nulldevice

I may be missing this even after all... I got strep a few days back and have been religiously pounding antibiotics trying to get it to break. If it clears up, I may make it Friday or Saturday, but if not, I'll be missing out.

Mei looks to be 栗原謙司信秀 Kurihara Kenji Nobuhide? Some other experienced people will chime in with much more information. If you could post more pictures of the entire blade, it would be helpful. Also measurements.

Thanks, I figured the yen values were just an arbitrary valuation used to rank smiths against each other rather than "what is my sword worth today in 2024". I appreciate the clarification.

Doesn’t the Toko Taikan rating yen man value refer to the best work by that given sword smith? Not all swords by a 3.5M yen smith, will be worth 3.5M according to Taikan. Even then, the market determines the true value of a sword, and the yen values are just a way to compare how one smith’s work compared to another. Same with the Fujishiro rankings. That seems to be what I’ve read so far.

Heathrow might be my least favorite airport on Earth. Glad you made it? Are you spending time at SHOT show this week?

I'll take the Sesko Kantei Zenshu books if you want to ship them to the USA.

I seriously wonder if I'm just going to end up with one of your guys' swords. That's a nice looking set of swords! @DTM72

@BrianCount my buddy in for dinner if there's still spots available. My wife is still undecided so I'm going to assume she's a "no" for now.

RGB koshirae anyone? I'll see myself out now... In seriousness though, recycled metals from e-waste will yield raw gold, copper, etc. which would be the same starting point for making traditional looking fittings/koshirae. The thing about computers and technology is that they change every year. Anything computer related that is "cool" now, will be outdated and useless 10 years from now. The exact opposite of this blade which is still in pristine condition hundreds of years later. Interesting concept.

Maybe this is something for a different thread altogether but, is there a typical order in which you look at a sword and determine its origin? Is it the same as the general "order" in which you appreciate a sword? That is, overall shape, sori, kissaki, ubu/suriage, etc etc.? I'll read that "The ___ school typically uses mokuma-hada" but then find a blade attributed to that school that uses itame-hada. I've started looking at the Aoi Art Appraisal quizzes. So far I'm 0 for 4 as far as attributions go, but I'm able to now identify the basics of the blade such as hada, hamon, etc.

Wow... Love that horimono! Looks amazing

Just gonna hop in and say you guys have been incredibly helpful so far. I was over on a gun forum that has a thread going on about Japanese swords and everyone mentioned this forum if you really want to talk to the smart folk. That was an understatement based on what I've seen here so far! There is a massive amount of knowledge here.

Added to my "things to avoid like the plague" library.

I've been scanning my first book, Connoisseur's Guide nearly religiously the last month or so. I just got my 2nd and 3rd "swords" in the mail today! - Encyclopedia of Japanese Swords - Markus Sesko - The Art of the Japanese Sword: The Craft of Swordmaking and its Appreciation - Yoshindo Yoshihara I'm excited to study them.

Thanks Stephen. I've got a budget set aside to purchase a blade but my biggest holdup is not knowing enough to make a knowledgeable decision yet. So my main focus is seeing the activity in blades and learning by attending. If there is any particular blade that seems to stand out, and it is worth picking up, I'll strongly consider it.

I'm young and still thankfully have good eyesight! I was wondering if a microfiber is good enough (with permission) or if I needed a different special cloth. I don't have a mekugi punch yet. IDK if I should get one before hand or not. I've watched the videos on removing the pin and how to remove the blade from the shirasaya or tsuka so hopefully that helps a little bit.

This may come off as a dumb question but, is there anything I need to bring to this show besides myself, lack of knowledge, connoisseur's guidebook, and hopes and dreams of buying a sword?!

Sounds good to me. I'll be driving so I can give a few people a ride in my car if we need. Just be aware its a smaller hatchback so it might get friendly in the back.

Got my room booked for the 25-27th.

I've skim read the Connoisseur's Guide and I feel like I've learned a ton but mostly I've learned that I know next to nothing. I'm looking for another book or 2 to pick up and keep looking at sword auctions and seeing what I can see based on pictures and compare to the description.

Absolutely tragic. My heart goes out for those affected.

If you don't mind a newbie to join, I'll be there and would love to come Sushi Samba is a good restaurant that I've always enjoyed in the Venetian. If you buy the A5 wagyu, it gets very expensive, but if you just stick with rolls, its a good sushi restaurant.

I've convinced a friend to attend with me for the antique gun aspect. He's got an affinity for old Colt Single Action Army revolvers and I'm going for the Nihonto mainly and also to look at the old guns. We'll be 2 of the young guys there

That's what I'm beginning to understand regarding the mounts. So say you have one of those transition-era blades. Its the proper length where it could really be a tachi or katana (disregarding the side the mei in on). If the owner mounted it in tachi-koshirae its now a tachi and if its in katana-koshirae, it's now a katana. And as I've been learning more and more, almost no original mounts seem to exist from the 1400-1500s and most koshirae for blades these days seem to be modern make or edo period mounts. I'd imagine if a wealthy swordsman of the time asked a swordsmith to sign a blade on "the other side" for whatever reason, they'd probably do it. We're all human after all and history is full of outliers even though I've started to become fascinated by the attributions that the experts in nihonto can make because the Japanese did seem to standardize quite a bit making this whole system of grading and attribution to smiths/eras/schools/etc. possible. It's all becoming more and more fascinating to me the more I learn. If I saw that Sunnobi Tanto you posted without any classification, I'd say its a wak but again, I know very very little (and even less and less about tanto). I've gotten through Nagayama's book briefly and still, 99% of the stuff probably hasn't stuck but I'll be attending the Las Vegas show with book in hand and hopefully some swords in hand with some people who can educate me in person!

I just re-read that section and it seems that katana vs tachi was mainly in what side the smith chose to inscribe their signature. katana-mei = katana and tachi-mei = tachi. However, Nagayama also notes that there is historical evidence these longer swords during this time being worn as both katana and tachi depending on preference. The uchigatana seems to be shorter than the long katana and tachi of this era and was meant for 1 handed use and a shorter ~60cm blade and eventually became the "popular" style of katana by the end of the Muromachi period. I hope I understood all of that correctly!