Blueduck600

Thank you Spartancrest that's exactly the kind of thing i'm looking for. Thanks for the help. I had looked for that tsuba on Jauce a week or so ago and I didn't see it. Odd that it's an auction and not buy it now. I've been thinking about making a purchase there but I'm not at all clear on what it'll actually end up costing me to ship it back to Ohio. That skull tsuba was actually one I was looking at and was warned away by someone based on the color of it. Other than that I really couldn't get any input on it

The only issue I see in this one is how clean the patina looks compared to how worn the signature seems. It reminds me of things that get cleaned with a wire wheel and then repainted. I'm just trying to get a clearer understanding of how to judge condition for tsuba.

I was wondering if you folks could post some examples of what you would consider good natural patina and bad artificial patina. I've seen little bottles of artificial patina coming from Japan. I don't know what that looks like when it's used -edit-It seems a better way to say that may be: original and aged patina vs poorly restored/patina in a bottle.- I'm considering this piece and it looks nice to me but It also looks not quite right? How faint the signature is makes me wonder. I love the shape and proportions. There's a couple listings on this one. The cheapest i've seen is $133. Any advice on this piece is certainly welcome.

I see the same thing, empty folder. One drive is working.

It's not quite about romantic battle. It's about gaining a clearer view of a culture that valued both violence and artistic beauty. It is a combination that is extremely rare today but I think it's important for an individual to have an understanding of these two worlds.

Yes, I have run into the proxy seller issue before with this and with hard to find books. So far I haven't had any success tracking down the original sellers. I always check shipping, the $200 price on this one includes that.

I realize it's a minefield but I have been asking for advise before I buy anything. Thank you for pointing out the links, I will look through it. The problem with most sites is there is no way to search by price and I spend a ton of time scrolling through listings one at a time only to see the price at the end is far outside my budget. It quickly gets discouraging. The way ebay shows a price with a thumbnail is a huge advantage.

Thank you for the pictures, I see what you mean.

Thanks for the input. Any recommendations on where to shop? I've just been browsing ebay.

I would think that would be prohibitively expensive. How much do you think that would cost?

It does have a slight warmer/brownish color to it but I'm not 100% on that. Also I think iron would be odd considering the inlay of the flowers.

I've been reading some of the threads here and one lead me to this question: Would this would have worn by a samurai or someone else? Can someone point me to a good thread that would show examples of where this line is? Aside from that, I'm looking at this one for $200. I'm interested to hear peoples opinion of it. No info from the seller other than Edo. The moon seems strangely dark even though it seems to be an inlay. Does this look like something that could be cleaned?

Thanks, I hope so.

Thanks to both of you for your input. I went ahead and ordered it. These things always seem like a bit of a tight rope walk between doing my due diligence and missing out. I'm happy to hear to any other input on this piece.

Hi folks, I'm considering buying this. It seems genuine and well made to me but I don't see any signs of use around the nakago-ana? What are your thoughts? Is it genuine? What school? How old? Is there a story behind the theme? It seems to be a man trying to trap a weasel using a rat as bait. Why? For fur? Pets? Did they keep and train them for rat hunting? I'm still new at this and learning so thank you for your patience. Photos are from the listing site.