Carlo Giuseppe Tacchini

More than possible. Sometimes you find on the Nakago inscriptions describing the use of steel from gun barrels.

You should start to learn from nice examples in good polish, and handling them with a mentor. Trying to find out defects from poor internet pictures of an out of polish blade is very difficult and risky.

Thanks Mike. All very nice ones, especially the Ko-Akasaka with ginger and geese.

Indeed. Mike, now I remember them. The 4th and the 6th from left in the 11 places display stand designed by your wife What about pics of the 5th and 7th ?

ONLY... :lol: :lol: So far I've never had problems in finding things to waste my money for and indeed the list is quiet long. Have a good time. Yet again I can't say "see you there" .

Nice one Mike. Really.

My copy arrived just now. Great job Markus.

Shame fully deserved. And you're right about panem et circenses

evilish ... :lol:

Nice one Gabriel. Once I was near to purchase it myself from Curran. Happy it's gone to you. This and a good Jumonji yari are the two types of blades I badly want.

Hi Stephen. If I'm not mistaken (and I'm often) I've seen that picture in an article describing a Togishi hired by the IJA to maintain/repair swords and tsuka on the battlefield (guess Chinese front). It was all about the lack of maintenance and understanding of NihonTo showed by a lot ot officers, brainwashed about the indistructibility of NihonTo with the inevitable consequences this borrowed. Still without my main PC so can't provide any evidence and as said I may be wrong, but it is possibly a civilian hired for sword mainenance. Is there a maintenance kit neat him ? Maybe he's in his own shop at home ?

dr. T can : http://www.una.edu/faculty/takeuchi/DrT ... of_wak.htm

Even not considering the human aspect, I can't think at how many art masterpieces of any sort have been destroyed and still are (Bamiyan Buddha) by conflicts. No matter if right or wrong, needed or not, wars always left us with a lot less then "before". Biggest wish we can express for our children and grandsons is that all weapons will be, one day, regarded either as masterpieces or militaria collectibles, but definitively with no other use.

Just ordered my copy. You deserve an huge thank and support from the community for your efforts.

Ron, samurai weren't better (with the due proportions needed by different ephocs). BTW, the civilized US Army in WWII campaign had blood sacks for "whites" and blood sack for "blacks". Guess which ones were often out of supply ? War has always been a dirty business, everywhere, and we're judging things in a time in which ethic have improved.

Seems pretty much as Rheinard pointed out. Skill of a patended smith overwelm material used.

Eric, I think the stress of this matter was about "official" rather than "Tatara". Smiths made their own raw material for a long time and still do, but at one time after the war rised the concern about the use of industrially produced steel (from Guido's article): "Mr. Yagi's concern about the machine-made material raised a while ago. I am pleased to be able to emphasize that demand for Tamahagane is increasingly higher." Hence the need for re-opening of the Tatara. A way to control the origin of the material used and to give a common starting point to all the contesters (even if we know this is not the case considering the best ones have the first-choice right). But I may be wrong.

1977, I'm getting old. Thanks Guido.

Another thing to be highlighted about the "steel from official Tatara" is that such a tatara has been restored only in relatively recent times. Its 30th anniversary wasn't too many years ago even if I can't remember just now the exact date (back to work, damn). Shinsakuto made before are still legit.

Mike, it would be great to know the sources of the info about absence of "Ono" and how the date is signed or to have such information confirmed by Ono himself thru another post of yours. These important details seems to be a little confusing at the light of other posts in this thread.

Last englishman patrolling the old colony eh ?

If I was searching for troubles I would rise the question "Does Hozon papers consider the actual political situation of the site of production at the time the sword was made?". Honkong in 1943 was part of the Japanese Empire.

Educational, even if sad.

Ray, maybe you'd get in touch with Rich Catalano here : http://www.imperialjapanmedalsandbadges.com/

Dare not. At the time of the answer we'll use it for sure.