my book seems done...

[Darcy]

I've completed the work pretty much on the first volume of the North American swords series that Bob Benson and I are working on.

 

I am planning on releasing it within the next couple of weeks, just tying up some loose ends accounting and sales tax wise so that it is handled properly on my end.

 

I've had Ted Tenold and Curran Campbell do a proof read, and my next step is to make a limited release to make sure that people are happy with the order processing, and everything is arriving in a satisfactory way and as a last possibility to catch any silly errors.

 

I would like to extend an invitation to Nihonto Messageboard readers who might be interested in getting one of the first few copies and giving me feedback. The book costs $44.95 USD, and is printed on demand in the USA by lulu.com, and is delivered through UPS and USPS at your option I think.

 

It generally takes a week between the time you put your order in and receipt of the book.

 

If you are interested in being a guinea pig, I will put the first 20 books up at $34.95. I believe there will be no difference between this version and the go-live one, but the price is meant to reflect the possibility of a picture being too dark or a repeated word in the text somewhere as a possibility. There are no refunds on that, the publisher gets the majority and I need the balance in order to test-run the rest of the accounting stuff and tracking my balance and so forth.

 

So if you would like, contact me through my website and ask to be put on the guinea pig list. I would like to get some European buyers or buyers in other countries as well so first come first served may not apply.

 

If people have forgotten, this is the first of a series of books on the various traditions of Japanese sword smithing. Provided it rolls out fine, and that US Immigration clears me to enter with my camera this year, I am going to be attending the San Francisco swords show with the goal of photographing swords for the following volumes of the series.

 

I am predicting two volumes each of Koto Bizen, Soshu, and Yamashiro, one each of Mino and Yamato, two of Shinto, one Shinshinto and one Gendaito... it will be a many year long project. After the testing I will put a proper announcement back on my site and Bob will likely have one on his I think.

[Ken-Hawaii]

I knew Bob was working on a "secret project" the last time I was over at his house, but had no idea that it was with you, Darcy. Small world!

 

If you're looking for a proofreader for Nihonto technical details, then I'm probably not experienced enough. But I've co-authored a number of technology books, & have published over 200 technical articles over the years, so I'm fairly adept at finding syntactical & other errors. If I find enough errors, will you give me a free set of your books?

 

Oh, & if any of you happen to use AutoCAD, I'm one of its authors, too.

[Brian]

Darcy,

 

Great news, and I wish you and Bob all the best with the sales of the book and the upcomming volumes. This looks like it will be a must have.

Can you perhaps post some info on the book, such as size, no. of pages etc?

Will the info in it be only on the swords pictured, or will there be a bit of general info on the featured traditions?

eMail inbound..

 

Brian

[Jean]

Great Job Darcy,

 

I have already mailed you this morning to reserve 2 books.

 

Sorry NMB guys, but as French representing Europe, I am prioritary :D :D :D

 

Take care

[Stephen]

Iowa get one???

[Strider]

Please put my name on the list. I e-mailed you this morning volunteering my services. Sorry Jean, but as far as prioritary it concerned, us poor, partial french speaking Missourians have much more to learn.

[Bungo]

" Provided it rolls out fine, and that US Immigration clears me to enter with my camera this year "

 

Have you consider shipping the camera gears ahead to the hotel ?Or ship to Bob to bring them to you at SF show ( after that you can take them home, I don't think the US custom/immigration will give a hoot as long as you are LEAVING )..............

 

just a thought.

 

milt the ronin

[Carlo Giuseppe Tacchini]

After the testing I will put a proper announcement back on my site and Bob will likely have one on his I think.

 

Please remember to drop a line here too.

[Curran]

The book is good. It illustrates very well many important points in the Bizen timeline. I recommend sitting down with Darcy's book, Nagayama's Connoisseur's book, and perhaps the Bizen article from Art&Sword Vol. 1. Then read through it in one or two sittings and refer to Nagayama (or Nihonto Koza) as necessary. I recommend Art&Sword because some of the illustration in Vol 1 article were useful to me when I first started studying Bizen and couldn't get enough visual information out of Nagayama. The writeups with the oshigata and Darcy's commentary gave me exactly what I found lacking in reading through Nagayama as a newbie so many years ago.

[Mike]

Hi Darcy,

I sent you an email via your site, I will be glad to be on the list. Mike

[Carlo Giuseppe Tacchini]

darcy, me too as Mike. A "regular" copy. Please let us know how to pay.

[bdgrange]

thanks very much

a great project

regards

bdgrange

[Darcy]

OK, if you sent me email before now I will be sending you instructions soon on the purchase details. I have enough now to test, I'll next post when it goes live for real :-).

[Darcy]

Also, the book has some general articles, an old one by Thomas Buttweiler on Ko-Bizen, one general one on swords by Tanobe sensei, and one on utsuri by Ted Tenold.

 

Each entry for a sword is four pages, one with general overview of the smith and his work, a translation of Juyo or Tokubetsu Juyo papers, an oshigata of the sword, and photography of the monouchi, nakago, and sugata of the sword.

 

It is 115 pages.