AlphaRaider

I recently acquired this Tsuba at a local trade show in Colorado about two weeks ago. This was given to me as a gift which is neat. I don't really know much about it, but wanted to share it with everyone on here. -------------- Images: Nikon Z7 with MC50mm F2.8 / 2x Unplugged Wireless TTL400 strobes fitted with 36in OctaBoxes. Adobe LightRoom Thanks, -J. Hoff

Thanks for everyones help on this sword. Like I mentioned it wasn't something I had intended to sale. I had it on display at a show, a guy came over and checked it out and asked what I wanted. I thought of a figure and he said I'll be right back. Like 10 min later he came back and paid for the sword. He said it spoke to him, who am I to stop that. I'm just glad I got some pictures of it before it sold. I'll print them out and put them in my book. Anyone who does further researching feel free to post. If I own it or not shouldn't stop the flow of studying of information. -J. Hoff

It wasn't for sale, but then someone offered an amount that would have been silly to refuse. Sorry to disappoint yall.

SOLD. As much as I would love to continue providing further images and specs it has a new owner.

updated pics 2 -J. Hoff

updated pictures. -J. Hoff

I Just finished taking some new images on white backgrounds. This time I used 36in Octoboxes for diffusers on the strobes so we will see how they turn out. I will be posting them shortly.

Apologies yall, I figured I had taken some of the more notable parts of the sword. If someone would gladly post a list of pictures that would make this simple or a thread that I may read so I may make it easier for everyone viewing this with the appropriate pictures. -J. Hoff

Well, when I have time in all honesty. I'm working a show this weekend. I've got to set up gear, lights, computer work. Its a few hour process. These are not cell phone pictures, it's a bit time consuming to get them done in a acceptable maner. But I can get those pictures done shortly. Either tonight or on Monday. Thanks.

I will do that for you this evening.

pics 3.

pics 2. J. Hoff

I picked up this sword last weekend at a local Colorado gun show from a vendor. I finally got a chance to get some pictures taken to post online and see what everyones opinion was. I don't know much from the owner before me other then he believed it was Edo period. ??? I'll get some measurements this Monday and post them. pics... -J. Hoff

I own a bizen wakizashi that's in rough shape. It was abused quite badly before I snagged it up. I actually injoy it quite a bit and use it to show a roufht sword vs soming thing in polish. It's a cool conversation piece, I bit of a study piece. I just keep it oiled, and view it often. I do imagine what it would look like in full polish. I think its a nice pice to add to the collection. Hopefully it was a good deal.

Image from one of my swords.

We may have in the past, I've been touring tradeshows and events with them for a little over a year and a half. We mainly focused on Colorado, Arizona, Nevada, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Utah last year. I will gladly bring it up at work. Now, since I hijacked the thread a bit to much I will talk about the firearms and antiques a bit. I had two others with me at the show. After viewing the sword tables twice I met up with them in the second hall. Now this was a awesome place aswell. As soon as I walked in I checked out a sword that was made made for one of the surgen generals then below it was John Waynes rifle used in his movies on display! I wasnt exspecting to see anymore swords but there were a good ammount of them in this room aswell. Mainly WW2 Japanese swords, Traditional made Japanese swords, and swords from mutiple other countries which was plesent to see. I found a steller Microtech Dragon Slayer with full polish blade with metiorite inlays for $22,000. It was a show stopper. I found a gentleman in the very back that had mutiple WW2 Japanese swords made in 1944. They had battle wrap handles in amazing shape, the scabbards were un dented and paint was pristine. The blades were all in amazing shape I believe he was asking $2,800 for them. That was hard to pass up, I think its exactly the kind of sword I'd like to get next. There was a great selection of vintage firearms, Japanese, civial war era, cowboy guns, vietnam war and many others.There was a fairly large colletion of military clothing, medals, and equipment from varriors wars. I enjoyed the Japanese firearms, the craftmanship and the wood that was used was quite beautiful. They were all in beyond amazing condation for how old they were. There were of course some amazing wheel guns on display. One set I looked at was $97,000 they were fully engraved and equiped with stunning grips and had paperwork. The vendors were all nice and seemed very educated on the items they had to offer. We even found some vintage torture devices and a chasty belt of all things. It was a pretty neat show.

Thanks, I enjoyed the show so much it was truly a steller event. Ill be speel checking it later I read it and its a tad sloppy. (Writing reviews while on the ride home ) I'm the store manager for a store called Warrior's Revolution in Longmont, Colorado. We have a 6,800 sq foot retail store specializing in bulk ammunition, firearms and tactical gear. We also offer online shopping via are website : www.warriorsrevolution.com We partnership with a private manufacturer to load our own brand of ammunition sold in 100ct, 500ct and 1,000ct quantities. We currently sale around 1.3 million rounds per month. We have mutiple local and state police contracts for ammunition and offer a 100% guarantee on all of our ammo. We do an average of 70-90 gunshows per year (hence why I travel so often) If i need to adjust or remove links justlet me know.

Thanks for sharing, beautifuly done video.

I sure did, It was a wonderful way to start off the year on my Nihonto journey. I feel blessed.

We just left this afternoon. We spent the last 12 days out in Vegas. We went to the gunshow at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Army Navy Military Expo, Shot Show 2023, and the Japanses Sword Show. It was a really awesome experiance to be able to meet so many fellow Japanese sword collectors and the sellers at the show. I really enjoyed getting to see so many great items on dispaly. Allthough I didn't personaly handle too many items I was blown away just looking at them and having the vendors tell me a little histiory on there pieces. I spent about 10-15min at each table just doing a visible inspection of all the goodies on my first walkthrough of the show. The second time walking the tables I spent a bit more time talking with vendors which was really neat. I think in total I spent about 4 hours at the show. I revisited a few tables mutiple times. one of the tables has a selection of smaller tantos that Iabsoultly loved. I think they didnt have live blades just wooden one's but i didnt handle them sadly. it was really neat to see a varry in price ranges. the lowest i believe i saw was $700 for a wakizashi and like 68,000 for a katanna. being able to see diffrent levels of polish was really neat and helped me get an idea where my swords sit which is cool. I think i learned quite a bit in the short time that I was there. I came with two others who came for the firearms postion which they zoomed through once they were done i had to leave sadly. I think i could have spent all day there I was truly blown away. I believe at one point when i first walked in a gentleman asked if i was enjoying the show and i could hardly put into words how i felt and how amazing it was to be able to see such interesting pieces. I have never seen this ammount of swords or people who were educated aboput them at anyother show ive ever been too. It was an experiance to be honest. I purchesed a book from a gentlemen that was called "The art of the Eastern Sword" if I remeber correctly. It's a rather large hardcover book and I got to speak with the gentleman who wrote if for a bit which was nice. I also picked up a couple new padded travle bags. I got one for my Wak and one for my tanto. They were nice and thick which is an upgrade over the silk bags I had. I also picked up some sword pillows and sword viewing microfibers that were red. I picked up a really pretty white and blue cord wrap for my tanto that will be accent it nicly. I also got two beautiful Japanese silk flags from ww2 a "meatball" and a rising sun flag. I really enjoyed being able to show my swords to some of the vendors that were interested in examining them. Mutiple vendors gave me some free advice and tips about my swords and information i had not revieved on this fourms or in doing my own research. i thought it was a bit strange no one outside the vendors had sword with them I figured I'd be able to meet up with some people and share our swords with each other. I had mutiple offers to do trades for my swords but I was on the hunt for a ww2 sword which most of them didnt have or seemed anoyed that was what I was after. On of the things I wanted to buy was some of the movies for sale. Some of them were $750 a set which was neat to see, sadly living in a 4k world I find it hard to make that purchess. Allthough it would be neat to sit down and get lost in a few movies. If anyone know that guy is he on the form? maybe he has a list of movies because i regret not buying now that i think about it. I really wish we didnt have to try to beat the storm we will meet with this evening as we pass over the mountains. but you have to be caustious when you have 12 thousand pound of ammunation in your trailer on an overpass with 6% declines and its a snowy/icy cluster**** better safe then sorry. Anyways to everyone I was able to meet it was pleasure. I look forward to going next year for sure.

I have this Monday off so I will get a video filmed on how I'm taking pictures of the swords. I have. I've been swamped the past week with work. After this weekends show I'm off for 4 weeks so I'll be able to get some things written down and a video posted. I'll try to get a screen capture of how I process the images as well. Thanks for being patient 🙏

This was setup for filming a watch, I perhaps can make something for taking pictures with swords like I did this. this video is like 2 yrs old now how time flys. I use completely different gear for pictures but constant lights can be used for pictures swell. I think if people like the idea of white background this will work perfect for them, shooting with a black background is a bit different, however you could shoot on either if your photshotp skills are decent. J. Hoff

Sure, I can do my best help out with that. Im very new to photographing sword in all honestly, I never tried until I got a few myself. I have works with a lot of high end knifes before and highly reflective items like glass and shiny things. I have a show Im attending this weekend but I can probably work on typing out some things that could help people. --- TO the OP. the ring light will be ok for close up images but it doesn't work as well from further away unless the ring itself is bigger then the object. sounds like you have a light box which is good. they are quite helpful. One thing I've noticed is that most sword images I've seen have had black backgrounds and I'm guessing that's a contrast thing plus nailing a consistent white background can be a pain in the butt in all honesty with out getting in photoshop. It sounds like it's a good camera, I normally shoot Nikon for digital but love my canon film camera I will look into that model and see what the specs are. I hate to tell people to get one thing vs another because we all have different budgets and photography is art so who am I to cruise hopes and dreams. I do have a video I posted from a. while back that was from when I was doing a watch video for seiko I think. ill find a link and post it. I believe I was using constant lights for that video but gives you an idea of how the light box works. there is a lol of small things pertaining to photography but let me think about what I currently know and apply to photographing items and what ive noticed with swords as well and I think that I can get some good tips and suggesting for you all. If you have any specific related questions feel free to ask and I will do my best to answer them in a easy to understand way. Im now following this thread so ill be able to keep up with posts made on here now. J. Hoff

Thanks for the post and thoughts gentleman, I will read the links you provided they are very much welcomed.

No offense taken by any means. When I first bought this sword it was kind of a spur of the moment thing. I've always likes swords built didn't really know what makes one authentic vs Chinese made. I had no clue the hundreds of little things that make them what they are vs what they are not. I just saw a guy who I had seen at a bunch of previous shows who happens to sell what I thought was a true Japanese sword. That how he marketed them at least. Dealers don't normaly screw other dealers in the circuit. I'm sure he never thought I'd get this far into understanding what I have or more so what I didn't. I had money just burning a hole in my pocket so I picked out something I liked and bought it. I'm glad I have it I've learned a lot because of it, and it does chop stuff so im not afraid to practice with it. Something I don't think I'd do with any of my real stuff. I kinda did the let's buy, then research later kinda deal. Which clearly wasn't a great choice.