falconj

thanks for the very interesting series of articles regards John

thanks Ian and all, so maybe a toothbrush or similar and a vacuum cleaner on the go at the same time sucking any rust, gunk away? regards John

sorry about the slow reply people, and many thanks for the info you have posted, but I have only just been able to take some photo's of the rusty areas , hope the photos are good enough regards John

hi all, there is a small area of light rust that has developed on the fine chain mail on one of the sleeve guards from a suit of armour I have, this could possibly from being stored incorrectly. To try to contain this, should I ( after taking steps to the protecting of the fabric under and beside the chain mail ) spray or brush on some form of rust removal or rust preventative the likes of "CRC" or similar to the effected area? any advice welcome thanks regards John

Trent, were there any good buyers spending? or did any bigger name swords change hands during the two days, john

I have another 220 page book, showing 4260 illustrations of Japanese crests or mons called 'Japanese Design Motifs' compiled by 'The Matsuya Piece-Goods Store' written in 1972, although it does have English introduction and index in Japanese and English, and you can find the mon very easily, it also does not reference to whose family the mon belonged to, but a good quick reference to find a mon ps: Barrie I found your two mons and you can borrow the book next time your down this way. regards John

Trent, does your cutting test blade have any NBTHK OR NHTK origami to authenticate the actual blade? the reason I ask is I have a sword signed by the same 2 smiths ( maybe father and son I was told?? ) and although the signature I have, is on a wakizashi and very close to your mei, it failed NTHK recently John

gidday there John, it will be good to catch up again John and Kristie, your display and quality of items at this show for the last few years have always been nothing short of excellent and you have always taken time to fully explain all aspects of the item's in question, a big thank you, I am going to be looking hard at your selection of tsuba and swords again this year! see you Saturday morning early!!, regards John

I think the ' Hiwajima Antique Fair ' ( spelling ? ) is a good day to go and see, but I seem to remember it is in May but it might be twice a year, you should check John

This is an excellent thread and showing off some beautiful pieces, well done to all so far, hope more is to come, here's my 2 bobs worth, my apologies for the photo quality, but you will get the idea a tanto signed fukuyama han sukeyoshi with its koshirae a wakizashi papered to 2nd genation magaroku kanemoto this is the original kanemoto 2nd gen koshirae including wooden menuki on tsuka as found a katana papered to 1st generation kanemoto hope you like them regards John

very nice, thanks for sharing John

Gidday Hamfish, yes 3 is the limit, and its also very good idea to get dual English-Japanese language letter from Aoi-Art ( or wherever ) explaining to the airport people what swords you are bringing in and for why, ( appraisal, polish etc ) you will need to apply at the airport for a temporary sword licence to take them in on arrival and take them out again on departure from Japan, you need to declare them on your arrival card, don't know where you are leaving from, but when I am leaving from Australia, I take an oshigata to customs, get them to stamp and sign on departure, this saves a lot of hassle on the return, just present their own paperwork for the swords when you get home. John

I think you have done well Zhang, and it looks to be the complete package, some of these better 'gendai' smiths swords do attract a lot of money, many of the expert people here seem to agree, and as it has been stated has been bought from a trusted seller, so please let us all know when it arrives as to your thoughts when the sword is in hand, regards John

Hi All, I like this idea to, as most books available ( not all ) seem to target only " top end " or " museum quality " in detail whereas in reality a lot of us will never see, much less hold, swords of that calibre, ( I have been lucky ) and reading through some books, they have great detail of top end sword oshigata, sword description, smith history and family detail, ( I know this information is available from swords easily accessed in collections, museums etc ) however as we get down to the lower end smiths, not all this detail is available, but then some of us still collect these swords either by coincidence/availability, ie: what is available to us or money constraints, but we still chase the information that we require, and a lot of it is unavailable, just my thoughts, only just wish full thinking Markus! regards John

many thanks for that Matt, that is exactly what I was looking for, I wanted to check the kanji size and none of the other examples of " kanetada ", that I have seen have had any stamps on the tangs either, I am not sure where he worked, but will keep digging, interesting! regards John