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Las Vegas Japanese Sword Show Jan 20 - 21, 2023

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AlphaRaider Community Regular

AlphaRaider

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23 minutes ago, Brian said:

Jonathan, just out of interest, which firearms shop/dealer are you with?
Thanks for the great writeup, this is looking to be one of the premier sword and gun events on the calendar. Can't want for @Mark to update us on how it went overall.

Thanks, I enjoyed the show so much it was truly a steller event. Ill be speel checking it later I read it and its a tad sloppy. (Writing reviews while on the ride home )

 

I'm the store manager for a store called Warrior's Revolution in Longmont, Colorado.  We have a 6,800 sq foot retail store specializing in bulk ammunition, firearms and tactical gear. We also offer online shopping via are website :  www.warriorsrevolution.com   We partnership with a private manufacturer to load our own brand of ammunition sold in 100ct, 500ct and 1,000ct quantities. We currently sale around 1.3 million rounds per month. We have mutiple local and state police contracts for ammunition and offer a 100% guarantee on all of our ammo.  We do an average of 70-90 gunshows per year (hence why I travel so often)

 

If i need to adjust or remove links justlet me know. 

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Brian

Brian

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May contact you some time. We are starting to import ammo from USA, may be interested in some calibers if available. We have a FFL in Vegas to do all the necessary export stuff. But back to the show. Also interested in people's comments on the antique arms show itself? Maybe guys who haven't been to a large show dealing with old and rare stuff.
And from the dealers there, did you feel like you got extra feet from guys who usually go for the guns?

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AlphaRaider Community Regular

AlphaRaider

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1 hour ago, Stephen said:

So you do the Des Moines fairgrounds gun show? Had sword table for years but not of late.

We may have in the past, I've been touring tradeshows and events with them for a little over a year and a half. We mainly focused on Colorado, Arizona, Nevada, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Utah last year.  I will gladly bring it up at work.

 

Now, since I hijacked the thread a bit to much I will talk about the firearms and antiques a bit.

 

I had two others with me at the show.  After viewing the sword tables twice I met up with them in the second hall. Now this was a awesome place aswell. As soon as I walked in I checked out a sword that was made made for one of the surgen generals then below it was John Waynes rifle used in his movies on display! 

I wasnt exspecting to see anymore swords but there were a good ammount of them in this room aswell. Mainly WW2 Japanese swords, Traditional made Japanese swords, and swords from mutiple other countries which was plesent to see.  I found a steller Microtech Dragon Slayer with full polish blade with metiorite inlays for $22,000. It was a show stopper.  I found a gentleman in the very back that had mutiple WW2 Japanese swords made in 1944. They had battle wrap handles in amazing shape, the scabbards were un dented and paint was pristine. The blades were all in amazing shape I believe he was asking $2,800 for them. That was hard to pass up, I think its exactly the kind of sword I'd like to get next.

 

There was a great selection of vintage firearms, Japanese, civial war era, cowboy guns, vietnam war and many others.There was a fairly large colletion of military clothing, medals, and equipment from varriors wars. I enjoyed the Japanese firearms, the craftmanship and the wood that was used was quite beautiful.  They were all in beyond amazing condation for how old they were. 

 

There were of course some amazing wheel guns on display. One set I looked at was $97,000 they were fully engraved and equiped with stunning grips and had paperwork. The vendors were all nice and seemed very educated on the items they had to offer.

 

We even found some vintage torture devices and a chasty belt of all things. It was a pretty neat show.

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DTM72 Mentor

DTM72

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All packed up and heading to the airport soon. 🙁 The Las Vegas Japanese Sword show was awesome. Mark Jones did an excellent job of arranging this show. Special guests Mike Yamasaki, Brian Tscherna, Woody Hall, and Rick from Pawn Stars were a great addition to the show. For polishing, we had Woody, Jimmy Hayashi and Bob Benson’s son in attendance. Great info from all 3 of them.
I sold 3 swords before the show even started. Sold three more on Friday and two more on Saturday. Of course, I bought some stuff too. Took a tanto and wakizashi on trade late yesterday so may be posting those soon for sale. As of right now, Mark is making arrangements to have the show again next year. Make it if you can, you will not be disappointed.

 

Dan

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Ljoconnor Apprentice

Ljoconnor

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Got home late last night and slowly resting up. Mark put on a great show. Things of all price ranges and mostly high quality things. Well worth the trip. Met a really great man and his wife. Interesting guy and knowledgeable. Roger is a really good guy. Thanks again Mark for talking me in to going. Lots of great items. Bought a few odds and ends. Larry 

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DTM72 Mentor

DTM72

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11 hours ago, Ljoconnor said:

Got home late last night and slowly resting up. Mark put on a great show. Things of all price ranges and mostly high quality things. Well worth the trip. Met a really great man and his wife. Interesting guy and knowledgeable. Roger is a really good guy. Thanks again Mark for talking me in to going. Lots of great items. Bought a few odds and ends. Larry 

Are you referring to Roger Robertshaw the Hizento author?

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Mark Veteran

Mark

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i am home from the show. It went quite well. We had about 50 tables in the "sword section". I was pleasantly surprised with the traffic, there was than i expected.  There were a lot people walking around in the sword section especially Friday morning.  Saturday went well. The presentations were very well received, standing room only. Mike Yamasaki did a superb job organizing all that, it was a big hit!! People brought stuff in to learn about and and a number of items were walking around for sale or trade. Some of the dealers said sales went very well, a couple said the sold out. Also a few didn't do as well with sales but almost everyone said they enjoyed the venue and experience. I think for this show lower end items sold well and high end items were slower. There were normal sword buyers you see and the swords shows but also a lot of people from the gun side bought swords. I met and sold items to people i did not know so nice to have some new customers.  So all in all i was pleased. I hope to do it again, the show promoters are excited to have us and want us back and offered more room for expansion.

 

A lot of guys took time to walk the gun show in the other room, i hear there was a daisho and nice kabuto for sale. A number of guys bought swords over there. This is the first time i set up, i have attended and always bought swords in the past. This year i didn't get a chance to give the back room a good look.

 

I am going to follow up and as soon as things are set for 2024 i will add a post. Thanks for all the support from NMB members

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DTM72 Mentor

DTM72

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Representatives from SOFE Design Auctions were wandering around buying items for their upcoming auctions. I personally sold three swords, 2 wakizashi and 1 nice katana to them. He would buy a handful, go back to his tables in the back, then come back and buy more from another dealer or individual. 

I had a great time exhibiting/selling at the show. Hanging out with Mark Jones, Grey Doffin, Matt Jarrell, Eric Molinier, and Udo (not sure of last name) after the show closed on Friday and drinking wine and chatting about nihonto, good deals, bad deals, etc. was one of the highlights of the trip. I look forward to hanging out with these guys again in Louisville, Kentucky at the Show of Shows, then again at the Chicago show. Information on these two shows can be found below. The Chicago show promises to be a good one with a shinsa team in attendance.

 

Feb 23-26, 2023 http://www.sosovms.com/Show_of_Shows/

April 28-30, 2023 http://www.chicagoswordshow.com/

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Mark Veteran

Mark

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Franco

 

I was stuck dealing with the show and could only look in occasionally. All three were standing room only. Brian went first and demonstrated and gave a presentation on habaki making. Woody followed with the same about sword polishing. Then Mike did a presentation on proper kantei. All also answered questions. I believe they were taped but i have not seen the recordings

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noneed2hate Enthusiast

noneed2hate

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I had a great time at this show and very much look forward to the next one!

A lot of really nice swords to look at and appreciate (even if I couldn't purchase anything this time around), the antique guns portion of the show was also nice, as it allowed me to take a break from Nihonto (WHO WANTS TO DO THAT?!) and just galivant while looking at some other equally neat pieces of history. In terms of size, scope and quality, I'd say it was on par with the SF show.

The lectures and demonstrations were fantastic, and they provided a lot of context for me as a new person to the world of Nihonto. 

Here's a small summary of each to the best of my memory.

Brian Tschernaga showed each of the major stages to making habaki. Demonstrated drawing out material with a hammer and then the annealing process once the material (copper in this case IIRC) had gotten too hard from the hammering. He also demonstrated how to shape and then solder/weld the habaki once it was at the appropriate dimensions. He then demonstrated the process to create the "cat scratch" marks on the sides of a habaki, as well as adjusting and explaining final fit and finish with emphasis on where the habaki should be "grabbing" the nakago, and where it shouldn't. Overall, I think this gave me a new found respect of how much work goes into even something seemingly simple like a habaki. 

Woody Hall's demonstration was excellent as well, he show essentially each of the major steps for both the foundation polish as well as finish polish. He worked through the various stones he had on hand for each major polishing phase explaining what he was doing and why he was doing so each step of the way. Overall, he showed us A LOT in the given short amount of time he had, and was even able to produce an example of a finished polish in real time (as much as possible given time constraints.)

Both presenters had a plethora of tools and material laid out for reference both prior to and at the conclusion of their respective demonstrations.

Mike Yamasaki's discussion regarding kantei and purchasing of swords was also very good and absolutely touched on a lot of key things I often personally overlook in my own hubris. Discussion about doing research PRIOR to buying a sword as he is often asked on whether someone had gotten a "good deal" etc on swords they didn't research but ended up purchasing. Paying attention to the characteristics of a sword, rather than the mei chiseled into the nakago etc. Treating non-papered swords with mei as mumei in that the mei might not be legitimate but the sword itself is still something worthwhile assuming the price is right.

Thanks again to Mark for putting this together!

 

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Peter Bleed Veteran

Peter Bleed

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I'm sorry to say that I did not attend this Show. But my friend Doug Scott went to the big show to look at high-end frontier guns. I asked Doug to walk thru the Japanese section. He kindly called to tell me that the Japanese Sword section was by far the most active and apparently well-attended part of the the grand Las Vegas Show. The Nippon-to section had more people than did the "gun" sections. Doug also said that he was welcomed and greeted by Mark when he said hello.

Peter

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