for railway lines (Not Mantetsu). Because its drawn the striations in the steel fabric are already there(this is not deliberate,just a trait of manufacture); The steel is forge heated and folded several times and then sword shaped,the tempering and hardening is done exactly as a traditional blade and water cooled using "slip",and thus a hamon is forged,which when traditiionally polished stands out exceedingly well (VERY NOTICEABLE). Whilst I am awaiting photos to publish,has anyone encountered the above mentioned steel and method before. The only reason I am bothering with this is that I have seen the blade and it comes from a previously hitherto unimpeachable scource. He calls it a part gendaito! Made 1930/1940s. Thank you Henry

Ian My apologise,you are of course quite right. Wakazashis less than 50cm do not come under the rules. What I was thinking of was the logistics,as to how James packed,addressed and identified his parcel on the carne,and which carrier he chose and why. It would seem this regulation is gathering interpretations as it rolls along; not unlike the proverbial stone and its moss. Henry

The last wakazashi I bought came from "JAMES" on this site; He is in Australia why not ask him. If I remember it came via Fedex and came straight through; all the customs asked was charges and VAT which I paid over the phone. Henry

I am very surprised it is offered for sale at all! Henry

Sir Your one photo showing the whole blade leaves me with the impression it follows the Bizen tradition. I cannot make out the hamon and as for Kizu I would need to see it to comment, it certainly looks a forging flaw.Good luck with your enterprise. Henry

Stephen & Kevin Gentlemen; I am trying this auction/sale site business coupled with talk facility peculiar only to Nihonto and Samurai history. To be fair I have spoken with a member of staff who advises against it,but did wish me luck. I'm doing so with a slight twist. Its about halfway through now; We shall see on Monday next. I expect it will be live in less than a week. Host site and domain name already set up. Henry

Brian My thanks to you yet again; I see what you mean,its certainly an area of study on its own. Henry

Gentlemen I wonder if you will permit me to join in to obtain an explanation. Utsuri was once described to me as a sheen or shine on the surface of the polished blade and could be seen as either blue or very white, almost wet looking. Either of these two could be taken as an indicator of good steel,well worked,resulting in a good blade. A dull or grey appearance was to be avoided. Whilst I can see the approach, I have seen descriptions of Utsuri which the describer was clearly using to mention something else. WHAT is your take please. What in a few words would you use the word Utsuri to describe?? Henry

Dear Moriyama san; My sincere thanks good Sir; you are quite correct. Henry

Gentlemen Somewhere in the web I came across a description of this steel. It named the third grade of tamahagane as ZUTU or ZUTSU or some similar spelling,saying it was always used for core steel.Unfortunately I now cannot find the reference. Can anyone please help? Henry

To be fair,if thats a case of butt welding,the purpetrator can have a job here anytime? Henry