b.hennick

I agree Mike and Bob did a fine job. A job made easier by the quality of koshirae on view. Both of these gentlemen are not only knowledgable but they share their knowedge freely. Both love swords and fittings. They have turned this love into a business but they still give freely to the sword community. Thank you again for the time, effort and work that both of you do to further the knowedge of sword enthusiasts.

There is collectors insurance available in the U.S. that is comprehensive and inexpensive. My concern about your insurance, as with any insurance, is that you will need to provide documented evidence of value before you could collect from the insurance company. Your word will not count at all.

If you really want ot be insured, you will need to get legitimate appraisals. I suggest that at the very least you photograph everything and keep all papers seperate from the swords/fittings. If you have a safety deposit box, keep the papers and a description or a video of the pieces in the box.

Insurance ia great until you need it ,then it becomes a battle over what you lost and what it actually was worth.

Finally, unfortunately collectors insurance is not available in Canada. An inexpensive rider ($10) will bring the value of your home and contents together to cover contents losses. Same situation re: valuations.

Like life insurance you never do want to collect!

I'll be there Friday as well.

See you...Please drop by. You might recognize me by my avatar if it is working...

The menuki have an art deco look about them to me. This is the year of the water dragon. Interesting koshirae.

I always thought that color was best seen in the kissaki as it is easily changed in the rest of the blade.

My friend and I are working on a presentation for our sword club. The topic is kantei for quality or judging quality. We have considered starting with a discussion on what consitutes a "quality sword" and then have the group look at a group of three swords that all have the same hamon type (e.g. suguha). Individually they will be asked to rate them from best to worst. This will be followed by a discussion of the blades. The process will be repeated with a different set of blades.

What I am looking for is your ideas of what the discussion should include.

I have used a thin piece of leather. It compresses easily enough/ Cut to shape and your done. Leather comes in many thicknesses.

Here is a tsuba where the seppa dai has been enlarged but the ana for the kozuka left alone.

This one you pointed to is too wide and would not fit. If you look at the photos on picassa you will see how small the slot in the saya is.

Please do not overlook the leather wrap of the handle. That was done, I was told by the seller, by one of the best or very best with this type of wrap. Brian Tschernaga told me that he cannot get that quality leather to work with.

Hell Franco et al:

Kantei is great but one needs to learn to walk/crawl before running. One can use "study swords" to learn terms and activites in blades, shape as well.

At our next Toronto sword club meeting the topic will be kantei for quality of work in swords. Rather than who made it the question will be how well was it made?

We have run several traditional and Rochester study group style of kantei but this one will be for quality...

The Rochester study group developed a team kantei where the members were divided into two teams and the team discussed each blade and the reasoning for determination. The idea was that senior members could guide junior members with all learning. Making someone articulate reasoning is a good learning experience.

Here is a photo of a katana size tsuba that has one hole for a bashin. There is a shakudo overlay that makes it look like there is an ana for a kogai.

The rest of the koshriae can be seen here:

https://picasaweb.google.com/b.hennick/ ... tTu9tC-nAE

The blade that goes with the koshirae is by Rai Kuninaga aka Nakajima Rai.

It was about 1978. Therewere not many books on Japanese swords. I had an opportunity to buy from a collection of swords that were brought into my city. The owner had a good eye and owned a militaria store. I decided to buy 7 swords all with something from which one could learn. A friend bought one. WE paid about the same for my group and his one. I studied and learned from the 7 and in the end sold all of them. I now own the one my friend bought. It was a better blade - a keeper. The others taught me a great deal. In the end I learned and it did not cost me much.

So yes there are study swords.

Here is another example, I am a member of the Rochester sword study group. I bought from one member a papered Yamato Tegai wakizashi. It was a typical Tegai and a good blade to learn from. I sold it to another member of the group. In the end each of us owned that blade and learned from it. All of us can recognize a Tegai blade when we see one. That was indeed a good sword to learn from.

HIgo school certainly made smaller kozuka and kogai as I have seen several. I have been looking for a Higo Umabari that is small for a long time length 1 5/8" witdth less than 1/4". If you come across one please let me know.

Loved it! It was interesting to see the Japanese version of seveal arts. It is amazing how many things are the same as in North America and that some are differrent. I remember my wife complaining about removing grass stains from my gi. I can see that the folks in the video will have a similar problem...

There was one form where I would have enjoyed to see the whole form rather than just part of the kata.

Welcome to nihontomessageobard. You will find this an interesting place. Free with informaiton but sometime a little intollerant of those who don't listen.

A failry recent JSSUS Newsletter article by Francicso Couthino suggested that HIzento were made at least in part with Nanbam tetsu.

Hello Tom:

I went to renew my membership. I could not find a link to Paypal. Can you provide the address to send the renewal to,

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I agree "sokurri" = look alike. Both folding kake are bery similar.

I took some photos of my sword racks (not the built in ones) and posted them on Picassa. Here is the link to all those3 photos. I have attached a couple of photos to start us off.

Here is the link to the photos:

https://picasaweb.google.com/b.hennick/ ... N-Gi5OdyQE

Piers please start a new thread on katana kake. I have several and am always looking for others. I do not particularly like most lacquered ones. Some are so gaudy. I think that the sword koshirae or shirasaya should be the focus not the lacquer work on the kake.

BTW Curran if yours becomes available please let me know. I hope to see you in Tampa in February.

I started with Hizento and collected them for many years. An exhibit of Soshu blades at one sword show made me interested in Soshu Den and koto blades. Although I still have many Shinto blades my favourites are mostly koto pieces thesedays. It took a number of years collecting to appreciate suguha rather than the exuberant midare/choji of Hizento but I now do.

Yes Shinshito blades generally in good condition but if you look and are willing to pay for it you can get Shinto and Koto blades in excellent condition. I think that the longer you collect the higher the standards that you set foryour collection become. One usually buys only blades better than what you currently have rather than worse.

Hi Curtis:

I collect iron menuki these look like iron. I looked on ebay but did not find them. Do you have a link.

Hello Keith:

I have seen them displayed together on a suit of armour. The tanto through the obi and the tachi hanging down. I have never seen a rack (kake) built for both.

Fond memories of Krash! He put me on to older I mean very much older swords.