b.hennick

HI fellow listeros: Someone brought me a blade that had a very shallow incised mei that was difficult to read. I thought that I could photograph it and improve the visibility with Photoshop. I did not have great success. You will not find this an easy task. Here is the URL to see some photos. All help will be appreciated. http://tinyurl.com/3cbznc

It seems to work perfectly. I can toggle the background in IE 6.

Hi Darcy: I am using explorer version 6 and do have problems. The pictures show with no text over them. The a white space and then the text that is supposed to overlay the photos. On Mozilla it works fine.

Hi Darcy: It certainly is a welcome service. The messageboard offers a buy and sell area as well. I think that your site may have a wider audience. I think that you might need a template for people who want to sell to use so that there is some consistency in the information provided. By filling in a form the information would look better and the only differences would be in the photos and their quality. Again I would expect some check of level of quality to be in place - you do not want out of focus photos. Again I enjoyed your slide shows and perhaps you could have some facility to take photos and make a slide show of them. The question is do you want to have to look at all of this and then upload data, photos and do the communication for only 5%? To me it sounds like a bargain.

For a short trip you could wrap in paper/cardboard and take to a piece of wood longer than the blade. That would protect the blade. A gun case is handy but for flying i recommend a hard shell golf bag case. These are less likely to draw attention to themselves. Everyone wants to see inside a gun case even if a large sign states contains no guns.

This is a show that I also enjoy. I have been able to buy some bargains there. Sales were also OK. Drop by and say hello. May is just around the corner. :D

Hi: I am still waiting for a sword being polished in the U.S. It has been more than two years. BTW I waited nine years for my name to come up to the top of this polishers list. Patience and more patience is needed.

Hi All: I just spent a few hours packing up for the Tampa show. I am taking a few swords - all Hizento and many fittings. If anyone is interested in a preview please PM me and I can send out some photos of the fittings. List members please drop by and say hello. I am offering a 10% discount to list members. I may try to get you to join the JSSUS - sorry no discount there :D . It will be nice to put a face to the names I see on the list.

I checked the seller. He is also selling a "Kaneuji" - again no papers. He has made many sales all under $100 - most around $10. That is a good way to build up positive feedback and then list a big ticket item. I strongly doubt that the blades are as listed on the sayagaki. OTH the KAneuji has good mounts and looks to be agood blade. Being mumei we know that it is not gimei. It is listed at a reasonable price for a mumei blade in that condition and with those mounts.

Hi I visited the Strebel gallery many yearsa go (about 20). There were many tsuba and some swords. Thye havebeen in the business for a long time. I do know about the current owner or if ownership has changed.

A friend came over and gave me some advice on sword photography. The sugata shot was photoshopped to remove background and some dust. What I really want you to look at is the second photo. We experimented with lighting and exposure. Using a macro lens set at f8 and 1/125 s and a good sword I got this picture. I also used Photoshop to remove some background and dust. This small section has the characteristic feature that one can use to identify this high level smith. The sugata of course is to help get the jidai.. :D

Hi Brian: You can use Paypal to pay for the membership. If you let me know who won I can forward that information to the person who keeps our membership list and insure that they get the Newsletter and membership benefits. Regards, Barry Hennick Director/Ombudsman JSSUS visit the JSSUS at http://www.jssus.org

Thanks! Much appreciated.

Can anyone offer a translation of this mei? I am not getting very far. Thanks

Hi John: I have several of the second type. I still like the first one the best! Sorry that it took so long to reply but I was away at my cottage until this evening.

Take a look at http://www.nihonto.us Andry Quirt has a very nice modern tsuba for sale.

Looks like a great piece. I love iron work. If you ever think of selling please let me know. BTW I think that the face is Dharuma. Do you have a photo of the back side of the kozuka?

Great photo! I love the hada. There is more masame than I would have expected.

Hi: I have known Colin for many years. He is one of the good guys in Nihonto. I have bought things from him but have never had restoration work done with him.

Thanks for your help. I have attached two photos of the kozuka. Much has been made of look at the work and then the mei. I agree that that is the way to go. OTH I was interested in the meikan reference so that I could see that. Here are two images of the kozuka.

Someone asked me for a safe method of removing cosmoline from a WWII sword. I remember reading something about this but am at a loss for what the final resolution was. Can anyone please let me know what works safely to remove cosmoline from a Japanese WWII sword? Thanks!

Thanks Franco: This is very different from my kozuka. Mitsumori is the alternate name of Keijo.

I have a kozuka that is supposed to be Goto Keijo (14th gen.) I have misplaced my index to the kinko meikan and can not check the mei. Can some one please read the mei and also give me the meikan reference so that I can compare signatures? Thanks

HI: I too am making the long trip to San Francisco from Toronto Canada. I still have a significant debt to pay off so I will have things priced to sell. It is too early to come up with the list but I am pairing down my collection - so expect some good Hizento.

Hi: JUst Google Hizento and you will get to his web-site. He wrote a book on HIzen blades (I made a small contribution )