lonely panet

Hi guys, its been a few weeks. I hope your are all well, I picked up a cheap type 32 and blow be down it has 3 unknown arsenal marks if any ones seen theses or known what they mean regards Hamish

Hi Roku its hard to tell, the blade has staining but all I can see is this single event. does any one know how the average showato was made (ie kawagane ETC) regards Hamish

Hello all, I hope we are all well I have a picture of some activity at the border of the hamon, it looks like sunagashi or inazuma. but the blade in question is a showato with a seki stamp signed Nagamura Kiyonobu. so the question is, am I seeing things or are showato capable of this type of activity? regards Hamish

Hi guys, its been a while but I have picked up dress sword with a aluminium gripe instead of the normal buffalo, same or Bakelite. the sword itself is longer then normal, but the overall quality is low so I assume it was made toward the end of 20s or early 30s. have a look regards Hamish

Hi Steve well by the lack of replys to your question, this should be a good guide to how tricky picking false tassels are. they are getting very good these days, so I only buy from friends who I know that have had the tassels for years. from the photos shown it looks ok to me, but once again its a tricky area. if you happen to get bitten you can only learn from the experience and move forward. I hope this can help in any way regards Hamish

thanks you very much Chis, well I missed "minamoto" and it was in Yumotos book too. but I would have never got saku (to stylized for me) regards Hamish

Good morning all, I hope your all well?, I was practicing my translating with what I though to be a easy mei.. hahahahahha but im stumped on it, its not in john soughs book, nor did jahn yamotos book helped. 1.... 2 YOSHI 3 TAME ??? 4 KANE or MOTO can any one point out any hints to some pages in books to help me practice my skills, iv tried to use the kanji mei page on the website but it didn't help much because of the obsure amount of strocks in the kanji regards Hamish

Thanks for taking it easy on me for this very silly mistake..... sadly I was raised with English as a first language, so no excuses. this aside the shape of the blade interests me a lot, the blade is quite thin compared to the size and shape. the shinogi is very raised and has a oroshimune. dimensions are nagasa 43.2 cm thickness of habaki moto 5mm and blade hight at habaki is 28mm thickness of mune at habaki 3mm kissaki thickness 3mm blade hight is 20mm mune at the same place 2mm regards Hamish

more pics

Hello all, I hope were all well and collecting like made. Iv picked up a wakizashi because it was a bargin, I though it was late koto and gimei. Im sure its gimei because the the date is placed between 3 mekugi ana and makes little to no sences. heres is the first 2 kanji, the others are abit obsure and hard to photograph. Can anyone please confirm my thoughts, that these make no sence at all.

more

Hi guys, Here's another odd example for the peoples. This one is much smaller, lighter and shorter. also the blade is dead straight, considering the early Japanese army was based some what on the victorious German army who had straight bladed dress swords it could be plausible that it might be inspired or influenced by Das Germans. regards Hamish

I understand your concern, im not buffing it, or taking to it with stealwool. Im just wishing to clean it so it will look like this... regards Hamish

Hi all, Im interested to know if anyone knows how Jim Dawson managed to clean the examples picture in his last book? I have 3 examples, one I cleaned with autosol just to give the metal back some of its WHITE METAL finish it was issued with (prob wont do it again) the second is a blue mineral finish so no need to clean the 3rd I haven't cleaned yet. the stamps are in excellent condition and don't want to blur them in the process. can anyone offer advice to help me put it back to the original issued condition. regards H

pt3

pt2

Hi Matt, and every one else, iv finally got around to taking some photos of the beefy sword some people have asked for , the blade was a bit tricky to photograph but I hope look good. regards Hamish

Hi Matt, That's a fantastic Generals dress sword, a pitty that you had to part with it but we cant keep everything. The beefy blade is infact a just a very large Nichol plated blade, but its very broad compared to a type 19 cavalary sword considering the blade construction is basically the same. the logo shown from the sword is unknown to me and not recorded in any books I have so im assuming it could be a early model. just out of interest whats the going rate for a generals grade dress sword? im in the market for one and a price range would give me something to save for. regrads Hamish

pt 2

Good morning all, I know most collectors don't really like the dress sword/parade saber, and if you asked me 1 year ago I would have been in the same boat. But I picked up 1 or 2 to complete a collecting gap and I was hooked, I found that there can be some interesting variations between them. Im posting some quick pics to show the difference in size, shape, length and quality. they are 2 company grade and 2 field grade Kyu gunto. please post pics of any other your dress swords if they are interesting versions please. regards Hamish

morning all, please don't remount it, all you will have is a PUT TOGEATHER piece, and there is no shortage of those on the market. The lack of a mekugiana, point outs that the blade would be held in the tsuka by a threaded nut on the end of the nakago. this usally means the blade fitted to this koshare would have had a lot of reshaping done to the nakago. I have seen traditional blades which have and this done, and traditional nihonto collectors don't think highty of them, using the term "molested" to describe them. just my humble thoughts regards Hamish

well Im looking at the sword and not taking any notice to the story, I think its a very highly priced. does anyone agree with me? I think you could get some very nice items out of Japan for that price range. regards Hamish

Good morning all, I'm having trouble with a mei translation, Im sure its gimei because the last few characters appear to be cut a bit more sloppy compared to the rest. I'm sure its not as hard as it looks but for the life of me I cant get it and its starting to piss me off too. please can I have some help? Regards Hamish

Hello all, if any one was interested the blade was only a chromuim plated, i can take some pics if any one wishes. also i would like to point out that the 1883 model has a solid hand guard were as mine has a pireced hand gaurd simular to the 1873 to 1883 series naval sabers please look at page 238 in jim dawsons book. i wait your thoughs, also if any one knows Micheal Quigley (USA) please let me know as i would like to talk swords with him. regards Hamish

Hello all, I was looking on ebay and noticed that there was a nice type 8 for sale, at a closer look it appears to be from the book Swords of Imperial Japan 1868-1945. It looks like Mr Dawson is moving on some of his collection, i wish i had some spare cash right about now. http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Japanese-Typ ... 1c38e29484 along with a few other nice pieces too regards Hamish