Babu

Brian please can you permit this question. Hi I wonder if anyone knows if there were kantei points on hamon that terminated in a downward sweep about 1mm after the ha? I've just bought a blade that exhibits this and wonder if it's not such a common trait? All my other swords tend to go into the nakago even when ubu. For the record this blade is ubu nakago with no movement of the ha or mune. It's untouched. Second question on utsuri. If this is clearly evident and easy to see are we talking about very early koto blades or Shinto? Thank you Adam.

I understand things went full circle and the early lacquer artists who went into tosogu went back to lacquring and also pipes and tobacco pouches.etc Artists I've known to have done this are Masachika of the Bushu school and ever Tsuchiya yasuchika. I've seen glorious lacquering by both.

Be that as it may if the post office lose a parcel that's one thing. If a parcel arrived empty that's a criminal offence although they may try in defence that it must have bust it's way out if the packet in transit. It's a difficult one. One of the things I've noted is that when we send swords away to a specialist to ship to Japan for say shinsa they always ask us to low value the item to $100 so they don't have to front import duty This is a big worry for me for just the reason above and insurance. When my sword gets returned to me I will ask Bob to declare it's full value including any polishing cost as I will not pay duty on my own goods being returned and I want the protection.

I'm not sure if it's true for everyone but my friend who works at our post office stated that when they are scanned as part of tracking they are weighed so it should be relatively easy to determine at what part of the journey the weight changed and put it down to a specific depot.then to the operative who handled that delivery shipment. So them getting away with it is slim.

Gents there is evidence of polishing the Nakago as the yasureme at the highest points are rubbed flat. I had a late shin shinto 1870 echizen tanto signed Kanetsugu years ago and there was literally no rust or patina on the Nakago it looked new but the yasureme was not flattened out as this is.

It is a bat roost in the eaves of a Japanese temple where bats are considered as great fortune and lucky.😂

And yet Jacques when I callange the books I'm shot down in flames. But I totally agree they are often copied from other much older sources that may or may not be reliable.

Ok please do not take this the wrong way I'm just curious. If you can buy aTamba no Kami in Aoi Art for $2200 why would you invest what $600-700 in shinsa of a similar blade? I appreciate that it's interesting but it will not add any significant value as this Smith lineage was prolific. Please take this as a genuine question rather than a slight. Regards Adam

Bob, your sage council is very much welcome and is the voice of reason in an unreasonable world. I have already said I feel all of us would get on well in real life and even if we disagreed it would be good naturely disagreements. The written word though is another matter. Thank you

I'm sorry but on this occasion I'm unsure exactly what I've done to piss off so many people. It helps to know where I err. You know I'm pretty certain that if we all sat around a table with a beer and a packet of pork scratchings we would get along famously . I think the typed word removes context and inflection from a statement and causes more misunderstanding than you would believe. I cannot change how a person might read into a statement to interpret it in the way they choose. It still may not have been the way it was intended though . It's that subjective view we all have.

What prey have I invented in this thread that could even remotly justify such an off the topic responce? People are weird.

On that Brian I totally agree and have said it many times I'm not suited to the herd attitude of forums with established guru members who know it all. Soon people...I'll be gone soon. I'm just tidying up loose ends. You can then spend your days agreeing with each other and patting yourselves in the back. However the PM comment was true George has built his own reputation on here and his attitude has worked against him as much as mine has against me. It's only a friggin Goose vs bat conversation FFS.

Are you then suggesting he could not have phrased it better Brian? I've had about fourty PMs from members asking if I had killed your dog George. Isn't that interesting.

I don't like the way people like you attack differing opinions. It's as simple as that. Books have been known to be very much wrong so stop believing everything you see in print. I have already shown why I think they are possibly bat's. Now it's down to each individual. Your a puppet so we know exactly where you stand. I'll comment no more.

Without taking the joy out of everyone's pleasure in insulting other members just because they get their jolly's that way. I have stated that the shape to me represents a bat because of the exaggerated curved wing and shown this on Chinese porcelain. You will never see a goose like that in any dynasty. Its not a goose to Chinese. Thats it really. My tsuba posted is Geese and very different to the OP. The other "bat like" shape is a subject of personal interpretation. So stop being little children because I doubt you would be like this if I was stood in front of you being 6'6" and 265lb 😉

I don't think I was suggesting that he did I was merely telling him how they are constructed. However Barry is correct they would make nice kozuka. If you cannot say something constructive sir perhaps say nothing?

Well sadly they look exactly like the bats on my Chinese porcelain. That's all I can say. I've got tsuba with geese and they tend to look like this: I've not one described as geese that look like the OP tsuba but I appreciate I'm as usual wrong by default once the numbers come against me. So there are many ways to Sukashi a goose and it's down to the owner to try to interpret what that tsuba maker intended.

Mauro whether you agree or not tsuba no 1 you show is bat's. They are not Geese. I've never seen that shape described as Geese. Always bat's In Whatever culture you choose. 😊

Yes your correct it's got turnback on the boshi so your spot on. I'm leaning towards shinshinto. Simply due to little patination of the Nakago.

They are nice. If you sell I collect kiseru so let me know.😊 I have a couple of kozuka that have panel rather than being one piece so to speak. One is a sort of Soten so I think your bottom image is Soten but the top is another school Mito. Perhaps. I like the first the best. The panels are glued using resin glue and are quite easy to remove but not in a non destructive way to the kiseru.

Bat's wings sort of sweep around and terminate in front of the head. So let's say sweep forward. Geese terminate at the shoulder so we can say sweep back. The NBTHK will call yours bat's and this one I've posted Geese. I think if you think about it you can see the similarities. I used to collect Chinese porcelain and had many styalised bat's and they always looked just like your tsuba.

Markus I would be interested in volumes 3&4 if they are kinko tsuba etc You have my email Regards Adam

These books being print on demand are farmed out by the bookseller to various different printers. My copy of one of Markus books was so badly printed I could not read the Japanese Kanji at all they were a messy blur. Markus kindly sent me a digital copy but I prefer the hand on book approach. So if you get a poor low detail copy don't just take it on the chin, complain and get it replaced. It's your money after all . I just bought the book of famous tsuba in Japan by Markus and the images are almost black with little or no detail and the printer said pretty much that's as good as it gets!

Rob are you sure this isn't just an O-kissaki only naginata Naoshi to me are slightly different. A true cut down naginata would have no turnback of boshi A copy would but might still have that pronounced naginata shape. I thought this just an o kissaki?

Ken is that because you consider this forum to be without its own dodgy sellers and spurious attributions or descriptions? Because at least on eBay you can get your money back if the deal is a bad one but you won't on here and more and more new sellers appear almost weekly. The forums own rules protect these people and I've had more comments deleted than I can remember that would have at least got people thinking .