Hi all! Totally butt new to nihonto and super, super appreciate you all sharing so much incredible advice here over the years and keeping this place flourishing and alive! @Brian, thank you so much for making this forum and supporting it tirelessly for so many years! Saw your post about all the stress of running this thing with people using and abusing the forum so just wanted to put in a little note of thanks - this is truly an invaluable resource and if I get into this hobby seriously and start collecting seriously, definitely count me in as a supporter :).
I'll be honest - I definitely impulse purchased the first three swords I got on eBay with basically no information and am fully prepared for them all to be fake. That's totally cool, I paid pretty low prices for all of them so I'm happy to chalk it up to a learning experience - but I really want to get my next purchase right!
The last thing I want to get for now is a genuine in polish ideally koto or shinto katana (or ideally tachi to be honest, but those seem quite rare!), and it seems like my best bet is to get a Tokubetsu Hozon papered sword as someone who knows far too little to be able to recognize genuine swords without papers - would that be about right? Any other suggestions on how to play it as safe as possible when I'm looking for something more affordable than I'd be able to get off eBay (unless there are other dangerously priced places to buy swords with great risk involved? :))?
Anyway - for the four swords I've bought so far, I got totally lucky on the first one and ended up buying from @mdiddy! (If I'm reading things right and you're soheiantiques on eBay!)
I feel like I got a good deal on this https://www.ebay.com/itm/225726071282?nma=true&si=vBmbmCmL88FikP1wahmvlyoYXd4%3D&orig_cvip=true&nordt=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557 regardless of if it's a real Sukemitsu or not (and even if it's one of the crappy later generation swordsmiths that are 'genuine' sukemitsus?) - but I do have two quick questions - 1. given that this didn't come in a shirasaya, should I just store this thing oiled and fully exposed on a display stand or really get a shirasaya made for it or something else?, and 2. does this thing have any chance of passing a NBTHK certification test in its current condition or would I definitely need it polished first?
Also, since you're here @mdiddy, thanks for offering such incredible blades! Was just curious (apologies if you've answered this elsewhere) - where do you source your blades and how do you ensure you don't lose money on selling these with no reserve auctions like this? So curious what being a seller is like for these blades and how American sellers in particular get such a huge reserve of blades!
As for the second, I definitely just impulse purchased this because the price seemed so cheap to me (before I realized so many blades are faked and that wakizashis are way cheaper than katanas and have way more supply than katanas at least on eBay and that this seller definitely seems to have no idea about these blades at all or at least certainly didn't say much [is cutting paper with a blade a valid test of anything quality wise?? that seems like his primary attestation method for the quality of these blades] - got this Tadamitsu signed wakizashi for $470 - two questions here as well. Is there anything I can do in regards to trying to authenticate this thing short of an NBTHK certification process? And would you all think this blade is at all worth attempting getting an NBTHK certificate for? https://www.ebay.com/itm/126052180799?nma=true&si=vBmbmCmL88FikP1wahmvlyoYXd4%3D&orig_cvip=true&nordt=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557
And for my third blade, this is almost certainly not a legitimate wakizashi at all from what I can tell, but I also impulse purchased it because it was insanely cheap and I figured it'd be a good project blade to learn 1. how to polish this stuff (not that I'd ever do that on a genuine blade) and generally take care of it and also have a real wakizashi I can just use and play around with.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/115890040480?nma=true&si=vBmbmCmL88FikP1wahmvlyoYXd4%3D&orig_cvip=true&nordt=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557
So here's the weird thing about this blade - it was found in a WWII vet's attic in an estate sale with a certainly commensurate amount of rust on it to authenticate its vintage status. It doesn't have a conventional signature by any stretch of the imagination, but has the weirdest writing on the blade itself above the habaki that's permanently rusted on lol. My wife is literally Japanese and she has no idea how to read this thing - it seems like at least two characters are some old Kanji or something, but just no idea for her.
Do you...all have any idea at all what this could possibly be etched on here and why? I'm struggling to try to figure out what the origin of this blade might possibly be - as far as I understand it, it was pretty easy for WWII vets to take home genuine swords as part of the confiscation policy of the US - did vets also commission new blades commonly, is this a total random mass produced souvenir blade of some sort, or is this actually an older blade? So confused by this and it's a fascinating mystery to a newbie like me.
Attached a better picture of the writing below than in the listing since I've started the polishing process a bit.
And finally, after getting these first few impulse purchases out of the way and deciding I wanted an actually genuinely certified in good polish daisho set of blades as my final round out for the present moment, I snapped up this mumei wakizashi yesterday with an old tokubetsu kicho token from showa22 for $750: https://www.ebay.com/itm/235146427369?nma=true&si=kyZe6zLy5UVKWme4xFNpgzFLV6U%3D&orig_cvip=true&nordt=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557
It kind of blew my mind that a blade that seems like it's in a great old polish with a shirasaya in good shape with a tokubetsu kicho token paper could go this low - given that this is a mumei blade with an outdated 1975 kicho attestation, what are the odds that this is actually a solid blade likely to live up to its attestation? Would it be worth trying to get this resubmitted for a hozon paper? Is this a reasonable price to pay? It's definitely a shorter end wakizashi that seems like 38 cm of blade length, so maybe that factors into the price versus longer 50-60 cm wakizashis?
In any case - would this be safe to just oil up and store in the shirasaya and a sword bag and would that actually be preferable to leaving it unsheathed in storage on display for maintenance and preservation purposes? Being brand new to this, I've read a bunch of differing opinions here talking about how shirasayas are specially designed to be ideal for storage but also that leaving it oiled and naked on display is just as fine if not better, etc etc - would be reassuring to get an expert opinion on this specific case :). Shirasaya looks like it's in good condition?
Curious what price ranges you'd all peg for these blades too!
Finally, I'm now patiently taking a look at all papered katanas. My general reading from posts on this forum and elsewhere make me feel like kicho token attestations are pretty unreliable, especially probably for a mumei blade - does that feel about right to you all? As someone without any meaningful ability to validate authenticity on my own, would I be pretty safe sticking to Hozon and tokubetsu hozon blades, even from sketchy sellers like Komonjo? What would be the best way to validate that a NBTHK paper is authentic and attributed for the right mumei blade? Just call them up? Thankfully my wife is Japanese and
On that note - we actually go to Japan all the time and are planning to be there another few months from October. Anyone have any recommendations on places to check out in Japan itself to find good deals on katanas and tachis actually in the country?
And a final question - at this point in my journey I don't care so much about the different smiths yet so much as the direct quality of the blade itself - am I correct in understanding that NBTHK grades are not relative to the reputation of a swordsmith but graded objectively so that assuming that say, if two blades were certified to the same rank as a terminal certification (as in they failed to attain a higher rank, not merely that they didn't attempt it), they could be roughly assumed to be of the same quality (not necessarily the same value)?
Would it be reasonable to then search for my ideal katana by filtering specifically for tokubetsu hozon papered blades as use that as my primary criteria on a quality perspective as a total newbie, or are there more effective approaches?
And on questionable tokubetsu kicho token blades - WHOOPS! Turns out literally during the writing of this post I 'accidentally' bought a fifth blade which feels extremely sketchy to me. I lowballed the seller and really didn't think they would sell for this low but turns out they accepted my offer of $1400 + $100 in shipping for this blade listed for $2000 - https://www.ebay.com/itm/354970993519. Did I make a big no no here? This is from daimyou54eb who I see garners very mixed opinions here, especially regarding non papered blades.
This is a mumei blade with a very old tokubetsu kicho token and he took $600 off the listing price just like that? Is there any remote possibility that this is an authentic blade? I'm especially cautious because he doesn't have anything else remotely listed close to this price with an NBHTK paper, with even another mumei kicho token katana listed for $2300 as the closest comparable: https://www.ebay.com...3:g:y0oAAOSwjQFk5Fbb
Is this likely a case of a blade that failed to get a Hozon paper in reauthentication and is now being sold with the hopes that someone like me will fall for the tokubetsu kicho token or would anyone actually sell a real tokubetsu kicho token katana in this condition (admittedly not the best condition, but also doesn't look bad at all!)? Or is this some other sort of scam like a fake NBTHK paper/one for a different blade?
And if there *are* places where you could feasibly get a real papered tokubetsu kicho or hozon grade katana in the $1000-3000 range that are more trustworthy and legitimate than this crazy eBay gambling I'm doing now that you all are aware of, or if any of you are selling a blade that falls into that category for that kind of price range, please let me know!
Thank you so much all!! Hoping I haven't made *too* serious of mistakes and at least I'm playing at budget price ranges for now before getting truly serious about this stuff.
