MJS

I am using these Ionic lights, from UFO Lighting. Nice and small, on a magnetic rail. https://www.fiberopt...-lighting-system.php

VERY nice! Excellent books, too :-) Cheers Mark

That looks great! I love the idea of including lighting with different color temperatures. The supports for the swords look very interesting, too. I really like the minimalistic style of back wall mounting, so that nothing in the display is distracting from the art. However, for more flexibility I decided to go with regular stands, but now I feel some doubt again. I have put in professional rail lighting from UFO (Ionic SX series, https://www.fiberopt...-lighting-system.php), they make fantastic bulbs. Super small, individually dimmable, several lenses and snoots, etc. I have a set of 3000K with a variety of lenses (mostly 16 and 20x50 degrees), but I might swap a few out for 4000K after reading about two different temperatures. The glass doors are 6mm extra clear double-sided anti-reflective, with anodized aluminium frames (https://www.vitris.e...and-furniture/Supra/). There is currently a brush in between the two doors to minimize dust coming in, but I don't like the looks of the vertical aluminium element in the middle. Might go for something more subtle, but I'm not sure about an alternative that would be a) pretty dust-proof or even air tight, and b) very subtle. It is a lot of fun to do this project: not knowing beforehand what it will end up like, but step by step ending up with something really nice anyway. Thanks for all these great bits of information and wonderful ideas. I'll post updates as I go. Mark

Hi all, I would like to display my small collection of nihonto in a showcase at my home. I did a serious Ikea hack using two large Bestå units to build the ~0.5 m3 case itself, and bought a high quality sliding door system and a nice lighting system using a rail and small LED spots. The photo shows the case as I have it currently, although the interior is entirely temporary and will need quite a bit of work. I would love to hear your well informed advice on the next steps. First off, I would really prefer to show the swords without their saya, which will require a lot of planning and good care of the climate inside the case. Swords that I've seen so far in (western) museums seem to be displayed without oil, from a display perspective that would be my preference. That would at the very least add more requirements to climate control. Specifically, my questions are these: Do museums actually display their nihonto without oil? If so, what are the climate control requirements (aside from RH 45-50%) and maintenance procedures? The interior of the case is made of multiplex that has been stained and then dried/aired for a long period of time. Based on these materials, can I expect any issues with corrosion if there will be a low air-circulation situation? Does anyone have construction drawings or something similar to make sword stands? I intend to use cloth to cover them, unless someone convinces me to use perspex or some other funky material . If using cloth to cover the stands, would white be a better color or should I use a dark color? I've seen both and most museums seem to go with white. I would be really grateful for any advice on these points. Of course, if anyone is interested, I would be more than happy to post details on the construction of the display case so far. Cheers, Mark

Hi Sean, I can still see only the first image on Imgur. All subsequent ones are random pics.

That's a great display case. Looks really nice. Probably quite a distraction from your work!

Some really great examples here, many thanks! Turns out that a lot of people are using macro lenses already, I had no idea. There are some lenses, among which the OM System 90mm macro, which can enlarge by insane amounts. Microscope-like. See, for example, a picture of an iphone 14 screen on Ken Rockwell's site (https://www.kenrockw...es/OM1D1663-crop.jpg on this web page: https://www.kenrockw...f35.htm#sampleimages). Would a such a huge magnification of 1-2x bring out activity that you would otherwise miss? Regardless, time to go shopping.

Hi all, Curious about your thoughts if 1-2x macro images would add interesting aspects to the photographic documention of a blade. I don’t think I’ve seen it used very much so I have my doubts here. But the quality of modern macro lenses (like the 90mm OM System) is so fantastic, that thought I’d ask anyway. Any thoughts are welcome, and in particular good examples of super macro sword photography. Cheers Mark

If anyone would like more photographs or wants to have an in-hand look: please let me know. Best, Mark

It was a wonderful event, and I very much enjoyed your presentation Jussi. Interesting subject, and you brought a lot of information together in a very enjoyable way! Cheers, Mark

Dear all, How about something unusual! I have for sale an edo period gunsen, which I bought at a Christie's auction many years ago. It has the original paper, with a red sun on a silver ground. The front is in excellent condition, see the first two pictures. The back side has a few small imperfections as shown on the third picture, but nothing one couldn't expect from an item such as this one. The lacquer work is in near perfect condition. The gunsen folds properly and easily. Any questions? Please ask! Asking price is €1250,-, which is essentially the price I paid plus inflation since the purchase . Cheers, Mark Front: Back:

Beautiful Marco, and excellent photography indeed. We share the two hobbies, but I can only hope to attain the mastery that's demonstrated on your web site! The book looks interesting too. It is out of print, but it is on Ebay, among some other places. Thanks for sharing!

Thanks everyone. Will let you know how this story ends!

Hi Colin -- I am not entirely sure what you circled. I see the hamachi and then some embossing shadows. Or do you mean the subtle line-shaped change in color of the steel?

Certainly @Brian. Although it is challenging for me to know what ‘not overpaying’ is. It is hard to find a reasonable price level for a naoe shizu tanto, as they are quite uncommon. The seller suggests that with additional research it might stand a chance at juyo shinsa, but I am not so sure. There are no naoe shizu blades with tokubetsu juyo papers as far as I know so it would have to compete with the very best naoe shizu out there. Having said that, the seller’s asking price seems reasonable and we can probably come to an agreement. @Rivkin I think that the hamon issues you noticed are caused by the casual photography setting with bad lighting: I saw no irregularities in nie intensity with the tanto in hand.

I could imagine that's totally "not done". Even if it was mumei.

Hi Ray, that's an interesting option that I had not yet considered. Looking at the image of the nakago, I am not entirely sure that such is the case here though. The hi shows the same lack of patina, and I would think it would be mostly spared if a mei was removed. Yes! I think (will ask the seller for confirmation) that the koshirae that it now comes in, is relatively recent. You think that some patina/nakago was removed to make it fit?! Mark

I realized that there is no reasonable image of the nakago, so here goes:

Hi guys, I have an opportunity to buy a naoe shizu tanto, mumei, with NBTHK TH papers from March 2018. I consider myself pretty much a beginner in this field, and would greatly appreciate any opinions on this blade. One question that I have: there is some damage on the ha near the hamachi, which to me looks like "scuff marks" from sheathing/drawing the blade. I imagine that this would not be a very big deal. Is that indeed the case or is it a real problem? Another is is this: the vast majority of Naoe Shizu tanto are unsigned. Is there any approach through which I could pinpoint better a particular smith, period or other detail? Finally, the nakago seems to have a "bare" area where there is significantly less rust. This is also visible on the photograph that comes with the paper. What could such a focal change be caused by? Could it be related to mounting during a longer period? A sticker/marker that was later removed? The current owner tells me he also has no idea. Thanks, Mark

Hi Georg! Apologies for the late reply, was on vacation in bad-internet-land. Thank you for your feedback! I will definitely have a good look at proper white balance. The color temp of the tube lights that I use is adjustable, and I have so far not paid much attention to it. I also agree on your remarks regarding the border between object and background. That will be a more difficult experiment, because even the smallest dust particles are lit up like lightbulbs in the current setup. I digitally removed them, but maybe I should just try to get a cleaner baseline picture . Or get better at postprocessing (maybe more "feather" along the edges)! Best, Mark

Hi all, I am trying to find a good setup to make acceptable photographs of nihonto. I'm now using an acrylic table, lying on top of a darkened (sword-sized) box. Still experimenting with the ideal angles for lighting. My "model" is a jumonji yari, as it is relatively small and light. I found that it is particularly challenging to get the lighting right for these, especially when the goal is to capture the entire blade including nakago. I made this image by merging two separate photographs, one with the lighting from the sides and one with lighting from the front and back. It is quite a bit of work to make the merge work, so I would prefer a solution where the lighting captures the details of the yari from all directions. But the more lights I use, the higher the risk of unwanted glare or overexposure on particular areas. Work in progress I guess! I'm looking for feedback on the style of photography, and for ideas to bring out the best from a piece with such a complicated shape. Technical tips and tricks are welcome too, of course! I feel something is "missing" but can't quite figure out what is it is. Mark

Really beautiful. Watching that scene makes me feel happy!

Thank you, interesting. Tourist junk from long ago. Fortunately I did not actually purchase this thing. I was just having trouble figuring out what it was. I rarely look on ebay and friends, but I’ve not yet seen this kind of fitting.

Hi, yes I did :-) Needless to see I could not find anything on this one. Weird thing was that I think the seller thought the shirasaya was of most interest and not the blade, the pics of tang and ‘detail’ of boshi were not even in the original ad. Thanks everyone.

Hi all, Not sure if a question like this even belongs here but while dreaming of well polished swords I saw this absolute rust bucket somewhere. I've got no experience whatsoever with neglected nihonto, so hopefully someone with more experience can help me out here. The shirasaya (is it??) looks very iffy, I've never seen it done like this. What is this? A 'fake' or something very unusual? The blade itself I also have no idea about. It might be genuine but it is in absolutely pitiful state. So even if this one were the real deal, would it even be possible to bring this back to a state where people would want to look at it? These pictures are unfortunately all I have. Best, Mark