Am I a horses ass?

[nickm]

Have the opportunities to buy this sword at discount through eBay for close to $4000.. Love the look of it and and I'm wondering is it completely foolish to spend this much money on it?

[PNSSHOGUN]

For 4000usd.....I would avoid it. Much better options out there for the money. The polish looks amateur and the mounts are not inspiring.

[BIG]

Hi nickm, looks to me like a good handmade chinese sword. Why don`t you join a New York Token Kai meeting and or contact  NMB dealer. You came on board 2018, why are you going the bitter ebay way to collect?

Time I get some more red coups, but can`t resist..

 

BEST

[PNSSHOGUN]

Look at the sales section here, some good swords at or under your budget.....

[Alex A]

I mean this joking Phillip, but 100% full on mounted cavalry horses asses

 

A few seconds looking at the nakago was enough to start alarm bells, perfect drilled ana and the mei, looks dodgy and its on EBAY,

 

What the others have said.

 

Look at sales pages here and well known dealers , buy a sword with papers, no rush.

 

Never let the heart rule the head, as we all guilty of at some point.

 

Loads of advice and info on this site regarding purchasing swords, 

[Brian]

Compare that to Stephen's sword in the For Sale section, then decide what sort of a deal this is.

[BIG]

YES and ask for the kakemono and the Tachi kake  ..

 

BEST

 

[Stephen]

Mr Big both Kake were sold with other sale's.

See for sale ad for what i do have.

[Geraint]

Not to get in the way of Peter's ambitions regarding the red list.  

And agreeing with all that has been said about the For Sale section, especially Stephen's sword.

 

This is a perfectly legitimate Japanese sword with a late but authentic koshirae.

 

All the best.

[Stephen]

Closer look i agree with Geraint.

Sword looks to have a fantastic hamon, more so than mine.

[PNSSHOGUN]

The polish is done by an amateur and the geometry appears compromised on this one.

[nickm]

As always I appreciate the replies. This forum is an invaluable resource and I will be making a donation nation today or tomorrow. Too much money to show at something with mixed opinions and agreed that the koshirae is unfortunate

[Edward Mahle]

I will say I really like the pattern of the hamon line this sword definitely has some nice features. Like Brian already said though Stephen has a beautiful katana in that same price point. The presentation of Stephen's katana is extremely attractive alot of little details and thought went into that particular sword from what I can see in photos. 

[nickm]

2 minutes ago, Edward Mahle said:

I will say I really like the pattern of the hamon line this sword definitely has some nice features. Like Brian already said though Stephen has a beautiful katana in that same price point. The presentation of Stephen's katana is extremely attractive alot of little details and thought went into that particular sword from what I can see in photos. 

 I have already posted on Stevens sale. He seems rather discerning and who he will allow to purchase but if I am on the list I'm the guy. I very much appreciate as always the guidance from this forum

[Edward Mahle]

Yeah you gotta pass the back ground check and have a good credit score 😂. I'm not a expert but maybe a direct message to Stephen telling him alittle about your self might be nice or not I don't really know. I see that you've been a member for a few years with no warnings which is a good start.

[Jussi Ekholm]

I think the mei might be starting with - 関善定 - Seki Zenjō...

[Mitsukawa]

On 2021/9/4 at PM2点36分, BIG said:

嗨 nickm，在我看来就像一把好的手工中国剑。为什么不参加纽约代币 Kai 会议或联系 NMB 经销商。您加入了 2018 年，为什么要采用苦涩的 ebay 方式进行收藏？

时间我得到更多的红色政变，但无法抗拒..

 

最好的事物

I don‘t think is chinese made . I think is 関善定藤原xx （seki zenjou fujiwara XX）

[DoTanuki yokai]

I think we had a similiar discussion some time ago about hitatsura/ tobiyaki hamon and chinese fakes. There is no answer but the same things are happening

 

I think the blade is Japanese shinto.

 

[Alex A]

The original point to this thread was to work out whether its a good idea to spend $4000 on it, just using the images available and not spending all day on it.

 

A few observations that would personally put me off

 

Its on Ebay, and no mention of papers.

The ana look like they were cut yesterday with crisp edges and to me what looks like burrs visible

Why so many ana ?, looks odd. Made to look o-suriage but the blade itself looks modern

Saya looks modern with a crappy fit of the kojiri

To me, the fittings look questionable, menuki look especially modern.

The ito wrap looks modern.

The blade was by so good to start with that they decided to shorten it by giving a tensho chop straight through the big clumsy mei lol

 

I may be wrong but usually when i start start seeing stuff i dont like about a sword it makes me not want to spend money on it.

 

Chinese have been making these long enough to maybe want to try a new spin on things and suck in some Ebay newbie.  ?

 

Who knows, anyway, better stuff about that comes without ???????????????????????????????????????????

 

 

 

 

[IanB]

Nick,   What I see is a perfectly real old Mino blade with a dubious polish and relatively inexpensive but late mounts, but for the amount of money being asked I am sure you could do much better.

 

[AntiquarianCat]

One thing that still impresses me about amateur polish is its ability to make its nihonto victims resemble shoddy counterfeits.

 

As all the people better informed than me said; amateur polishes are bad as it will cost a fortune to pay a real polisher for the chance to salvage the blade and till then, your sword has next to no resale value.

 

That’s part of what makes eBay so risky as many big sellers like Showa amateur polish their swords and conceal that with low resolution zoomed out photos. So you could buy what you think is a fine sword with bad photos and find out he or any other seller gave you a sword damaged beyond repair.

 

Also it sort of looks like the sword you posted has the same kind of buffing and acid marks Showa22 blades do. It also has a not straight shinog-ji so it’s in a pretty bad way. It worries me that sellers are doing this rather than letting swords stay in old polish.

 

[raynor]

Disastrous polish and nick in kissaki.. much better options for $4000k.

[vfc]

He just offered it to me for $3500

[AntiquarianCat]

I don’t know who that ebayer is but I wouldn’t be surprised if he bought a busted Showa22 sword and now has the nerve to try and flip it for even more.

 

Buffing marks, misshapen geometry, acid stains, even the busted kissaki all remind me of the nearly worthless wrecks he sells.

[MHC]

Even at $2500...please take the advise of the good folks here on the forum, and save yourself possible grief, simply buy a quality blade from one of the proven members here, or at least a known quotient from Japan.

 

My .02 worth.

 

Mark

[nickm]

Agreed all around. Purchased a Koto norimitsu katana from Stephen on the forum. Super impressed with it

[nickm]

Looking forward to shinsa at the Chicago show in april