Walter

Thank you VERY much!

Lately my PC hard disc has crashed and I couldn't recover the lost data. This is the way I've lost the info about the maker of this waki ... nay help, please? I've took few pictures with different light to make the inscription better visible. Thanks in advance for help.

I have this tanto for some time. Been told the mei says Kanemoto. Have checked the refference about the smith and found 10 Kanemoto - all from Mino Province. is it possible to determinate which one has made this blade? Since I prepare it for sale I'd like to give the potential buyer some more info. Thanks in advance. Here some photos:

The problem with Post Canada is that you can insure the shipped item only up to $1,000.00 Also, sometimes when you declare the "sword", they may refuse to accept the package for shipping as "dangerous item". It happened to me already few times ... so I always have with me some old shipping receipt where "sword" is mentioned just to show them that I've shipped some in the past without problems. When you ship the sword you always want the tracking number - in this case you need to ship with Expedited Parcel or XpressPost. Few weeks ago I wanted to ship the really small packet with tsuba to Australia ... the shipping price was ... $50.00 !!!

Well ... it's regular Shin-Gunto, machine made, oil quenched sword in good condition. The BIN price $1,200.00 looks normal to me - they becoming more and more expensive with time. This seller has won last Sunday my auction for Shin-Gunto sword and will sell it probably on eBay sooner or later. Hermes, Are you looking for Shin-Gunto sword? I have another one for sale - if you are interested, PM me.

I didn't bid on this sword (as Canadian resident) just because of 5% GST ...

There's Louis Skebo in Ottawa. Here's his website: http://www.japaneseswordcollector.com/ However I'm not 100% if he still doing the polishing jobs - you can email and ask him.

Thank you Brian for the comment. I just needed some kozuka for my tanto, even if tanto is Muromachi era and kozuka ... have no idea. Wasn't looking for some high-grade kozuka, but at least genuine.

Thank you, Gentlemen for your comments. Yes, I think the slideshow is the good way to present the new aquisition without wasting the Forum bandwith. I'm really happy with this naginata ... now I need the nice yari!

Is it kozuka or just the kitchen knife for peeling the potatoes? Recently have bought it on eBay to fill an empty kozuka slot on my tanto: Here some picks: It looks nice with the tanto, however I'm not really sure if it's genuine one... The blade was totally rusty (all black) and I cleaned it a bit - looks like there's some mei on the blade (not sure if it's even readable). Here the slideshow with some more photos: http://s217.photobucket.com/albums/cc23 ... =slideshow

That unfortunately wouldn't work. I have the US account in Canada and another one in US (Citibank). PayPal refuses to transfer the money to my US account based in US because I'm a Canadian resident. I tried to give them my US account in Canada (Bank of Montreal) for the transfer - same thing. They want just my primary account number which is in Canadian pesos. Of course, they don't charge anything for the transfer ... just the exchange rate, which is totally ridiculous (HIT #1). After that, when I transfer it to my US account, there's bank exchange rate... (HIT # 2) ... The ONLY way is to NOT SHIP anything until you receive the FULL payment! No exceptions! One more thing: If you don't like to suffer the PayPal fees (who does?), ask the buyer to make a PayPal via eCheck - the PayPal fee is only $5.00 doesn't matter the transaction amount. Fees for receiving eCheck payments will not exceed $5.00 USD per transaction. - Check Here: https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/websc ... countries=

Now, that's hilarious! Customer's happiness is obligatory ...or else... Kind of Stalinist policy of the happiness. I've very often been rated lower (4-3 stars) especially by US buyers for slow shipping, which takes usually 2 weeks, because of the Customs bureaucracy, while shipping to Europe or Asia takes 5-6 days. Should I leave the negative feedbacks for that???

Thank you very much! How to determine if it's genuine or not? Any hint? It's matching, silver (think so) set fuchi/kashira with peony pattern:

Always wanted to have a nice naginata ... and finally got one! Maybe not the BEST possible, but at least didn't cost me arm or leg. :D It's signed Chikugo Kurume ju Fujiwara Takekuni 筑後久留米ä½è—¤åŽŸæ­¦å›½ and dated Genroku 14 nen 11gatsu kichijitsu (lucky day Nov. 1701)元禄å四年å一月å‰æ—¥ Here's a small slide-show with my new beauty: http://s217.photobucket.com/albums/cc238/dr_schmeisser/nihonto/naginata/?albumview=slideshow

I have a wakizaschi by Sukesada. Recently have "discovered" that the fuchi is signed - Anyone could translate the signature, please? Thank you in advance. Walter

And from which seller! There are still some really good and honest sellers on eBay, like: kanetoyo2666, showa22, fujisanblack, daimyou54eb ... and perhaps few others we can trust so far.

Stephen, I fully agree - the traditional methods are much better than any "modern", chemical stuff. However I can't resist temptation to try something unorthodox when I get in my hands something that requires improvement. Right now I've finished the first pass of Simichrome on recently purchased waki with lot of gray spots and some fingerprints on the blade. Believe me or not - it looks better than before. Fingerprints are almost gone, few gray spots are much smaller and hamon looks even more pronounced. Anyway I plan to send this waki for polishing, so in case of any harm done the polisher will deal with this. What REALLY scares me it's the so-called "hybrid polishing" method ... I'd NEVER touch the Nihonto blade with ANY sandpaper!

Thanks, John. That's what I was thinking - it's too sticky. How about Simichrome? Have you ever tried it?

Anybody has used the Renaissance Wax on Nihonto? I use it on my German and other countries daggers and swords from years and it works fantastic, however never tried on Nihonto. I'm following the care & conservation tips and use only the choji oil so far. What's the Renaissance Wax? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renaissance_Wax

Sure! Toto was always my favorite.

It's not even close to any known German officer sword - it's just the 100% authentic Chinese fantasy sword, pretending to be a German made Prinz Eugen pattern degen.

Carlo, Even with my poor Italian I can see that the description of item is "handle decoration of Japanese sword" ... What a morons! For sure, the "spada" (sword) is the keyword triggering all possible alarms in their tide heads. They may feel much more important catching "such dangerous" item! That reminds me an old movie with Toto and his troubles with some dumb, however "very important" Customs officer...

Hi nickn, Thanks for the answer. Could you post some photo of your showa tanto in shirasaya, please? I wonder how it should look in full mounts, if someone has the photo. Would it be considered as "gendaito"?

Hmmm... Insulting or rude answers, bashing... etc.- I dare to think that's the problem of every single Forum (doesn't matter the subject). Each Forum starts with group of nice, helpful people with great passion of collecting some stuff, willing to help the newbie’s and of course, later, more people join the gang. With time some topics getting hot and some Members starts to disagree with others in nasty, arrogant way, ignoring the very basic rule of the civilized, public discussion: "We agree to disagree". This is the straight way to lose some most valuable Members - some of them will come back in the future (which is really great), some not (which is very sad). I've been and still participate in many Forums (WW2 history, cats, tarantulas...don't laugh..., European edged weapons, photography...you name it) and believe me, I can see the same problems everywhere. I'm rather new to this Forum, but so far I can say the NMB is the group of nicest and most helpful people I've ever met. Most probably it's because of the fact that people interested in Nihonto - not really for the $$$ value, but for the artistic reason have no choice but to switch somehow their minds to Japanese way of thinking, where politeness (even if they want to be rude deliberately) require the polite way of expression. Brian and Stephen are doing really great job for which I want to thank them. I'd like to thank also to Mr. Barry Hennick for helping me to find my very first, GREAT katana! He is a great example of very knowledgeable person willing to help a "regular Joe" with starting the hobby. A real Sensei (well ...he's a science Sensei anyway...) I hope, no one will leave this great Forum and we can still discuss all (even hottest) topics with clear mind without the "elitism" syndrome. PS - please forgive me my "untrained" English.

Isidro, If you mean this sword: http://www.e-sword.jp/sale/0810_1073syousai.htm the document you can see it's not the NBTHK paper - it's the torokusho (registration paper) required by the Japanese Firearms and Sword Law: http://www.nihontokanjipages.com/japane ... _laws.html And guess what? The Iaito / Mogito (training and decorative swords made from a zinc-aluminum alloy that can't be sharpened) are exempted from this law. I think that for Iaido you would need the sword in full mounts - the linked one (with torokusho) has just the shirasaya for safe storage. BTW - It's very nice sword. Have no idea why you need the katana with NBTHK papers for practice the Iaido, but I may have something for you (a nice shin-shinto signed katana in full koshirae with NBTHK papers) in this price range. PM or email me if you are interested.