Jussi Ekholm

James, do you have pictures of your sword?

But searching the few out of the norm blades is so fun. Found one, Shinogi-zukuri wakizashi by Soshu Masahiro, dated Meitoku Sannen (1392), Sano museum, Masamune book n.48.

I did a quick search on some of my books and failed to find any pre-Oei. I found 2 Nobukuni wakizashi, one shinogi-zukuri and one shobu-zukuri dated Oei Yonnen 1397. All the dated Nanbokucho era wakizashi that I found were hira-zukuri. I can search more books later when I have more time. It's quite interesting subject.

Mariusz have you checked your eyesight lately as I think you might have something in your eye if it hurts? Just kidding mate. You can hear crickets chirping at the SFI Japanese sword section, heading to SBG is the logical thing nowdays. While I agree that the Chinese made production stuff is not in lines of nihonto forum I still think it's sometimes nice to discuss them even in here. No these are not art swords but cheap and affordable user blades. But I really think this is above average production sword, heck I might buy a blade like this for 400-500€'s. I think it will be a nice cutting sword. I've cut with plenty of Fred Chen swords over the years and I think they are pretty good cutting swords in general. The more pics I see of it the more I'm thinking about Fred Chen & Cicada. There are multiple big names in China, Paul Chen (Hanwei) and Fred Chen (Huanuo) are the most well known. In my opinion currently the best forge in China is Kaneie, the Zhejiang Zhengs that Mariusz linked above is low-mid tier maker in my books. Here is the Fred Chen website, and yes they sometimes even sell nihonto: http://www.huanuosword.com/ I think one of the major issue to us who collect nihonto is how to call these. Like Kam I think Chinese production blade is pretty good term. These are not fakes as they are not even sold as genuine Japanese swords in most cases (but apparently in this case this was but it was not from the source in my opinion). Historically there weren't problems as other nations had their own swords. Now you have European, American, Chinese etc. smiths producing Japanese style swords. So it gets somewhat complicated.

I think it's a good sword. I still think that it's made by Cicada Forge. They used Fred Chen, and I tend to like some Fred Chen blades. Now that I got home I can provide some reasoning why I think what I think. I guess Cicada Forge died in 2007 but I was able to find some pics through the Wayback Machine. At Summerchild Polishing, look at the hamon: http://www.summerchild.com/itemcom1.htm FS, at Myarmoury, look at the hamon + same F&K: http://www.myarmoury.com/talk/viewtopic.8943.html Some old pics of Cicada Forge line up: http://web.archive.org/web/20050204221611/http://liveblade.com/cicadaforge/iaiyoavailable.html, http://web.archive.org/web/20060805132858/http://liveblade.com/cicadaforge/liveswords.html Cicada Forge offered custom swords, wo you could choose the parts. Many Fred Chen swords back in c.2005 had similar hamon style. I think the F&K might be Fred Chen "exclusive" as it can be seen on several manufacturers who used Fred Chen for example DGuertin/Oni/Kensei. I think it's monosteel, so no hada. I believe that the effect you see on the blade is created by skilled hybrid polishing. Those skilled in that art can make "hada-like" surface to the blade. I bought an used Paul Chen PPK for 150€'s that looks like it has tight hada. See the pic attached. That is achieved by skilled hybrid polishing on a monosteel blade which in reality does not have hada. In general I think nihonto collectors give too little credit for these production blades, some of them are actually darn good for what they cost. I will say I have bias for them as I started with them as young kid. Better pics will of course help, and I can and I will change my opinion if I'm proven wrong.

I would think the same as Guido. My guess would be a sword from companies using Fred Chen/Huanuo from the early 2000's. That was long ago when I was starting my collecting as young kid so I can't remember all the models from to of my head. My guess is it might be Cicada Forge or DGuertin. Both made good quality reproductions but both companies went under over 10 years ago (at least that is how I remember it). You can search their sites through wayback machine (Internet archive), and old posts at SFI.

As a fellow member of NBTHK-EB I can say that the organization is great as is the knowledge among the members. I agree that joining NBTHK (or any other sword group near you) is very important. You will get to see amazing items with people who can tell you more about the items on display. Our Scandinavian NBTHK group is very healthy with great people & meetings. I haven't been able to visit the meetings in Germany yet but I met some of German members in the big European meeting in May. I think the communication within NBTHK-EB is improving all the time. I remember when I joined several years ago, I didn't get any information about the Scandinavian branch or the German meetings by some email problem, I just got the membership card in mail and the magazine started coming. I was amazed to find out some years ago that there is a very active NBTHK group in Sweden, as for me it's possible to travel there fairly easily. I'm trying to attend the meetings when I can because they are great. So as I was getting only magazines for the beginning of my membership, I can say at least for me they are enough reason to be a member, as I stayed as a member not knowing about the local meetings. There are some amazing articles published in Token Bijutsu over the years. I'll just have to improve my Japanese skills greatly to fully enjoy the magazines. However I will say that for me the other NBTHK-EB members and the meetings are the things that really make the organization shine. Magazine is just a nice membership benefit.

Looks to me like 時代大永頃 - Jidai Taiei goro, 1521-1528.

Looks very nice Piers.

I'm pretty sure that most of the books will have sori measurement from munemachi to tip. After all this is how sori is measured according to pretty much every book I have. I own couple very nice oshigata books that have fullsized oshigata and they are amazing, I've spent lot of time with them as they have blades that interest me very much. These books list the curvature like this, which is really handy. So by just looking at the numbers you get bit of information how the sugata might look like. 反り - Sori 茎反り - Nakago sori I believe full length from nakago end to kissaki end is 全長 - Zencho. For some very curved old tachi this overall curvature can be very large. I measured few for the fun of it. I took 3 swords for which Imeasured this, as the overall curvature is my own measurement it's only c. as I couldn't get it down to mm accuracy as the book has folds and I am very careful in stretching the pages. 1st sword: nagasa: 80,3 cm, sori: 3,2 cm, nakago sori: 0,7 cm, overall curvature: c. 6,0 cm 2nd sword: nagasa: 84,4 cm, sori: 3,2 cm, nakago sori: 0,6 cm, overall curvature: c. 5,0-5,5 cm 3rd sword: nagasa: 83,7 cm, sori: 3,8 cm, nakago sori: 0,4 cm, overall curvature: c. 6,0 cm First two pictures are of sword n.1 and third pic is of sword n.3. As both of the swords I own are tachi I can give similar stats of them as those above. Kuninobu: nagasa: 67,2 cm, sori: 1,9 cm, nakago sori: 0,4 cm, overall curvature: 3,6 cm Kanemoto: nagasa: 84,6 cm, sori: 2,5 cm, nakago sori: 0,4 cm, overall curvature: 4,5 cm And as curvature is discussed Mariusz has just listed this one: http://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/17117-ubu-kamakura-tachi/ Don't know if this post is helpful in any way but I had a lot of fun writing this and measuring things.

Looks to me it could be 越前記内 Echizen Kinai. Do you have larger picture as the quality is very low?

SOLD

Shipping cost to USA is 48€ and shipping within Europe depends on the country 25-35€.

Guess I should have bumped this up earlier but I haven't had a huge need to sell these. Now it's time for a big price drop. 200€ + postage & Paypal.

The title looks to me as 新刃銘盡 = Arami Mei Tsukushi. It's a sword book that was written in 1721, and I believe it has 6 parts. Your part seems to be 5th as it has kanji 五. You can find bit info on the book here:http://www.h6.dion.ne.jp/~tonsan07/book14.html Here is a full set of 6 books for auction: http://aucview.aucfan.com/yahoo/e147005550/ I think it's a great find as I like sword books.

Diego, have you been in contact with I.N.T.K Itaria Nihon Token Kyokai, http://www.intk-token.it/? It is an Italian group for nihonto collecting. I think it would be good thing to show the sword to someone locally. It would be great to show the wakizashi to some of them in person. Of course there are also people with very high knowledge in European N.B.T.H.K, so there are options for good quality opinions and discussion about your sword quite near you. I am not sure if you already know these organizations but getting in contact with someone locally is always a good thing for the future.

I'm hoping more experienced members can chime in on this one. Unfortunately the pic is bit small and I can't make out every character. Here is my translation about the comments section, I know I have errors in here so I'm hoping someone will correct them. 和泉氏 入道正久と銘し - Mr. Izumi mei Nyudo Masahisa 明珍宗久と合作がある - Myochin Munehisa to gassaku ga aru : Collaboration with Myochin Munehisa 本作黒味を?びた鉄地に迫のある竜頚を - Hon saku Kuro aji wo ? bita tetsu-ji ni sako no aru ryukei wo : This work black taste ? (bita?) steel surface and dragon 鋤出彫りで?し - Sukidashi bori de ? shi : (Sukidashi technique means carving off large parts of tsuba and remaining surface is finished with fine chisels) ???? - Then I couldn't figure out next one 両櫃は赤銅で埋め - Ryo hitsu wa shakudo de ume : Both hitsu are filled with shakudo 美事に仕上げてあがる - Migoto ni shiagete agaru : ? ?少で?重なる名鍔 - I got mei that overlaps for this partial column I saw that Haynes also listed him working together with Myochin Munehisa (him making the plate and Masahisa doing decoration), so it seems to me that this paper suggests similar for this tsuba. I got to briefly see this tsuba but I don't know much about tsuba so my thinking does not mean much. I thought it was quite nice tsuba but I can't say anything else about it. Hopefully someone can help more, I had to wait until I was at home with my books and bookmarks before I posted in this thread.

I think ura side starts with 戊辰, which is the year of earth dragon. NKP has good info on zodiac system: http://www.jssus.org/nkp/kanshi.html

I know this is not entirely in the spirit of discussion board as I'm pointing you away from the board but have you contacted the European NBTHK? There are members who have amazing knowledge of Goto and I've had the pleasure of hearing few amazing lectures about them. I heard about this confirmation thing on the last meeting that I attended in May. However I do not want to quote what I remember because there is too much chance of me understanding it bit wrong, fittings are not my strong part and these Goto lectures have had so much information crammed into small time and it's bit too advanced for me to process all of it yet. You can PM me Ludolf and I can put you in touch with a person who held this latest Goto lecture. I just don't want to write how I remember it as it was bit over my understanding so my information is bit half-assed as I understood bits & pieces. You can get the best information directly from the source.

In my opinion it's buyers responsibility to do the research. I know I might have overpaid on few items and that is entirely my own fault. If you are not certain about your decision you should not buy. That is why generally people in this forum people suggest getting into books and meetings before you buy things. You need to know what you are buying. If you don't feel you have enough knowledge on a certain item, why are you thinking about buying it? Well as this hobby is our passion any reason is as good as the other one. You sometimes make decisions by feelings. There are plenty of people with enough money to buy swords but for me it's more important why you buy that certain sword. I always recommend meeting people who share this same passion. I know more senior collectors who know much much more than I do, and if I would think about a very large purchase I would discuss it with many of them to get advice. For example I don't know much about Shin Shinto, so I would not be confident in buying a Shin Shinto. I got to kantei few good blades of this period in the last NBTHK meeting. Needless to say I didn't have enough knowledge to guess smiths, heck I'm happy that I kinda got some clue about the general direction of one blade of this period. If you are not confident in your decision don't buy. It never hurts to seek guidance from more experienced collectors.

You can follow the project on the Kickstarter page: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/525883510/Japanese-metalwork-technique-by-ford-hallam

Not exactly what you are asking for but this will be similar to what Paul said about Enju. I have a tachi that is signed Kuninobu, NBTHK gave it Nanbokucho attribution but kuni fumei (province unknown). So of course I've been trying to figure out as much as I can by myself, which is very hard for a novice. These are some of my findings, not sure how accurate they are. Rai school uses a lot this type of kuni character, here are some variations of it in easy to see form. Enju school uses a lot of this "3" type signature as Paul said. Uda school uses a lot of this type of kuni character. And finally pic of the mei of my tachi which looks bit like the way Rai school signs kuni but it's not quite like that I think.

To me it looks like 忠善作 Tadayoshi saku.

The stand is usually soft wood, and it seems there is also bit of a cushion between stand & target in this video. They are practicing/displaying horizontal cutting of makiwara. If a sword would be severely damaged in a cut like that I would think it as a poor sword. Hitting soft wood should not be devastating to a sword.

I think the first one would be 寫 Meaning copying (different form of writing utsushi): http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E5%AF%A