cluckdaddy76

Have you checked on Grey Doffin's website, Japanese Sword Books and Tsuba? One of the larger book dealers I am familiar with right now. Jason

I have also had this happen once with a shipment from Japan to the US. It was also DHL and the reason I was given was that the total amount of value for combined items triggered this new fee. I told them that was ridiculous because I did not have this happen with previous shipments of even larger value. They refused to give me my items unless I paid, and I did as at this point an extra $100 was not worth not getting my pieces. I have never had an issue when using EMS. Jason

Good topic, this tsuba has made me ask myself the same question, mice or rats???

Does taming goats count????

Add 48 to this list...

I am a newer collector just learning myself and have fallen in love with specifically tsuba. Everyone here has given great advice; my suggestion is to do some studying on metals/metalwork in general. Once you get some basic knowledge, start studying nicer tsuba for sale on sites from legitimate dealers. Then head to a site like Ebay and try to start spotting fakes. As your knowledge develops, you can then start to pick out the better "fakes" or cast pieces trying to get passed off as handmade pieces. The more you look at them, the easier it gets to spot bad ones. Some basic things to look for would be casting seams/bubbles, often the colors of various metals look off (this you learn from studying real pieces). If you see a piece, you are not sure about on an auction site, take a look at what else that dealer has for sale. If you can tell other items from that seller are not legit, my rule is run away. I am far from an expert but have a job where I can do some research every day and I have been studying hard for some months now. I do also have books, but for me the visual study/comparison helps greatly. Ginza Seiyudo website is a great place to start looking at really nice higher end tsuba. Grey Doffin's site, Japanese swords and tsuba is also another one with a ton to look at and study. The biggest problem is that the more studying you do, the prices of the tsuba that you now want do tend to go up in price dramatically. But this is the fun of collecting so enjoy but be careful because you can buy some junk if you are not knowledgeable.

These may not have come together; they are in a large collection I acquired. The lower pair is papered by themselves and not as a set. I am still waiting to see if there are papers for the upper pair, we are still sorting through things from a large estate. Both definitely not cast, but lower pair to me looks better quality. I am not convinced they are a true pair myself based on size, but someone I showed suggested it was since one was a single large hen/rooster and the other was a pair of smaller birds. Unfortunately, this large collection was abused for many years and some papers have most likely been lost. This was just a single box that I placed both pairs in for the pic. This is also a mediocre pic, they look much better in hand especially the bottom pair. Top pair if cleaned a bit should bring out a bit more detail.

Would these be considered a true daisho set?

Adam, totally agree. I enjoy using my whetstones to sharpen and do it more frequently than most people might think. I use my knives almost daily and definitely cut more than butter.

Thanks everyone for the insight. I do believe I will not paper the fittings based on most feedback. I would have eight to ten between tsuba, fuchi/kashira, and menuki and does not seem to me that it would be worth the money spent unless I want a certain piece done for personal gratification of some kind.

I realize my title should have been, "How to Preserve and Prevent Further Damage". I will be posting more pics eventually. Thanks for the help so far.

I was curious on the forehead and other's opinions. I thought it looked like oxidization; had a long shot someone would tell me it was a mask. It seems a lot of people like these style tsuba, for some reason I am really attracted to different styles of iron tsuba more than softer metals such as this one, Don't get me wrong, I still think this is a decent piece, thanks for your response.

Thanks everyone, I will continue with cleaning and oil. Jon , not sure if this matters but these pics were done in almost completely dark room with flash. In normal light I have gotten this rust looking darker, but I was actually surprised how red it was when I viewed these pics. Thanks for the help.

And this is why I have finally learned to ask before just doing, only took about 47 years It has a very nice feel in hand and I can see some nice activity under the rust but can't tell much about the hada in current condition. I will upgrade this one and maybe I will make this one my first full restoration piece.

Thanks for these quick responses. I am still playing around with the photography and will be posting much better pics soon. I did not mean a new polish; I just want to not let it get any worse than what I now have. I will update with new photos possibly after this weekend.

This is what was listed as the "project" blade in the collection I now own and was by far in the worst condition out of the blades. Habaki will not come off yet. The only good news is that this is a beefy little wakizashi with some hamon activity and do not see any forging flaws. But it is rusted all over the surface. There is no signature on the nakago. There may be a possibility nakago was shaved down a bit to fit a homemade handle, but not certain about this. To mee one side has better file marks and one side seems smoother and a bit strange. The actual blade is also much thicker than the nakago. My basic question is this, does anyone with knowledge see something where this is worth preserving? I have made rash decisions in the past, so before I have the best garden tool on the street, I am looking for feedback. I will most likely use it as a project piece myself unless I am told differently. Also, aside from the wiping and choji oil, should I do anything else with this blade to help keep it up? It is currently stored in a regular saya, I do not have shirasaya for this one. Thanks for any help.

This is part of the collection I am trying to save; I doubt any of them have had any care for over twenty plus years now. I have a written notebook from the original collector. He would be well over one hundred years if he was still with us. The next couple caretakers were not so good and now I am here. This is what he has listed as the "newer" blade supposedly made around 1950 give or take a decade. The bad news is that this blade was used and played with for some years and not kept up. The middle pic is where I am trying to show the issue, there are some rust spots and some scratching in areas. There is also some light staining in a couple spots. As I am a novice, I do not even know if this is a traditionally forged Japanese sword and just want to make sure. If this is legit, how or what should I do to at least preserve it from getting worse? I have wiped down and have choji oil but have not read that I should really do much else. The shirasaya has been destroyed and all my other blades have that, so I guess I would want to get one made. Any thoughts and help greatly appreciated. I did not bother with signature (this piece is signed) as my focus right now is on saving what I think are some decent pieces in this collection. This blade is probably in the poorest condition of the eight with the exception of one wakizashi, but the person's notes stated that wakizashi was a "project blade" for various practice including sharpening and that one was not hard to pick out.

I am attempting to sort out and save a collection of blades and fittings of which I am now the new owner. I have mostly been reading books on swords as recommended, but I enjoy the fittings as much as the swords. Here is one of the tsuba as an example. I guess first, I would hope someone with knowledge can tell me that this tsuba is not a modern fake. If we get past that part and it is real, is this something that could and should get papered? I am the type of collector who will want only better-quality items, and ideally, I would like to authenticate and paper anything I can, but this is also just a bit of personal preference. If anyone can translate mei, that would be an extra bonus, I appreciate any help I can get. Also. not thrilled with the quality of my pictures, for example in hand the golden dragon's carving looks much more detailed.

I am a very new collector, and I would like to see it stay up. I think it is educational on a few levels...

Not shabby at all for your first piece, enjoy!!!! If it does not have koshaire , you could start on a next project and get a set put together. I am newer here too, my suggestion is to get a few books and start reading. It will save you headaches and lost money down the road.

If this is from seller Shintou13 or something close to that, be very careful. I had some free time at work this week and was able to browse everywhere. I saw this person had a bunch and some of them you could tell the papers did not match the sword just from the ad. Many of the blades looked very suspect too, excellent condition with no starting bid and papers? They also looked just not quite right from the photos in regard to many of the hamons. Hope it works out for you and you don't burned.

Thanks for all the replies, they all make sense. I should have realized that selling a single $1,000 tsuba is nothing to a big auction house these days. Luckily, I did not see any chicken themed fittings so I will not even have to think about buying two or three extra one's that I would need to sell in order to just get the one I want. I am not sure if anyone has looked at what they have coming up, but to me some of the guards even though they are quality work, are not appealing to me as a collector.

I would love to see some pics when you get this one. I was watching this at first as starting price was low and i happened to be within driving distance of auction house. I wish you the best of luck, you took quite a stab with the 28% buyer's premium from Clarke Auction Gallery on top of the selling price. Fittings are what I would love to see close up pics of, can't make out the menuki and the fuchi looks like an animal head of some sort. Hope this one turns out to be a great blade.

I am curious if anyone knows why Bonham's often makes such large groups for their fittings. For example, in an upcoming auction there are seventeen kozuka in one group. Many tsuba are in groups of three or more. My thought is this, wouldn't they actually make more money selling each one individually? I feel it keeps many people away from auctions like this unless your pockets are overflowing. I know as a collector I only like certain pieces and having to buy the sixteen other kozuka's just to get the one you really want is not feasible for the majority of people. Just curious if anyone else thinks along this line or if someone has the answer as to why they do make such large groups.