hoovesandswords

This is really quite interesting, Bruce! Thank you for sharing your charts and survey results thus far. Sadly, as far as numbers go, I've only worked with taxes, so I likely cannot contribute anything haha. Nevertheless, good luck gathering more data!

Just popping in to say that these are quite fascinating to look at! I never even knew they existed.

Lovely, and that date! Very nice indeed. Love the 'name' as well, haha. Amazing.

Thank you! I will definitely do that; I currently have a few books on the way, and will be looking into more. I've also printed off some of the PDF articles found around the board to read over. The smith I will hopefully be apprenticing under is a member of the Saltfork Craftsmen, which is an Oklahoma-based blacksmith association that I'm also a member of (they're affiliated with ABANA). There are several blacksmiths who also make blades and teach in the community, but sadly none of them make Japanese blades that I'm aware of. Still, it's a good place to start, and I'm looking forward to learning the basics so I can expand on it when I get the opportunity to. Although I would love to learn to smith knives and other kinds of swords initially, it's my hope to be able to make Japanese blades someday. Happy holidays to you as well! Thanks!

Hello all. I thought I'd introduce myself since I'm new here. My name is Jordan, I'm 20 yrs old and I hail from Oklahoma. I'm currently working towards a welding certification, and an apprenticeship under a local blacksmith/swordsmith. I'll also be enrolling in an iaido dojo soon. I'm completely new to collecting, even though I've been fascinated by Nihonto and Japanese culture in general since I was much younger. I'm currently just trying to soak up as much knowledge as possible; I'm in no hurry to buy my first blade, I want to know so much more about Nihonto before I do that. I also want to avoid making as many starry-eyed mistakes as possible while still remaining passionate. I look forward to learning from all of you. Thank you. -Jordan