Bazza

Dear All, I have received an email purporting to be a genuine email from ebay Australia. The text of the email is between the ****** start/end ******** lines. The email asks for a check of my account details for a sale already made. I HAVE MADE NO SUCH SALE. I have reported this to ebay support and changed my password. I have yet to hear back from ebay but there is no doubt in my mind that there needs to be an alert on this. Regards, BaZZa aka Barry Thomas. ******************** begin pasted text ********************* ----- Original Message ----- From: eBay Payments To: warlord@iinet.net.au Sent: Wednesday, December 05, 2012 8:33 AM Subject: You have received a payment of AU $213.99 eBay sent this message to Barry W. Thomas. This message originated from eBay. Learn more. You have received a payment of AU $213.99 G'day Barry W. Thomas, You have received a payment of AU $213.99 for your recently sold item on eBay. Since this payment exceeds AU $100, you must confirm your eBay account, otherwise your selling rights on eBay would be revoked and you will no longer sell on the eBay platform. To avoid this use this above link to confirm your eBay account, to avoid revocation of the selling rights. Visit http://cgi4.ebay.com.au/ws2/eBayISAPI.dll?Confirm. After you have confirmed your eBay account, the amount received for your recently sold item on eBay, would be credited to your account, and the buyer will be informed. Thank you, eBay Australia -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Learn More to protect yourself from spoof (fake) emails. eBay sends these emails based on the preferences you set for your account. To unsubscribe from this email, change your notification preferences. Please note that it may take up to 5 days to process your request. See our Privacy Policy and User Agreement if you have any questions. Copyright © 2012 eBay Inc. All Rights Reserved. Designated trademarks and brands are the property of their respective owners. eBay and the eBay logo are trademarks of eBay Inc. eBay Inc. is located at 2145 Hamilton Avenue, San Jose, CA 95125. ************************** end pasted text *************************

David, Should the year more correctly be expressed as yonnen??? Regards, BaZZa

Off the top of my head without checking "the books" - SU MI SU (Smith)???? BaZZa. Edit - and the strange number at the bottom rhs is possibly the personal stamp of a previous Western owner. A similar thing happens with ukiyoe where a Japanese owner/collector would put his own seal on a print.

If the hand-drawn image is accurate I'm leaning to Chinese repro... BaZZa.

When was the last time anyone saw rust on the nakago all the way to the machi??? Looks suspect to me. I haven't checked "the books", but from memory the nakago jiri doesn't look "right". Regards, BazZa.

To avoid this problem I mostly compose in Word or a text editor, but if composing in the message field every once-in-a-while I copy the text to the clipboard "just in case"... BaZZa.

It's malachite, a copper ore and very toxic stuff to work with. In my years of collecting I have seen only one sword with a malachite saya and "somewhere" on my archive hard drives I have some photos of it with very nice fittings. A very nice and seemingly very rare lacquer technique, similar to the chips of pearl shell sometimes seen. BaZZa.

The sword is the book... BaZZa. OK, to expand. One example will suffice. When I was a very much younger and very inexperienced collector I had 3 swords where if one read the signatures and went to Hawley they turned out to be either old or famous smiths or both. I looked and looked at these blades and felt something wasn't right. I decided they were WW2 Showa period "productions".

Steve, The mei reads ISHIGURO MASATSUNE 石黒政常 plus a kao. There were at least 3 generations and I would opine this is a gimei. Regards, BaZZa.

The Herbert Museum asked : -------------------------------------- This very rusty Wakizashi is in the reserve collection of The Herbert Coventry England it has not been touched for 40yrs and is in very poor condition as conservation is to be finished... -------------------------------------- Most of us know that museums are places where swords go to die by slow neglect - I have seen this personally. In this instance it would appear remedial work has been done to arrest a case of neglect. Can I ask what "conservation is to be finished" means in this case and what constitutes "conservation"??? Regards, Barry Thomas (Melbourne, Australia)

"snippy", mate "snippy"... Regards, BaZZa.

If it's Guido's article my apologies. It is reminiscent of a very long article Paul Allman wrote a long time ago, and for a young collector I found it a compelling read. Note I said "reminiscent"... Both articles are a 'must read' and I'll see what I can do about getting Paul Allman's article into our 'Articles' section. Anyone know how Paul is these days??? Haven't heard of him for many years. Regards, BaZZa.

Was it Paul Allman, nearly (if not actually!!!) a generation ago???? Regards, BaZZa.

Nice looking sword. If I could imitate a Forum luminary and show how little I know, is that a Nara fuchigashira??? Regards, BaZZa.

Hi Roy, You don't mean "hanayaka" do you?? hanayaka 花やか・華やか gay, showy, brilliant, gorgeous, florid?? I found this website that may be of interest: http://www.sljfaq.org/afaq/yaka.html Bestests, BaZZa.

These fittings were briefly discussed in this thread: viewtopic.php?f=2&t=13066 which in turn references another thread. Regards, BaZZa.

One more thing to note is if the mihaba (mune to ha - back to cutting edge distance) narrows from a scarcely existent hamachi. Of course, this needs to be taken in conjunction with other signs. I once had a hirazukuri tanto signed Bizen Morimitsu with an Oei date. It was a Shinshinto utsushi (copy) that had been tricked up in every way. It narrowed from the nakago into the blade indicating many polishes; the mihaba narrowed from a small hamachi; the nakago itself had rust pits in an attempt to indicate great age; and finally it had a choji midare hamon that looked "right". It didn't help that the blade had been linished with all traces of hamon and hada removed (a local, post-war cleanup attempt). It took finger stones to reveal the hamon and some features of the hada. It came in nice koshirae with black lacquered scabbard with a gold lacquer signature, a nicely signed Echizen Ju, Kinai saku iron tsuba, Higo fuchigashira, and nice menuki all bound with a tsukamaki. With this koshirae the blade was a gimei clearly intended to deceive. So, in short, some indications of how many polishes a blade has had are not always to be relied upon... Bestests, BaZZa. EDIT - to correct kasane to mihaba. Apologies for misinformation.

I'm reminded again of singed nakago.... BaZZa.

Derek, I've been collecting nearly 50 years and things certainly are different these days from when I started, even up to 10 or so years ago. Knowing all that has been revealed to you by way of excellent advice (polish etc etc) was apparent to me very early on. However, knowing it and finding it are two completely different things. Along the way I had numerous polishes done and bought swords already in polish. Nothing seemed "quite right" and I held back committing my best swords to polish and "the works" in Japan. It was 25 years before I sent the first one and I was completely, I mean COMPLETELY, happy with the result. So Derek, your sword has already waited decades in its centuries-old life and it doesn't matter how long it takes for you to commit it, but my candid advice is to wait as long as it takes. Meanwhile, go to sword shows wherever you can, cultivate good collectors and see swords whenever you can, and trawl the internet in your spare time to look at good examples - and read as much as you can. If you ever look like coming to Australia drop me a PM. I'm sure we can show you things to enjoy... Best wishes in your endeavors, Barry Thomas (aka BaZZa.)

KANEMOTO? BaZZa.

People do strange things, though. A friend of mine who is "into" cannon once told me he removed 16 balls from the barrel of an ancient cannon on public display somewhere in the Middle East... BaZZa.

ALL - for your interest. Items include Nihonto, a katana kake, kabuto, an armour, abumi, and a couple of non-Japanese matchlocks. Regards, BaZZa. Auction Catalog from Thomas Del Mar Ltd (in association with Sotheby's): Antique Arms, Armour & Militaria London, United Kingdom - June 27, 2012, 12:00 PM GMT http://www.artfact.com/catalog/searchLo ... W7EZPSBEFZ ------------------------------------------------------------------ A RARE TIBETAN MATCHLOCK MUSKET (ME MDA'), 18TH/19TH CENTURY with tapering three-stage barrel, decorated over the breech and muzzle with fine linear patterns in copper, brass and silver, the former with standing back-sight and pan, wooden full stock, the fore-end applied with shaped steel plaques over leather and pierced for a forked rest, the butt encased in leather, the forward portion applied with embossed brass and copper plaques decorated with traditional patterns, the right of the butt with a long leather cord case studded with silver nails, the left with a further long steel plaque set with red stones in raised settings, two steel sling swivels and an early leather sling 96.5cm; 38in barrel For a discussion of this type and another example previously in the collection of George Cameron Stone see D. Larocca 2006, pp. 198-209. Estimated Price: £800 - £1,200 -------------------------------------------------------------------- A RARE 60 BORE CHINESE MATCHLOCK GUN, 19TH CENTURY with very long tapering two-stage barrel retained by two slender brass bands, octagonal breech incorporating a shaped pan with no provision for a cover, rudimentary steel serpentine with bifurcated tip for match and angular trigger, highly figured hardwood half-stock, the butt fitted with a short tapering extension, inset with a shaped bone plaque about the serpentine, the trigger and over the fore-end (chipped), and with no provision for a ramrod 160.3cm; 63 1/8in barrel An identical gun is illustrated in G. C. Stone 1934, fig. 330, no. 5. Estimated Price: £600 - £1,000

"Castle gun"??? - do tell more, please. What constitutes a Castle gun??? Bestests, BaZZa.

I believe his name is Fred Geyer http://www.swordsandtsuba.com/home.html BaZZa.

Maurice, Very nice. I believe this is the first time I have seen a polisher's signature imbedded within nagashi. Otherwise I think all of those I've seen (very few, actually) have been the signature on a plain surface. Bestests, BaZZa.