Scythian123

Are any serious flaws, such as a small chunk of the spine missing encountered? (The photos is not of a Japanese blade, it’s just an example of the flaw I was thinking of)

Were blades with pretty bad forging mistakes the result of a smith who wasn’t particularly skilled? Did these smiths still try to sell their subpar blades on the market at a discount, or were they discarded and simply survived to this day?

Thanks for the tips, What would in your opinion be some good books a beginner tsuba collector should have?

Hello, Does having a certificate usually inflate the prices of Tsuba/Nihonto in general? Or are these NBTHK certificates easy to get?

Hello, I am very new to collecting Tsuba, and I would like to familiarize myself a bit with this piece that I saw for sale. It has NBTHK paperwork with it, which is, I'm assuming some kind of prestigious certificate of authenticity? The Tsuba is signed as well, so I'm assuming the certificate also states who forged the piece as well. I assumed all eBay sellers sold fake Tsubas, and that this seller was trying to pull a fast one, but this one with the official looking paperwork caught my eye and so I would like some opinions on it. Thanks!