Daso

Looks like fake Hon'Ami as well after looking at some others.

Could I have botched up Smiths?

Thanks, I like Raging, leaves absolutely no doubt in my mind :-)

Hello all, I've gone through countless images of Tadayoshi signatures and although I would highly anticipate gimei just based on the name itself, to my very very very untrained eye this looked very close to some papered pieces. The one in question is just a single tang picture, the picture of the papered Tadayoshi is from Nihonto.ca and has multiple shots. Thanks, Darius

Thanks to Stephen, my junk Tsuba now has a useful purpose

Sorry for my horrific phone forum spelling.

Yes, definitely clear to me that it was a poorly executed attempt at asding mei? Question is as curiosity and still a real nice looking tanto, is it worth $200 to just have ? One area i dont really expect i will ever put a considerable amount intonis a Tanto (forbthe foreseeable future). Good Wak next on list.

Some photos, short small tanto

It looks like there was another signature possibly and is it unusual that the characters are split between the mekugi ana?

So i think im proud (unless I'm wrong) that i recognized the second charater of this mei as Mitsu but I'm at a show and saw this little Tanto and even if 100 % gimei still cheap. I dont have any books with me ????, does anyone recognize the first character or mei if I'm completely wrong on the Mitsu? Thanks Darius

Stephen, PM sent. Thanks.

I never thought of drink coaster. ????

Thank you all, Auction credited me 50% of purchase back so I will hang it on my terrace as a windchime (without the chiming part) or find some odd thing to do with it. Grev, I like your idea, but it might be a dangerous endeavor in a Manhattan apartment with a 6 year old wondering what I'm doing and wanting to get in on the hot oil and metal experiment . Ilearned my mni lesson and got a bit back, so I'm ok. No more unknown online auction house Tsuba for me (for a bit at least)

Surfson, Unfortunately Grey just emailed me back that Kanji flash cards are out of print. Do you know what they were called exactly or if they were in English? I did a search and found a bunch of regular kanji flash cards but none like you mentioned. I'd love to find those. Thanks, Darius

Thank you everyone all extremely helpful.I have a much clearer understanding of how to look. Now I have to familiarize myself.

Ford, thanks. Last time I do something like that Thank god I listened to everyones advice on my bigger purchases. Small and low cost lapse of judgement. I'll use it as a counterweight for my Fluke fishing rig It took me a few minutes to understand what you meant by other piercings as well. I never thought about that and it makes complete sense. Was it common to make piercings after the fact?

Thanks, if i cant get them to take it back, I'll try that. What kind of oil?

Hello All, So far I have bee the restrained buyer of pieces with good guidance from you all, but on a night time online auction house stupid move bought this likely Hunk of Junk for a few dollars and was curious if anyone could see from the pictures whether it's a poorly cast paperweight or at the very least try to recoup a few $$ on Ebay and it's just a real piece of rusty junk an if so, do I just say Tosho Tsuba? If it's cast junk, Ill just use it as a fishing weight for Fluke . I am prepared to be slightly ridiculed, but I took a chance for $50 (not on ebay). Didn't look nearly this rusty on website either. Pardon the waste of space on the website too.

Amazingly helpful and right in line with what I was thinking. Thanks I was going to do a dark walnut or oak like my living room furniture but frame gets pricey.

John, Thanks. It is daunting, but I will take it in small steps as suggested. Certain things will start to commit to memory as well as I move along.

I think the Yumoto book pages are too small to easily see many characters. I also bought The Sword of Japan and the suggestion of an NMB member and think its larger paperback form is similar to the dobree book, what do you think?

Will compare when i get home. Thanks again.

Incredibly helpful, a better and easier to understand primer than any book I've read so far. Thanks.

Now I feel stupid, I have the Yumoto book, it's the first one I bought years ago. Is the Dobree book good in addition or not necessary. I have Markus Sesko's index of swordsmiths, but I guess that doesn't help with reading the Mei.

Thanks, I guess I have to understand where the name starts or just be able to pick up the characters more easily. I'm tempted to just buy the one you linked on Ebay.