Taz575

No problem! As soon as I get papers back, I will post them here and on the FB group for anyone that wants to see them. I sent in my check yesterday, so I am hoping to have the blade back later this coming week and hopefully the paperwork is included!

Ted, not quite! I bought it on Ebay and there was some discussion online about the age/school of the blade, so I sent it off to the Shinsa in Chicago. After it was sent, I found some of these threads where the origin was disputed.

I myself am dying to see the sheet and the score! I may get the blade back next week I am guessing.

I am the one that submitted the blade to the Shinsa and I will post the worksheet when I get it. I was surprised it passed given the conversations here and on the FB group. I bought it because I liked the hada and hamon and the nie I saw in the pics, not as an art piece, but more as a study piece since I like the activity in the metal that I see and I didn't have a blade in this style yet.

I saw the same YouTube video where they touched up the blade so it would have a more aggressive edge. It makes sense because a highly polished edge may not bite well into whatever is being cut. I sharpen my Japanese kitchen knives to different grits depending on what they are being used for. Meat processing knives are the coarsest, veggie knives are a higher grit and high end sushi or stuff would be a much higher grit on a natural stone. Gyuto or general purpose chefs knife get a 4-8K edge typically. I prefer natural stone edges to their ceramic/manmade counter parts as even the finest natural stones still have a little "tooth" left to the edge.

Good read on that thread! That explained things a bit more.

On that piece, correct. Other pieces have some colors on the surface, other times it is within pockets in the piece of steel, which lead me to believe that there was some sort of impurity in that pocket that melted out, but left some material behind. The pink is more on the surface, usually at the ends of more pointy material. When I watched the video of Walter Sorrells and Jesus Hernandez making their own tamahagane, theirs did not seem to have any color pockets to it at all, but they started with a more pure ore, so I thought that the impurities (minerals and other) in the steel was responsible for the color areas. In High School, we did a chemical burn test where we burned various elements and recorded the flames color when we did so and there were all different colors, so when I saw the tamahagana with the colors to it, I thought back to High School where different materials burned with different colored flames and wondered if different elements melted into different colors as well. The reason why I was asking was I was thinking of trying to make my own tamahagane and focus on getting more colors to it by adding different minerals/elements to it, but it sounds like that would be hard to do!

The coloring is not tempering related from what I see. Where the colors are, the material is often a completely different texture, like something melted there and is often smooth and glossy. There are spots and flecks of color and larger pools of color. Also, pink/salmon is not a typical color of tempering, which is straw to blue to purple. and it will effect a large area, not tiny spots. Most tamahagane testing I have seen is after it's forged out, not in its raw state.

I have question about Tamahagane and figured someone here may know. The colors in the steel I think signify the impurities, but does anyone know how to match the color with the impurity? Ie the Purple color is one element, pink is another, blue is another element, etc? I got some chunks of Tamahagane and some of them have an iridescent blue/pink mixture, other pieces have a bright flat pink, cobalt, blues, purple, golds, silver, shiny pinks, etc.

Ordered these Fuchi Kashira today! http://www.edoantiques.com/index.php?id_product=637&controller=product&id_lang=1

Ok, I will keep an eye out for the antique stuff; most of what I have seen is between $400-800 for fuchi/kashira sets for the antiques. Good to know I can find good antiques for less!

Yes; as long as they are better/heavier than tin foil feeling stuff like on my T10 Chinese wakizashi, I am ok with that. With new stuff, I have more options to match the theme and keep it affordable. Where are some places that make modern menuki/fuchi/kashira that are decent quality? Not looking for investment/high grade stuff, but not looking for cheap stamped tin foil type stuff, either.

Would something like these fit the theme? Fuchi/kashira: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Japanese-Copper-Iron-Fuchi-Kashira-Fuchikashira-Sword-Antique-Look-Gold-Bird-/252538989570?hash=item3acc7f2c02:g:tiMAAOSwymxVOjy6 http://www.ebay.com/itm/Japanese-TSUBA-Kozuka-Kashira-Katana-Menuki-antique-basket-ct02-/272246067962?hash=item3f632152fa:g:oWEAAOSwxehXO09Z http://www.ebay.com/itm/Japanese-TSUBA-Kozuka-Kashira-Katana-Menuki-antique-Turtle-matte-silver-ct02-/272247677833?hash=item3f6339e389:g:QkIAAOSwxehXPTcJ Is this crane/turtle?: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Japanese-TSUBA-Kashira-Katana-Menuki-antique-Enatama-ct02-/272202051503?hash=item3f6081afaf:g:SC8AAOSwAvJXBJ84 Menuki: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Japanese-TSUBA-Kozuka-Kashira-Katana-Menuki-Birds-On-a-Branch-/391537527770?hash=item5b29748bda:g:Ku4AAOSwdzVXpMDM http://www.ebay.com/itm/Japanese-Kozuka-Kashira-Katana-Menuki-antique-Bird-branch-ct02-/282018102351?hash=item41a996bc4f:g:cogAAOSwO~hXH6x0 http://www.ebay.com/itm/Japanese-Kozuka-Kashira-Katana-Menuki-antique-bird2-ct02-/272217305333?hash=item3f616a70f5:g:OREAAOSwIUNXFkWr

Oh, like Kagome from InuYashu Anime? Back side doesn't show much. This is a pic fron Andy's site: http://www.nihonto.us/ramon%20three%20054.JPG I was thinking of a fuchi/kashira of a bamboo weave basket and then some birds on a branch menuki, (like the bird got freed on the tsuba and is now out of the cage on the tsuka and the basket is empty) but I am going to look more into the story to fit other pieces into it. Black saya and dark blue silk ito would go well with this theme, esp. the night of dawn part and will match up with my first wakizashi I had the handle redone. That has some pine and stars/moon themes to the fittings and persimmon menuki.

Lol, thanks!!

I got a katana from Andy and am trying to figure out the theme to look for menuki and fuchi/kashira pieces that go along with it since I want to replace the WW2 fittings with civilian ones and do a new tsuka/saya: Pic is from Andy's website: Is that a lantern or basket in the lower right corner?

I have had several very good Ebay experiences. But I assume all mei are gimei and I buy the blade, not signature/paperwork. I am not looking for pieces to make a profit; I enjoy studying the steels, hamon, hada, hataraki and I look for interesting pieces that have interesting activity. Kizu are fine by me if they do not detract from the blade. I am looking typically in the under $1K price range and don't mind putting a little extra into them for a polish to see the activities to their fullest. Most of my blades are "study" swords, which to me means I can enjoy them without them being high end blades. Koshirae with the blade is nice, but I prefer a better condition and shirasaya than Koshirae. Something study ready (decent polish, decent shirasaya) is great. Tarnished, rusted blades that need some TLC and a shirasaya are OK as long as the price reflects that. My study blades I enjoy for various reasons and plan to pass them down to my nephews, so I am OK with spending more on them, new polish, shirasaya, etc as a gift to them in the future. I do have 1 blade I would consider a collector blade: signed, ubu, papered with koshirae and minty polish. The other blades have helped me appreciate this blade much more. For a collector level blade, I would go to a dealer, not ebay. For a study blade/low budget stuff, Ebay is fine as long as you aren't expecting the sword to be a hidden treasure and understand what you are looking for and what you are looking at picture wise.

Email incoming.

Yeah, I noticed that Aoi has a lost of mistakes all over their webpages, wrong swords pictures, missing info, etc. Maybe the proof reader is on vacation this summer?

They give a good showing of the sword, but the light shows every little defect. The shinogi looks horrible with the light, but in person, is no where near that bad! Diamond_Boutique is starting to do videos of the stuff they are selling on Ebay as well now, but they don't show the hamon as well in their pics or videos. I got my first Ebay Wak from Diamond_Boutique based on the 1 good pic of the hamon that he had; most of his other stuff doesn't show the hamon very well at all.

Video of the sword from the seller:

Aw hell, I'm a sucker for a choji hamon. I'll take it,I will email you this evening when I get home from my work retreat.

Does it have any tsuka or or just the blade, habaki and saya?

Just finished the download! Wow, 730 pages, I know what I will be reading for the next few days! I read thru several of Markus' stories he printed online from his books; next purchase are the 2 volumes in e book!

Ah, ok, thanks!! Where can I learn more about these types of themes/reasonings/explanation behind them? Would a book about koshirae have them or is it more folklore books I should be looking at?