cluckdaddy76

I thought this one was a steal at $122, this was unsigned , if anyone has a thought on school I am curious. There were a couple others too that went for $150 or so that also looked of decent quality.

This one went for $290, guessing Bushu or Choshu

I am going to post a few more from this same auction that were no where near the quality of the one first posted, but still seemed to be decent tsuba. Believe this was a Choshu that ended up at $270

I was curious on this one too, I often use Ebay as one of my study tools. I believe this came from an antique dealer in the US and not someone who only deals in swords and sword fittings. There were a few decent pieces that this seller had that went for what I felt were decent prices by the end, this one was a couple levels ahead in terms of quality. This is why I keep studying, someone with knowledge knew exactly what this was and was not afraid to pay money for it.

Thanks Brian, just renewed through PayPal and should be setup for automatic renewals from now on. I am very happy to help support, I do not post all that much as I have been studying away since coming into a larger collection all at once. I have just started to purchase a few items on my own, fittings so far. This site is amazing with the collective knowledge here. Thank you for all you do to keep this going. Jason

I am just wondering if anyone can tell me if my subscription will renew automatically or do I need to purchase a year subscription once it expires? I also have changed debit cards since my last subscription, any help would be greatly appreciated. Jason

I believe it is coming up for auction soon, I have seen it somewhere during my poking this week. I am unsure on this one and being a smaller size, it took away most of my interest. It looks like it is not cast and fairly well made, but really not sure on school or age. Also curious on anyone's thoughts on motif aside from possible school/time period, my guess on that right now might be silkworms. Jason

I am a newer collector, and I can tell you the approach I took before purchasing any on my own. I will say that my first pieces came to me all at once in the form of a lifelong debt repayment, so I did have something in hand to study at first. But in my opinion if buying online, having some in hand only helps a bit. If yopu were alwyas shopping live for tsuba, then some in hand would help more. First thing that was actually useful was I came on here and listened to many people simply say, study first. So I did, starting with a couple books suggested here. Reach out to Grey Doffin on his website, he usually has a huge selection. Then I made sure to have a large enough screen and high-resolution monitor and went online. I started first with the links and dealer section located here and would actually look at them all. Next step was to go to the auctions online and start looking at activity there, especially items people were actually bidding on at the time. But I would also take time to look at everything online, because in the beginning it is just as important to learn what the reproductions and junk/fakes look like too. For me, once I had been doing this regularly for a number of months (mind you I did not buy my own tsuba until close to two years of looking/studying) I realized I had definitely learned a lot. Once you see enough nice authentic tsuba many fakes will jump right out. The really bad one's with minimal studying are pretty easy to pick out once you know what to look for such as casting lines, injection molding sites, a seam in the middle of the tsuba etc. Then the reproductions start to get better. With softer metal tsuba, study the colors of the various metals used on legitimate antiques first. Then go look at some Ebay reproductions (or auction site of your choice, Jauce may be even better than Ebay) and look at theirs. Continue this practice and I think you will be happy with the results. I am guessing from your original post you do plan on using auction sites, so here are a couple tips just for auction sites once you have some knowledge and can at least differentiate many of the fakes. If you find a tsuba for sale from a seller you are not sure about as there are one's very tough to tell, go look at what else this seller has to offer. If you go to their page and realize it looks like all of their other pieces are modern repro's , get the piece you were looking from them out of your thoughts. The probability of them having one real piece while the rest is garbage is very low in my opinion. This can be tricky if the seller only has one tsuba, but if they had other items take a look at those and decide what type of seller this person appears to be. Next piece of advice is this, just because multiple people are bidding on an item, it does not mean it is good. The site Liveauctioneers.com have many auction houses for example, but many have no idea what they even have and many list reproductions at ridiculous prices. I don't know how many times I wish there was a way to insert comments in the middle of bidding when I see people overpaying and battling it out for some hunk of crap. But even with all this, mistakes can still be made. Sukashi iron tsuba fakes are among some of the harder ones to decipher in my opinion. I feel the only "downfall" which is really a bad thing when you do a bunch of studying is that I have become much pickier about the quality of what I will purchase compared to what I thought was good quality when I first started. Do not be frightened by the hobby, if you can take some time to study, I think you will enjoy it. I do believe my studying at first definitely saved me from what I would now consider mistakes, including spending money on legitimate older pieces in poor condition or not particularly desirable pieces to study except for the fact they are actually old. Good luck and I hope this helps and gives you some encouragement. Jason

I have also found studying pieces for sale from higher end dealers (start with Ginza Seiyudo) is also a great way to learn. Be careful with current auctions even from high end auction houses as they do make mistakes but past auctions from them should also be a good resource as previously mentioned. This piece caught my eye at first too as I did see it in the auction, but I had hesitations on it. I only started to purchase recently myself but was lucky enough to come into a larger collection all at once. I studied for more than a year and a half before attempting to make a purchase. My rule on auctions is to not get caught up, evaluate the piece and set your top price. Stay strong and do not get caught up in the passion of bidding at the end. Still a nice piece even if gimei so congrats!!!

I believe this one belongs in this post. Large thin katana sized , believe diameter is close to 9 cm. Can see faint signs of a mei, not sure on age/scool.

Second example, I am also not sure on details of this one but saw in earlier posts on this thread that this was possibly a tsuba for a tachi, feedback also welcome

First example of one of mine that fits this criteria. This is a large and heavy tsuba and the previous owner definitely had the box custom made for this one. I really do not know much else about this one, feedback appreciated.

Some geese about to land at night, I love the crescent moon partially hidden in the iron clouds

I have a similar style. I only have one pic right now but the large plug is gold colored one side and silver the other. I love this one because the Hitsu-Ana are shaped like a ship sail and rudder I believe. Jason

Thought this might fit nicely into this post. Jason

As this thread was meant for newer collectors, I have one piece of advice on any auction site. If you are unsure whether a piece is legit or not, take a look at what else that seller has to offer. If they have one questionable tsuba, but then have another ten that are clearly cast or reproductions, I suggest passing on the one in question. I feel auction sites are a better learning tool than many people realize, as long as you are just window shopping. My other piece of advice is to then go to a website like Ginza Seiyudo and study their pieces so one can start to understand the difference in quality. I believe this has saved me from mistakes, especially when I first started poking after getting my collection and wanting to buy more right away. Jason

Alex, thanks for the post. If this is still available when my bonus comes in this spring, you will have sold this one for them. It actually ticks a couple boxes for me in terms of a purchase, mainly the kissaki and the test inscription. You even have me starting to think about parting with a couple of my current collection now and grabbing this up. I do like this piece, and it is under $10 K. Jason

Just to chime in, I am also now a huge fan of tsuba. I was lucky to acquire a large collection of many different items all at once, including 50 or so tsuba. I have been quietly studying away for some time now and have only posted a few times. Now that I have studied, I just do not see much on Ebay and rarely even look here and agree jauce is slightly better. My personal issue is now that I have learned more, I rarely see a tsuba I am interested in for much less than about $500 USD and then it goes up from there. I am also in the camp of if it makes you happy, keep doing it, so if you love your pieces Dan, keep on going. My concern with this type of $100 or so tsuba is that down the road if you needed to sell them, it may not be that easy where a quality piece would be more desired by collectors and easier to liquidate. Sure, someone can get what they feel is a great deal on a tsuba for say $50 and you value it at $150; so, in your mind this is good. However, if down the road you actually try to sell, I feel it may be a different story whether you get what you valued it at. Once again, not knocking what anyone likes, but to me once you hold better quality work in your hand, it is hard to settle for less in my opinion. Jason

Thanks for all the responses. I also agree with everyone thinking it is an artistic interpretation of a dragon and ken. Dale, I also think you are right about it not being Kinai, I have a couple decent tsuba from that school and from my research, almost any decent piece is signed. The iron quality is also different than any Kanai piece I have seen, which is another reason I do not believe it came from them. Glad everyone likes it; I came into a larger collection all at once and have been studying away trying to learn. The original collector definitely seemed to be a tsuba person as they had more of these than the other fittings. They had many different schools in their collection and also seemed to pick out ones with less common themes and of fairly decent quality.

Just the back , couldn’t fit both in first pic. Jason

I will add a second pic, just curious if anyone has an idea on the school or age of this tsuba? I have not seen another open work dragon with this particular theme, iron quality and carving is definitely better than average

I came into a large collection all at once, and I had one blade in poor shape (the notes that came with it did say this was a project blade). I made a joke about turning it into the best machete around in a post on here a bit ago but am glad I did not. I took the advice of members here and what was once a rusty piece has come a long way with just my patience and basic cleaning advice from members. At first, I had similar feelings as you, that it would be honorable to put it back in use. Now that I have been studying and will call myself officially a novice collector, my feelings have changed and agree they should be preserved. I have heard there are some decent options out there if you do want to upgrade your practice blade for cutting, even possibly a tamahagane blade made more recently. This is only something I have read about, but what I have heard is lesser-known smiths sometimes make extra blades beyond what they are legally able to produce each month just to survive. To me it sounds like your blade in question may be better off putting preservation energy into it. You mentioned you basically had a new koshirae made which is not cheap as we all know, what about getting a new polish on this blade? In the end for me, I chose to preserve as once you damage it, there is no going back. I look like I am ending up with a nice Mino-Den wakazashi and am happy with my decision. Hope this helps. Jason

Again not sure on age, 91 mm diameter and very nice iron quality. Jason

94 mm diameter, I am not positive on age but have been told this is an older tsuba Jason