Close to buy this gem....

[AndreasU]

Andreas,

 

Concerning the blade polish, ask directly Tsuruta san. The pictures are oustanding and give a clear picture of the polish :

 

There are a few scratches (not many) at least one blemish on the Shinogi ji (perhaps oil stain).

 

The kissaki has few scatches (often happen) and probably some rust at the tip.

 

Hi Jean,

 

your comments were the most profesional ones and you pointed out exactly all things the blade really has.

 

BUT! The things are minor!! I will not touch anything on the polish as it is in a real good condition. The rust on the tip is very very very minor and black, so not active. There is only one 1/2 mm rust spot ont the mune which i need to stop somehow.

 

In total as said before, the pictures of AOI Art and what I got are a 100% match! Plus a complete oshigata for free!

 

What erverybody has to consider is that the pictures of AOI Art are done with a color digital camera but then converted to greyscale! Thats why there are minimum differences. But thats I think neccessary to do the pictures in this quality!

 

I AM HAPPY !!!! :lol:

 

P.S. One of my Japanese collegues did a translation of the mei and he says it reads "No shu Seki ... Kanenaga! and something like "hammerd this" he couldn`t really translate that because he said he don`t know a english word for this.

 

So I did a search on Richard Stein`s page and the only Kanenaga I can find there is one working in Seki province. Somebody has some more information about this smith? Unfortunately it seems it wasn`t Watanabe..... :lol:

[Jean]

Andreas,

 

Glad you enjoy your sword, in fact the Oshigata provided by Aoi Art are quite reliable and the pictures very good (I bought 3 swords from Tsuruta san).

 

Oshigata are very important because of Keisho polish it is very difficult sometimes to see the Hamon.

 

Everything is on the pictures but sometimes as today with his Gimei Sukesada the temper line is difficult to see and there are bohi sometimes there are kizu difficult to see.

 

But with Tsuruta san, it is very easy you can ask him thousand questions he will always answer and give all details (included non visible kizu on pictures).