ChrisW

Its not unheard of actually. I have a Bungo Fujiwara Toyomasa with an intentionally different style of hamon on each side (one side is notare, the other gunome). And from what I was told, it is intentional generally speaking. If you're ever able to attend an ITK meeting, I'd be happy to let you see it! (Our next meeting is Jan. 21st)

I got a bilingual (English) copy of Nihon no Bi by Gakken. Wonderful book with a lot of information and eye candy to look at! Has a ton of very beautiful blades in 100% or close to scale size.

I was going to suggest this. Beat me to it! Could also be a case of someone simply not understanding how Japanese swords work and what makes a fatal flaw fatal.

Will the real Slim Shady please stand up?

It should be a good start! And there are a few individuals that collect in your region I believe. Can't remember off the top of my head though; but I believe one is a really high-end collector.

What state are you located in? There might be some you weren't able to find.

Eric is a stand-up guy and if his price doesn't exactly suit you, talk to him and negotiate a little. He won't cut himself off at the knees, but he is like any merchant of sense and will work towards making a sale if you're reasonable with him. I recommend him. I've bought from him before and been quite satisfied with what I got.

Brian is right. You're taking a pretty big assumption on if there are flaws or not. If this guy lives near you, you ought to see if you can just see it in person. As any blade-buying should be done. No pictures of the nakago is a dealbreaker for me!

Would it be possible for us to see a shot of the nakago and one of the entire bare blade? It looks like a very nice piece.

This is a lovely piece! Thank you for sharing it.

If that first item has hada and is traditionally forged, then I am a fan of it! From what I can see, it appears to at least have some activity.

There will not be an ITK meeting for the month of December! However, we will have one in January. It will take place on Saturday, January 21st at 10AM. Our meeting will be held in the Morgan County Public Library in downtown Martinsville, IN and is open to the public. The topic is: The Five Great Traditions: The Bizen School wherein members will bring in various books and representative pieces to help foster a discussion on the traits, chronology, etc of the Bizen school.

I highly recommend this! My take on that tanto, or what is left of one is that its basically a metal sliver at this point. But that's based on the few photos and being unable to see much detail.

Well... fun fact for you then: it is illegal for the original torukusho to leave the country. The literal best he could do would be a photocopy of the original. If he is claiming these are ORIGINAL torukusho, then he has done something VERY illegal.

Sheesh. These are some ugly fakes. It ruins it for everyone else that deals in legitimate pieces as it makes the public assume that the rest of us are selling reproductions/fakes too. Can't tell you the number of times I've had people be surprised at street fairs to be told that what I've got is authentic.

Lovely piece! Can we get some closeups of the hada?

I just realized, I meant to say BOSHI not bohi! One missed keystroke changes the meaning completely. But I can see from your photos that it appears that the boshi is intact. This does appear to be made from a longer blade, as the nakago is rather crudely executed and the bohi travel on through it.

Is the bohi intact? This blade's shape looks very odd to me. Looks like it was made from a much longer blade.

Heck, I'd buy one as a snack during a show!

The best advice for eBay is to bear in mind that it is a den of sharks and you are just as likely to be deceived as you are to find an honest piece there. There are good sellers there, but they ask market prices for their items. You're unlikely to find a good piece at a bargain price unless you're willing to accept some condition issues. If you're feeling ready to buy your first blade, browse the sales here and/or check out the many listed reputable sellers at the top under "Nihonto Info -> Commercial Links," that will give you access to a decently-sized list of dealers whom are known to be honest and will even work with you on price a lot of the time.

Brian is very correct. Buy the sword, not the story. Perhaps browse swords for sale here or at any of the dealers listed above? Or start with books. (that is usually the recommended route: less expensive, more can be learned).

It was a plain black textured lacquer saya; not sure if it ever had a leather combat cover on it or not. A lot of the lacquer has flaked off and the wood is cracked in places.

While this is true that soldiers were not permitted to bring any random sword to service, there were the Gunzoku whose swords only had to loosely resemble regulation fittings. Though I doubt this sword is gunzoku. The other possibility is that this sword, along with other civilian swords, were surrendered to the US military at the end of the war per the order of the Foreign Liquidation Commission.

Good point Brian! Fair enough. Gimei most often do make an attempt at appearing to be correct, but there's no way to confirm that this one was made by a Hizen smith even if the sugata were to be correct.

So we're looking at a gimei Tadahiro made by a Hizen smith. I had thought as much. Thanks for clearing that up John!