raynor

Thats some optimistic pricing.

Not the worst I've seen but enough red flags to say stay away. No smith nor polisher worth their salt would let that kinda kissaki, or lack of, out the shop for instance.

I didn't know Masamune dabbled in tosogu, such high level distinguished work is undoubtedly from his hand.

Never had a bad experience with either DHL or Buyee, solid services.

Great sword!

My stepfather's uncle in law is a farmer in southwestern Norway. Some years back he blew up a large boulder on his land and among the debris where the boulder had sat he found several flint arrowheads and one large pristine spearhead in white stone, looks like it was carved yesterday, about 8-10 inches long. Apparently someones hoard from way back, several experts agreed on it being a late stone age or so hoard. A couple tearing up their living room floor last week for refurbishing found a viking grave under it, and now that the glaciers are melting people are finding items from the viking age, middle ages and iron age almost daily here in Norway. "Biggest" find is probably the first viking ship being excavated this summer since about a century. Going camping this summer cause of covid and plan to drive by that excavation and peek since it is right by a road. People loose the strangest things indeed!

They do indeed look more like water buffaloes, I assumed cows since there are not many water buffalo in Japan.

Yep. If I wasnt in the midst of a pandemic and another restoration project I'd be all over this, beautiful blade.

Those two holes caught my eyes to, overall the inlays seems to be in good condition besides those two holes, they appear placed more directly on the branch then the flowers, maybe two little metal birds escaped. Would this piece be worth sending to Shinsa once the world goes back to normal? Shoami makes a lot of sense but since that is a big bucket it would be helpful if they could nail down things like age etc more direct.

I was surprised at the amount of zooming the photos allow, if every item is photographed like that the digital museum might be better then an in person visit

A list of tsuba and a few fuchi kashira from the up and coming digitization of the new Norwegian national museum collection. The popup just states that the site is in beta. Google translate might be handy. The photographs can be enlarged by clicking on them and then further zoomed onto details at wish. https://www.nasjonalmuseet.no/samlingen/objekt/OK-08396 https://www.nasjonalmuseet.no/samlingen/objekt/OK-02955 https://www.nasjonalmuseet.no/samlingen/objekt/OK-09434 https://www.nasjonalmuseet.no/samlingen/objekt/OK-08390 https://www.nasjonalmuseet.no/samlingen/objekt/OK-08395 https://www.nasjonalmuseet.no/samlingen/objekt/OK-04742 https://www.nasjonalmuseet.no/samlingen/objekt/OK-02951 https://www.nasjonalmuseet.no/samlingen/objekt/OK-04747 https://www.nasjonalmuseet.no/samlingen/objekt/OK-04748 https://www.nasjonalmuseet.no/samlingen/objekt/OK-04752 https://www.nasjonalmuseet.no/samlingen/objekt/OK-04744 https://www.nasjonalmuseet.no/samlingen/objekt/OK-08394 https://www.nasjonalmuseet.no/samlingen/objekt/OK-02957 https://www.nasjonalmuseet.no/samlingen/objekt/OK-08392 https://www.nasjonalmuseet.no/samlingen/objekt/OK-04749 https://www.nasjonalmuseet.no/samlingen/objekt/OK-04741 https://www.nasjonalmuseet.no/samlingen/objekt/OK-08393 https://www.nasjonalmuseet.no/samlingen/objekt/OK-02954 https://www.nasjonalmuseet.no/samlingen/objekt/OK-09440 https://www.nasjonalmuseet.no/samlingen/objekt/OK-08391 https://www.nasjonalmuseet.no/samlingen/objekt/OK-07148 https://www.nasjonalmuseet.no/samlingen/objekt/OK-04753 https://www.nasjonalmuseet.no/samlingen/objekt/OK-04754 https://www.nasjonalmuseet.no/samlingen/objekt/OK-02967B fuchi https://www.nasjonalmuseet.no/samlingen/objekt/OK-08413A fuchi kashira https://www.nasjonalmuseet.no/samlingen/objekt/OK-08403A fuchi https://www.nasjonalmuseet.no/samlingen/objekt/OK-08403B fuchi https://www.nasjonalmuseet.no/samlingen/objekt/OK-07306B fuchi

Fairly large and heavy iron tsuba at about 8cm (slightly over 3inches) horizontal and vertical, mumei and unknown school to my fresh eyes, shakudo cows and likely gold, brass or so flowers and leaf inlays. Does anyone have any idea or opinion on the school, ballpark age or other information of this? I know I like it, but always eager to hear other actually educated perspectives. I take it the tsuba is older then the fairly recent meat eating practice in Japan, (since Meiji restoration or slightly prior I think) before European influences the cow was one of the most revered animals to the Japanese. Unfortunately these two first photos in bleak indoor light is the best I can do at the moment, until the pandemic passes this tsuba is out of the country and my reach.

Yes, very clearly fake, and badly made at that. Notice how no effort at all went into the tang.

I can't imagine habaki on equal artistic footing as tsuba and fuchi kashira, but together with its intended blade a well made habaki to me personally have the potential to be a piece of art - simple, direct and effective with a high level of skill evident in its making.

I fully recommend being patient and watching or browse the sales section on this very forum, I've yet, as my still limited knowledge has grown, seen any better deals online. Ever. My first real nihonto I picked up here on the forum- it got me a hefty shinshinto katana in perfect polish, original habaki and saya with a fairly new shirasaya and tsunagi for a price I still can't believe. Granted the blade was unpapered at the time but easily passed Shinsa, as promised by the specs and seller. Any purchase here wont steer you wrong unless there is a string of warnings by members following the ad but that doesnt happen here, people look out for eachother. But first, as already stated, figure out what you want, grab a couple good books and study. Figuring out what you want and getting a taste for the depth of the field makes it more fun.

Gordon Robson has been a great help after contacting him, looks like things might work out.. cautious optimism for now.

I'm gonna risk a bump on this since to avoid succumbing to corona induced wall crawling I have decided to go ahead on this project. Guido gave a very good description of the craftmanship I am after and I got all the pieces together sans the needed new from scratch tsuka and saya. I am in no rush but seeing how shipping items to Japan is out of the question for now does anyone have some names for me stateside regarding quality work for new tsuka and saya, maybe same wrapping? I've already found someone to do the tsukamaki down the road. Looking for quality work and materials, this will not be a flashy mount but I'd want it done right, form from function and so forth.

Stephen has very graciously and kindly given me some information, but I'd rather not get more people involved unless absolutely necessary, especially during these times where a missing piece of paper does not matter at all. At this point, about a year since the Tampa Shinsa I've given up on getting my origami from the agent, and will thus also take a planned sword restoration project elsewhere. Not my best spent $440. If anyone happens to have a way of reaching the NTHK (Yoshikawa group), an email, a phone number or otherwise I'd be happy for any information and try to take it from there myself.

Yep, read those links. In short, NO oil on nakago and tsuba, ever. Regarding the nakago it's not that simple if we consider future generations but leave it til you know what you're doing. Microfiber cloth >>> uchiko powder unless you are literally wiping off the coagulated blood and guts of your enemies..

Get a sub one million rated shinshinto smith's katana in decent polish, let that be your watermelon katana. You wont get great Chinese repro katana for under $800-1000 and even then there will usually be glued tsuka, fake silk ito (not safe!) and $5 zink menuki. Blade will be good if you pick a good smith. For a good Chinese cutter dont buy Japanese swords from them, buy Chinese swords but go through a middleman to avoid the astronomical prices they charge in mainland China now since Chinese collectors are starting to also have money. http://www.lqzwdj.com/247.html

I have both a couple antique tsuba and a 100+ year old pocket watch that still ticks.. time to hit the tool shed, I feel inspired what can go wrong?

Can't comment on the blade, but that habaki is first and foremost not safe, don't try to swing the blade with any force even through air. Second, I thought I saw a Kaga style habaki but upon enlarging the photo it became clear its a very poor reproduction, photo of antique copper Kaga habaki attached for comparison.

I often wonder if the sole criteria for sword quality was its functionality in battle, not aestethics or skill working with what materials were available how the sword ranking landscape would look.

If a subject is important, someone willing to learn will make efforts beyond internet archeology. Buying books and seeing real items is mandatory to really understand. We do live in a time when there is a seeming death of expertise and many are satisfied with quick simple answers from a google search. They will never be experts in whatever the subject is. I firmly believe in time the quality available online will improve, but make no mistake, if you have made no effort asked no silly questions you are none the wiser no matter if its studying nihonto, carpentry, chess or martial arts, there is no free lunch. I've seen some fora used forced participation so to speak by making a pool of topics and/or questions then tackle them point by point with new additions arising as it goes along, the best questions often arise from trying to answer another. I dont think this place needs anything like that, but then again I'm still among the beginners tho I like to think slightly past queries about grandpas bringback by now, but I still read each one of those posted.

Talking from experience as an instructor in a field also including in depth discussions, a forum like this is where it is at. It is made with in depth discussion threads in mind, available for posterity. VERY different to any social media platform with its quick, short, simplified ways of communicating. People interested in the subject beyond scratching the surface or quick google searches will end up finding it, as is evident from all the grandpa's sword inquiries. I don't see any reason why the forum would go away anytime soon.