Bazza

And that stunnink hi-res thumb/fingerprint near the habakimoto!!! BaZZa.

G'day Ron, Your "lead" could be sawari, an alloy of copper, tin and lead. I have read it is used for producing Buddhist utensils. However, this link: http://www.swordforum.com/forums/showthread.php?54365-Shakudo (beware - I got a "threat warning" from Avast anti-virus) is an interesting read for Japanese alloys. In this thread Patrick Hastings addresses another poster's alloying attempt with this comment "... what you ended up with is a Japanese alloy called "Sawari" or pretty close. appoximately 33 tin balance copper. It was used for inlay work. Instead of being a mechanical inlay it was melted in like Niello." EDIT: See post #8 Bestests, BaZZa.

Brandon, > I'm pretty sure one of the local "museums" is just a guy and his collection Keep an eye on it as it is an Estate in Waiting... BaZZa.

Julian, Still needed is a full length pic of the blade looking straight down on it - none of these oblique shots. Then at the same angle (straight down) a closeup of the kissaki/monouchi and a closeup of the habaki moto/tang. FWIW I think early Muromachi from the Muramasa line or Sengo school. The indications are the hamon goes very, very close to the edge in the valleys (so not Mino), and the tang has to my eye a vestige of either fumbari or a tachi-like curved tang. BaZZa.

G'day Bob, To me this is a VERY exciting find. Heartiest congratulations. Blades by any of the Nagashige line of Sendai appear to be very thin on the ground. You may care to re-visit my 7th generation Hyakuryushi Nagashige dated 1862. It has lots of kanji on the tang and numerous people over the 40 years I've had this sword have rendered translations. Andrew Ickeringill has polished this sword and his writeup and summary of the kanji can be found here: http://touken-togishi.com/hyakuryushi-nagashige/ It is so wonderful to have seriously knowledgeable people here on the Board to help the less knowledgeable of us to bring our finds to the wider world of Nihonto. What a happy bunch we are... Bestests, BaZZa.

G'day Chris, I'm sure you will be interested to read about this sword: http://www.legacyswords.com/fs_ant_daito16.htm It is now owned by a friend of mine here in Australia. Bestests, BaZZa.

G'day all, Gasam, I believe the scene you mention is toward the end of this video: The polisher is Sasaki Takushi. EDIT: The scene start at 46.00 minutes if you you don't want to watch the whole video. Bestests, BaZZa.

> sorry to be the barer of bad news Beautiful neologism for stripping away the confusion and untruth (noun)!!! BaZZa.

Bob, Great stuff. I'd like to hear the story of the tooth dives. Is this a "fossil field" on the ocean bottom, or do you have to dig for them?? Are the rest of the shark remains there too?? And what sort of sharks are/were these and how old are the teeth??? The story mate, the story please. I'm sure I'm not the only one wondering. As Nihonto Chicken used to remark "Curious minds want to know". (How's ir going Rick??) Bestests, BaZZa.

Hmmmm. LHS: AKA ? YOSHI ? (maybe TSUGU??) RHS: not a clue. BaZZa.

Mr Magoo???? BaZZa.

Hmmmm, I get: ForbiddenYou don't have permission to access /wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Samurai-arms-and-armor-Tokugawa-period-B068_Heiner.pdf on this server. Any ideas??? BaZZa.

Thought I'd replied, but it seems to have been lost. Sent a PM to Jean with my error found, but like AlanK, I'm sure there is more to Jean's challenge than the date confusion. BaZZa.

Imagine my surprise when in post #28 Piers shows a tsuba very similar to one I saw recently on a Sue Koto wakizashi koshirae. Posted here for interest. The sword wasn't for sale but I liked the tsuba particularly and took a photo for posterity. I have no idea what it is, but the similarity to Piers' suggest a nice Jingo tsuba. The colour differences are due to my imperfect exposures. Bestests, BaZZa. aka Barry Thomas .

Well, as an Oz collector of some 50+ years I have had my share of "jeep springs". I remember one in particular. The old soldier's wife had been admitted to hospital for an operation and plainly money was an issue. As such he had decided to offer his WW2 souvenir sword for sale. He was a decent old bloke and I truly felt for him, however his sword was a (relatively) worthless jeep spring. Had I been better heeled I would have offered him a decent price for his sacrifice in the war, but sadly such was not the case. Like the OP, the Old Digger took it well. I have always had an immense respect for these men who served their countries in war. Bestests, BaZZa.

What he said - my humble opinion exactly. BaZZa.

Now we are talking hotshot - my impression exactly. BaZZa.

Hello Luca, I like this tsuba very much. Good buy. Ciao from Australia. BaZZa.

An email just in offers a Meiji period necklace: http://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot/an-early-victorian-Japanese-shakudo-fan-necklace,-391-c-0de4653915?utm_source=house&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=exclusive&utm_content=the101116 I draw attention to this as a possible example of tosogu artisan transition from making sword fittings. I did hear at one time of an offshoot of Natsuo's school working somewhere in Australia, no doubt in one of the capital cities. So that is a latent interest in the back of my mind, but I've never found any concrete evidence of such work being done here, apart from a good silver plate with shakudo and shibuichi decoration found in Sydney by a friend decades ago. BaZZa.

DING DING DING - and another donation races to NMB... Keeping count Stephen??? BaZZa.

I see HIRO for the last kanji. FUJIWARA KANEHIRO as a signature suggests a Bungo Takada blade. However, entering "FUJIWARA KANEHIRO" in google only gives longer signatures, no nijimei. More weight needs to be put on the blade itself, possibly even to the extent of a window. Personally, it looks to me as if someone has tried to obliterate the signature. BaZZa.

I'm sure it will be ECHIZEN JU BaZZa.

And here is the last snippet unless I find more. I know these two blades are of the shodai and therefore of no interest to the OP, but I have included them for completeness to assist any general search for the Doi Shinryo group of Hirado. Regards, BaZZa.

And still more ... A friend of mine has a massive ko-wakizashi signed DOI SHINRYO. It has been polished and submitted to NBTHK Shinsa where it was declined a paper. The story was that the NBTHK didn't know enough about the group to paper it, but more likely they didn't think it had the requisite quality compared to say the Tadayoshi smiths. It is no doubt a genuine work from the Doi Shinryo line, but the generation is not known. The nagasa is 37.2 cm and mihaba 4.2 cm. I don't have a measure of the kasane, but it is thick. The blade came in an unusual koshirae of all iron fittings in gomoku zogan. The person from whom it was acquired commented that it probably was worn by a Sumo wrestler!! Here are some images. Best regards, BaZZa. PS - there may yet be a little more to come ...

But wait, there's more (as a famous Australian TV cutlery commercial goes) ... The Osaka Shinto Zufu has an oshigata of the shodai Doi Shinryo. My copy is out on loan so I can only submit the images I have without noting the page numbers. I wondered what a Hizen smith was doing in Osaka until I read Eguchi's book - "... He returned to Hizen from Osaka during Tenna (c. 1681) and became a smith to the Matsuura family." For more on the Matsuura family I beg you all to read the following book: "Samurai William - The Adventurer Who Unlocked Japan", Giles Milton (Hodder and Stoughton, London, 2002). A most fascinating book indeed. Best regards, BaZZa.