johnb

Thanks Paul, as I suspected somewhat optimistic on my part. Still it cost me next to nothing and I had a lot of fun remounting it. Thanks for the response.

Could this Tanto be Kamakura period due to it's uchi-zori, or is it more likely to be late muromachi?

I"m moving from Jakarta to Singapore and need to catalogue my swords. So any help would be much appreciated. I have to do this for an import licence and it"s long overdue. This one a mumei Wakazashi shortened from a katana...Shinto or later...I think. Nagasa 495 mm Sori 8mm Kissaki 33mm Machi 30 mm Nagako 147 mm John B

Guys! I'm overwhelmed with the offers of storage, however, some progress. The Sinapore police, firearms and explosives department have been very helpful. It seems that I should email them with photographs, catalogue the swords and then apply for an import licence. So I will be asking for help on the swords I'm none to sure of. Keep your eye out to see what you won't be storing on my behalf . Nothing terribly exciting I'm afraid. My passion is digging around old shops in asia so most of what I turn up is in a sorry state, nice to save them though. (there have been one or two excellent finds though).

Guys! so nice of you all to offer storage for the swords!!!! Who to pick? The bike is going back to Sydney in storage. But I'm perservering with the swords. My wife suggested that perhaps the reason the collector from Singapore hasn't posted for a while is that he's in jail due to an illegal sword collection :lol:

I have been posted to Singapore and the moving company tell me the government only allows four swords per family as ornamentation...they should be blunt. I have twenty some are a little blunt although im not sure that the Sing government would consider them that way! Does anyone know if there;s a Japanese sword society in Singapore or any other avenue that I might take? They're also giving me issues with the my, only just restored, 1958 Triumph motorcycle! Whats happening with the world? John B

Hi George, and yes it does tally, medium to low grade showato. Straight to ebay!

I turnded these two up in Indonesia...along with a very original shinto katana..Help with the mei would be most appreciated. Thanks in advance JOHN B

Thanks for all the help on this guys. Most appreciated!!! Not sure I agree with your "bends" analogy Ted, as bends is about arterial gas embolisms :D ...but point taken. Thanks again. John B

A friend of mine here in Jakarta told me about the sword given to him by his father. He sent me these pics. Shortened and signed both sides no real signs of damage except the very tip of the Kissaki is broken. Any thoughts and of course translations gratefully received. Thanks in advance. JohnB

I have recently sold this sword and the buyer is very worried that it has been treated with acid to bring out the hada. Although the really prominant hada may lead one to that conclusion, I really can't see any tell tale signs that is has. In fact, work with a finger stone makes the hada even more prominent. I also have another showa sword that exibits the very same charecteristics, although the hada is not quite as prominent as this one. There is an Amahide at this link http://www.nihontoantiques.com/fss188.htm that is also remarkably similar. I've also shown it to a couple of guys in Aus that a pretty knowledgeable, they also doub't any acid treatment. It's pretty scratched but the blade shows no signs of any nioi or nie which I was thre whole point of treating the sword with acid. By the way, nor does the other showa blade I have with a similar forging style. Any help would be appreciated. THE SECOND PICTURE IS THE AMAHIDE IN THE LINK ABOVE. JohnB

I am shipping a sword to Sydney from Jakarta. Not so easy it seems. Below is the message I just recieved from the shipper! Any one else experiencing this nonsense? Dear John, We just got news from Singapore last night that they are unable to forward this to Sydney. No airline is accepting this commodity despite our partner's effort to convince them to. Singapore will return it back to Jakarta on Sunday night. We will try to send it through other way. I'm really sorry for the inconvenience. I will update you again next week. Best Regards,

Hi Darcy, regardless of my smug message post, no. Not hatched. I'm still sitting on it, keeping it warm. I have sent you a mail. Cheers, Johnb

I sort of got mine. I love that great find! And it looks like I may have had the best one ever. I was transfered to Jakarta 18 months ago and discovered that there are about 2 people here that know anything about Japanese swords. In light of an apparent lack of local interest and that the Japanese were here during WW2, I assumed there must be a few undiscovered gems to be had. I have followed leads that have revealed nothing, I have received phone calls from people that have a sword that they will part with for $250,000! I shouldn't complain, I have picked up a couple of OK gendai and a nice little tanto. That was about the extent of it until a couple of months ago. Here in Jakarta the is a street called Jalan Surabaya. It's about 2 hundred yards long and every little shop along one side sells Indonesian artifacts, old pottery, brass compasses and various other brass instruments. Years ago I suspect that everything was the real thing, today it's 90% reproduction. Nonetheless I deemed it worth a visit for a quick nihonto sniff out. All I found was a beat up nco's sword with the tsuka missing. On the off chance, I left my number with one or two tenacious stall holders. Since that time I had a call every week always from the same couple of guys. "I've a sword, it's real. Can I bring it to your office?" So, much to my disappointment, and theirs, in they trooped with their apauling copies. I got so fed up with it that when I received a call from another Jalan Surabaya guy I told him not to bother. fortunately for me his persistence won through. When he arrived at my office I was pleasantly surprised. As he unwrapped his newspaper package I saw a very beaten up gunto appear. With the exception of tsuka ito, it was complete and sported a family mon. When I drew the blade I realized that this was something worth discussing as a purchase. The tsuka had a nut and bolt holding it on and people in the office were beginning to pressure me for meetings (how dare they! I was doing mens secret sword business) so I didn't get to really examine this find. so I quickly I settled on a price of $400. To cut a long story short, that's how I got my Kanemitsu...how did you get yours?

Even if the blade seems to fit the saya there's a fair chance that it may rub here and there as the saya has not been tailored for the blade. Eventually you may end up with bruises and marks on the blade from takingt it and replacing it in the saya. Best I think to do as suggested in all the posts.

Yes it has! A little to much I think. It looks a little to contemporary.

Thank you Piers! Here's another one in urushi again. I've gone of it though. It looks too Hot Rodish! It seems the Indonesian climate works wonders for urushi. I can get away with quite thick layers although for clear I keep them fairly thin as it has a tendency to go brown if applied to thick. And Brian, I couldn't agree more, patience is of the essence.

I've been playing around with urushi for a few months. I wanted to restore a very intricate tanto saya. I got the urushi from Namikawa Heibei Co. They are very nice people and very prompt with their shipments. I have to say, lots of articles I read caused me more problems than you can imagine. First it seems clear that Urushi should be kept in a damp environment to dry successfully. I built a box to dry saya in from 150mm pvc pipe split in half long ways and hinged. I read that you need to have a damp cloth in the bottom to keep the atmosphere moist. Well, clear urushi went dark brown when dried in the box. Black urushi crinkled and where that it was even the slightest bit thick. Now I dry outside in a dust free area. The fact that I live in Indonesia at the moment probably impacts on the drying process. I think after about 10 tries I'm finally getting the hang of it... Here's one I've done, it's a shame that you can't see the subtleties of the colour. It isn't quite even and has quite a different look to paint. It really has a natural feel to it. Oh! Salad spoons from those ethnic art shops are a great source of buffalo horn. All the horn pieces on this saya were originally salad spoons.

Maybe some chips were remove from the cutting edge this would mean that whatever material was removed to get rid of the chip and to avoid an ugly dip material would have to be taken from the full length of the blade. Once it was reshaped, and it could be as little as a millimeter, perhaps the polisher decided to leave the blade blunt rather than cut away to much meat. After all, we're more about looking at em rather than chopping people up with them. With regard to ubu-ha I personally believe that all swords were originally this way to reduce damage to the habaki when removing and replacing for cleaning. Obviously over the years on older swords, it enevivtably gets polished away. All guess work by the way!!

It is a nice looking tsuba...also imho. It's big too, it measures 88mm by82. I've had a look round on the net and he tortoise shell pattern seems to be a recurrent theme Nobuie tsubas, as does the water weel. I've attached a couple that use both themes, oneof them a copy.( And both not mine, damn it). Question is...is it a copy?

Any help with id-ing these two would be most appreciated. Thanks Johnb

Can anyone tell me the difference between Satsuma koshirea and regular buke zukuri koshirae? I guess that oversized fuchi kashira and longer tsuka seem part of the difference along with smallish tsubas with two holes for a cord, but this doesn't always seem to be the rule. Any info would be much appreciated. Johnb

They kanji has been hacked into when the sword was shortned by the way, it's quite obvious.

The sword in the previous post is not without it's uses. This one below (Which we have discussed) came in Military mounts with a nice Tachibana family crest. I made new civilian mounts with the mon as the motif on the saya. The sword in the previous post fits perfectly as a keeper for the military mounts....a hundred bucks well spent!

the rest of the piocs