Tokaido

San Francisco should be first choice for the US based collectors this year, or Tampa Florida, next year. For the Europa based collectors: http://www.nbthk.net/NBTHKe/Membership.html Good for first contact, too. Last meeting was in Oxford (GB), next meeting (September) will take place in Bonn (Germany). Greetings Andreas

Hi Tobias, to contact the European Branch of the NBTHK please use the emailadress you will find here: http://www.nbthk.net/NBTHK/Membership.html The adress is suitable for any sort of inquiery about swords. Please do not use any other adress to contact NBTHK EB Greetings Andreas B. (member of NBTHKEB and somthimes lurking during high noon break

Hello listeros walking on a fleamarket today, I stumbled over this little kogai. It look like it was originally chromium plated (or nickel-plated) over a base of silver or shibuichi. The base metal shows up at places where the plating felt of and the blackish oxidation of the base metal gives a clue of silver or shibuichi, I guess. The whole thing was once covered in clear laquer, now slightly yellowisch, which is peeling of in most places. I do not think that this is a modern replica, but I wonder if during Meji (or later) the fittingsmakers made some experiments with the method of chromium plating or nickel plating. Since these metal platings where totally new to the Japanese, it may have been an avantgarde thing? Any ideas? Greetings Andreas

Hello all, thank you for sharing your opinions. As Milt says, the fittings repatinate itself during some months, I will try some mild cleaning again. Concerning the atmospheric sulphur, I remember that it was an easy *trick* to patinate grandma's teapot by leaving it in the *restrooms* /benjo for a while. Some natural sulphur sorce nearby To get a really *hard* and durable black color the silver had to be exposed to sulphurhydrogen (?) H2S wich is very poisoness (!) gas. I remember when we children accidentially cleaned grandmas spoons and knives wich had a very durable *pattern* of black color within the ornamental carving before the misstreatening. We ask a jeweler and have been told, that there were nearly no chance to get that durable black again without chemical treatment. Greetings from wet, cold and windy Germany Andreas

Hello to the group, I wounder if anybody could tell something about the *original* patina on plain silver swordfittigs of the late Edo period? Most mountings I see in catalogues or on auctions seem to have a bright polished surface on the silver fittings. But if I keep a koshirae displayed on the kake, the silverfittings slowly turn to a purple tinge. Looks funny, but should the silver fittings be cleaned with some cloth? Mostly a very slightly rubbing with a cloth or the handling of the koshirae with cotton cloves will have a polishing effekt so the purple tinge disapears immmediately. OK, we never polish shakudo or shibuichi because we know that the colorfull patina of these fittings is intentional. But what about silver fittings? There are some saya with hirumaki of gold or silver band on it. These silver bands will allways receive a polishing by the obi, wouldn't it? So would the *rest* left alone or been polished on a regular basis? Greetings Andreas See attachment for a sample of hirumaki koshirae

Hi, *tiny rustspot* sound like somebody talked while holding the sword and caused one of the unpleasant spit-spot ? If it is located on the burnished part of the mune and it really bothers you, try Stephens suggestion and rubb it away with a horn spatula. If it is *fresh rust* it should be easily removed. And gentle oiling never hurts! Greetings Andreas B.

Hi folks, Tachimei = Hizen Daito That's common with Daito swords from the Hizen School! Greetings

Hi Martin, copper would be ok for any period, because when a sword was brandnew it was intended as a weapon, primary. (At least during pre-Edo Period!) A copper habaki was the choice of the swordsman, no thrills I guess we all like to see a picture of the habaki in question? There are other types of decoration as well: - foil coating (gold, silver, shakudo) - simple filemarks (nekogaki=cat scratching) - decorative filing - sukashi (moon, sun, kiku, sakura) - takabori carving (dragons, flowers, karakusa etc.) - two piece habaki - habaki which follow a groove in the blade Please do not forget: labor was very cheap during Edo period (and earlier), but a precious metal was very expensive. So a delicate goldfoil would add to the beauty and elegance without the enormous cost of a solid gold habaki. Anyway, today foiling is likely more expensive, because of the labour envolved. With Showa Period you find some not traditional metals: habaki made of alluminium or brass (the western alloy, most likely not the sentoku=to brittle). Greetings

Hi, as Loki stated already, once it was tradition that the metal (gold, silver, copper) indicated the age of the sword. But nowadays you should better look at the habaki and decide if it is an old one (>100 years) or a new made one. There are several styles of habaki, but you often see some new (boring) standard type. Good taste and a propper fit and style matching the blade indicates a good habaki! E.g. Osaka habaki with Osaka blade, Kaga-Style with Kaga blade, Umetada-habaki with top-notch tanto and so on. Generally a habaki states how much a previous owner valued the sword when he ordered the habaki. I remember seeing a Kokuho Tachi with a shabby iron habaki! (The habaki dated back to the Kamakura Period, but thats another story) With newly made habaki you see more often silver than copper based items. Thats because the silver is MUCH easier to work with than the copper! (Food for the lazybone habaki-makers, sorry So do not dismiss a propper made and patinated copper habaki. Kind regards