DTM72

Looking for the leather? Straps that run through the top hooks of the tachi hangers. Picture below for reference. Help with the actual name is appreciated! Dan

Nice meeting you Dan, and the other ITK members. Y’all have a good thing going and are all genuinely good fellas. Dan C.

Biggest thanks to Mark Jones for making this show happen. The amount of work that goes into an event like this is staggering. Mark’s wife, son, daughter in law, and others, all chipped in the help out. As dealers arrived at their tables for the first time, there was a gift bag with water bottles, snacks, a pen, notepad, tissue, and other helpful things. Mark and family took their time and energy to put these bags together, in advance. Coffee, tea and bagels were available every morning. Dealer party on Friday night with pizza 🍕 and beer 🍺and wine 🍷 was also arranged and manned by Mark and family. To Mark Jones, Thank you and your family for everything. I have absolutely zero complaints about the event. Your experience with events is obvious and makes this a world class event. In the words of Douglas McArther “I shall return “ Dan Crawford

Shinsa team at work. My first submission on Thursday was determined to be a mystery to them. They said not enough information to confirm or deny the signature. A bit disappointing but it is whatever. Keeping the blade anyway so papers would have just been a bonus anyway. My second submission was a last minute offer from another dealer who was packing up on Saturday evening. Submitted this morning and got a 76. Final submission was the tachi I got this morning. Mumei, but scored a 73. 2 out of 3 so pretty happy.

So I did a thing today… Always wanted a tachi and @mdiddy worked a great deal for me and himself. Took it immediately to shinsa and papered to Meio era 1492-1501 Moritaka (7th Generation) MOR897 Was a good show for me!

I hate posting pics of myself but @mdiddy @ericowazamono Roger Robertshaw (Hizento.com) Jason Yoon (Evolution Blades).

Suishinshi Masahide

@mdiddy and Eric Moliner

Now for some sword porn. Glen Kotler’s table

Oda Nobunaga’s scissors

Shameless plug for my setup.

I had the oversized case with the swords weigh-in at 48 lbs. Have a large camo military bag weigh-in at 51 lbs. Lady at the counter was about to charge me $100 for being 1 pound overweight. I pulled out a pair of jeans and and t-shirt and put it into my carry on backpack. Big bag was now 49 pounds. Like the meme above, what was accomplished? Looking forward to tomorrow.

Heading to the airport now. Just want to say to the general public that United airlines baggage policy sucks! I'm used to 50 ponds maximum, and pay excessive weight fee, but $100 for 1 pound over!?!?!?! Over size fee is excessive too at another $100. OK, rant over. Look forward to seeing everyone there! DTM72....Dan

I got you @Matsunoki. I will be arriving tomorrow at 1:30. I'll snap pics from Thursday to Sunday and post here.

I may be wrong but it believe it has to do with the insulating properties of the clay, and how it was applied. Just my opinion, if the clay thickness had a transition in thickness from the ji area towards the ha, (think of an angle from thick to thin) then the result would be a wider nioiguchi. Conversely, if there was more of an abrupt change in the thickness, (think of a step) the result would be more of a narrow or sharply defined nioiguchi. The whole point of the clay is to insulate the upper portion of the blade to pervent it from hardening during yaki ire. The clay in the ha area is very thin and can even be a different compound than the clay in the upper area. To me it is easy to imagine the differences of hardening between the two thicknesses of clay...but what about that are where the two meet? That is where the magic comes in and different schools teach what to make the clay from, how to apply it and in what style, not to mention the temperature of the quenching water, how long to hold it in there on the initial quench, then the reheating and tempering of the blade after initial yaki ire. Your question may be best answered by an actual blacksmith who has performed this process and obtained the differing results you see above. Again, I may be totally wrong, but at least I am willing to offer a theory, and get the ball rolling. Someone correct me or prove me wrong! I'm always willing to learn. Dan

Marry a woman like that if she is rich...then you become a rich widower.

True story --> Never had an issue with just the swords, but when flying out to Las vegas earlier this year, I had 4 matchlocks in the case with the swords. The lady at the counter of Breeze Airways said she needed to confirm the matchlocks were unloaded. I explained what matchlocks are, how they they differ from "normal" firearms, how they operate, and that it is somewhat difficult to actually prove they are unloaded. SWEAR TO GOD she looked down the barrel of 2 of the 4 matchlocks. Looked at me and said "OK" then put the tag inside the case confirming all firarms are confirmed unloaded, as well as another on the outside of the case. I still wonder to this day what she expected to see, or not see, down the length of a 36" barrel. I also wonder how she was "trained" to confirm firearm loaded or not loaded status. <-- Things that make you go hmmm.

I posted quite a few photos of the Vegas show to the thread Grey posted above. I will try to do the same at the Chicago show as well. @Tom Darling stop by and see me at the Chicago show. I'm always up for chatting. I'll have a small sign out with my NMB screenname. "DTM72"

I will message you if I see any 94's.

I just drove to Indy from South Carolina on Thrusday night. 720 miles in 10 hours, with fuel and pee breaks included. Drove back to SC on Sunday. That drive whoops my tail. Flying to Chicago to save my butt. lol Look forward to meeting you and the other ITK guys!

This show will be in just a few weeks.Anyone looking for anything in particular? If you cannot attend, i would be willing to photo/video items you are looking for, and post to this thread with the sellers information. So, who is looking for what?

Got my tickets yesterday as well. I submit mine on Thursday @ 2:20 pm. I'll be one of the early birds.

For fittings, I recommend Raymond Yan. He had a table next to mine at the show in Vegas earlier this year. He sells on Facebook as well, in various Nihonto groups. https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_trkparms=folent%3Araymo-ya|folenttp%3A1&_trksid=p3542580.m47492.l71971&_ssn=raymo-ya As for who can make a complete koshirae, I have no suggestions. Nice yari though!