Visit to Chrisitan Chaffee's home in San Diego...

[Steve Waszak]

Greetings everyone,

 

Just wanted to post a few thoughts on a really wonderful visit I had with Christian Chaffee in his San Diego home today. I hadn't realized that he lived in the same city I did, but when he posted here the information about his coming website, and mentioned he lived here, I immediately contacted him.

 

He graciously invited me to him home to talk blades and tsuba and nihonto in general. Among various fascinating nihonto pieces (including two spectacular menuki), he showed me two truly beautiful blades which, due to recent outstanding polish jobs, positively glow with activity. Their quality was exhilarating to behold. Christian was very generous with his time and knowledge, and I very much look forward to visiting him again.

 

I'm writing this post because I think it's important to acknowledge the help we beginners receive from those whose experience and teaching we learn from. I very much appreciate all the help and guidance those with much greater knowledge than I have give me, and Christian is one such person. Here's to wishing him the best of success with his website (which I know I'll be visiting often!).

 

Gambatte, Christian...!

 

Steve

[Christian Chaffee]

I am posting my response so everyone can read it, as I think I have included some information which could promote learning about nihonto, and maybe even result in a new sword study group forming somewhere.

 

Hi Steve,

 

I too was surprised that there was another person in San Diego whom I had not met, who has a serious interest in fine swords and fittings.

 

I am always a bit cautious having someone who I have not met come to my home.

 

Before I invited you I checked out your former posts, and could tell you had a genuine interest, so I was not concerned about inviting you to my home, and enjoyed your visit.

 

I was inspired by your enthusiasm and zeal to learn more. If I can find a few seriously interested people who would like to participate in monthly meetings, I will make the effort to start up our monthly sword study group again.

 

Last year I started what I called "The San Diego Token-Kai", which I jokingly referred to as "the blind leading the blind". Although I have much to learn, our group did make progress, and we all had a lot of fun.

 

Some of the guys would bring swords or fittings which they offered for sale, and other times, blades were brought in for a group evaluation. We all would all pass the blades around, and talk smack, picking out the slightest flaws and weaknesses, and guessing at it's age and sometimes school. If it was signed, we would try to read the signature.

 

Although this can be a painful experience for the owner of the blade, it helped us all to see how others evaluated blades, and to develop a methodology in examination. Hopefully this has helped us all to catch many of the hard to see flaws, which we might have over looked, and could have resulted in a costly mistake.

 

Last year I had a meeting format, which I can now see how to improve. I have learned a lot by trying to lead these meetings which were fun, educational, and helped to build good friendships.

 

I am writing this in hopes that maybe some of you out there, will also start up sword study groups in your local areas. It isn't really hard, unless you try to pretend you are an expert, and that you know what you are doing!

 

I will start off our group meetings by opening my eBay room about 30 minutes early for looking at the blades and fittings which are brought for sale. For those of you who know Cole, know you will see a large quantity of reasonably priced fittings in all price ranges. The early birds will usually get the worms, so I am sure everyone will show up on time. When all the members of the group have arrived, we will all sit around a big table, and eat sushi, and socialize. After we eat, we will look at swords and fittings brought in for evaluation, and get some good laughs while talking smack, which is quite educational. Then we will have a discussion on a single school and period, discussing the important smiths of that period, the history of the school, and the characteristics found in their blades. I will also try provide an example we can examine hands on. I will then let the guys know what school we will discuss the following month, so everyone can do some reading in advance, and may someone will have an example to bring to show everyone. We will also go over the basics of sword handling and care at every meeting, and the procedures to instill a systematic way of examining a blade. After all the blades are put away, we will enjoy a bottle of saki, and maybe do more buying and selling of fittings. We never ever mix handling blades with drinking saki for obvious reasons.

 

I plan on keeping the format of the meetings about the same, but will include a stronger emphasis on what to look for in a blade. This way we will also have a better chance of identifying a gem in the rough when we see it.

 

If you live in the San Diego area, and think you would be interested in attending, please contact me, and I will include your name on the list of potential new members.

 

Since it is my responsibility to do what I can to insure that the meetings are safe, and that every member is somewhat normal, I will personally screen each applicant to make sure that they have a genuine interest in fine nihonto, and to weed out the ones who are more interested in martial arts and slicing things up.

 

Anyway, I am looking forward to making some new friends, and seeing some old friends more regularly.

 

Christian

[Steve Waszak]

I am very enthusiastic about the prospect of this group taking off... What Christian describes here sounds like an absolutely terrific time. I've already had just a taste of Christian's hospitality, so I can only imagine how much fun we might have at these meetings.

 

I think Christian has an inspired idea in suggesting that such study groups might spring up in other cities. Why not? They can be informal and fun, but still educational, inspirational, and excellent for networking...

 

Good stuff, Christian. I shall see you soon, my friend...

 

Cheers,

 

Steve

[Ed]

Hey Chaffe,

I wondered what you were up to. I lost your e-mail address a while back due to a computer crash. Shoot me a pm with your e-mail address.

 

I was wondering if I would see you at the SFTK this year. Did you ever get the Ko-Gassan back from polish, if so I would like to see it in SF.

 

Good luck with your web site and your study group.

BTW: You let that scoundrel Cole attend ???

 

Ed