ottou812

Will a catalogue for this competition be available for purchase?

Same here.

Both looks like they were never mounted.

Nice collection of tsubas listed on the website.

What's the link?

I've posted in the mokume thread, but I thought it's better to start a new thread about this tsuba. Chris said that the mei was Tsuguhira, but to my eyes it doesn't look like Tsuguhira (by comparing to the Tsuguhira mei posted in another thread). Anyways, tsuba was purchased from Todd (fellow board member) and recently had patina work done by Patrick Hastings (thanks to Ford's referral). Looks like a mokume but pattern could be carved. I haven't seen a tsuba like this before. I was curious as how seppas would be used with this tsuba or even how a sword could be mounted due to the uneveness.

Just got this back from Patrick Hastings for some patina work. Tsuba was purchased from todd from this board. Also thanks to Ford for pointing me in Patrick's direction for the patina work. Can't quite make out the mei. This looks like mokume but pattern could be carved. Very unusual tsuba imo.

I believe John Grasso is the name you're thinking of.

Thanks! "Kofu ju" is what's inscribed on the right of the nakagoana.

I bought a very similar tsuba. It's by Shigemitsu and it's very heavy. Picture is from the seller.

What about this from the same seller?

I think you can see faint remnants of gold on the flowers.

I think the point of the original post was finding an alternative to Ebay because of the costs associated with using it. There aren't many choices to get the maximum audience desired when trying to sell something. You either don't care about maximizing profits, then you can sell the item anywhere. And If you do care about maximizing profits, then you need a big audience.

To counteract Ebay's fees, many sellers add a handling charge or increase shipping costs.

The pictures are just a tad too small.