New Member Introductions

[echoe]

Hello all. I just made my reservation for the August show. I am looking forward to meeting people and learning from experienced collectors. I have to admit I am baffled (& a little intimidated) by all the Japanese terms so I have much to learn. (Also noted there's an In and Out Burger close to the hotel!)

 

Thanks and looking forward to August.

 

new guy (Tom)

[NihontoNewbie]

???? The In and Out Burger... I hope someone besides me gets the joke. STFU Donny!

[seanyx11]

If only they served Caucasians at the In and Out Burger, then the Dude would be set

[echoe]

in n out

[parfaitelumiere]

Hello, I just registered today, even I love Japanese arts, especially swords for a long time.
All started with the movie and serie highlander, me a a friend, at this time we were teenage, bought a highlander katana, then I found a book about Japanese swords and left the highlander design for more realistic, so I started to modify the ugly spanigh stainless sword to something more decent, making my first tsuba, and fittings, then I found some Japanese stuff on fleamarket, time run, I get knifmaker for a while and changed to other stuff because of professionnal issues.
I totally left the interest for any bladed item for many years, but in 2010 I started a new interest for movie props, especially star wars lightsabers, and then, other movie related props, started to collect pictures about lightsabers, and more and more in Japanese swords from movies (kill bill came first, then, the last samurai, walking dead, heroes and...highlander)
I started with kill bill sword.
The original prop used a iaito blade ùade fro zamac, some iaito parts and a custom engraving on the blade, and saya.
It was easy to find the tsuba and menuki, as I wanted something real, but didn't want to damage and buy a real Japanese blade I bought a chinese one, with steel core and folded steel sides, and fully reshaped it, and engraved it, added "okinawa ju hattori saku" on the tang, and the lion engraving of course.
For the fuchi kashira and kojiri it was much harder, the original iaito parts are impossible to get, I bought some casts from bronze, but these were so ugly I fully sanded down the details and redone them myself, now it's closer to a real item even than the original iaito part, I did same for tsuba, and menuki.
I ordered some steel to make a new tsuba to replace the modified iaito tsuba, and I willhave to paint the sheat in black and gold, using genuine lacquer not industrial stuff with gold mylar tape like original prop.
And a few weeks ago I bought a marto highlander sword, and already made a new tsuba from brass and a new fuchi, I will make a copy of handle from ivory, and use a chinese blade for it too, I am not a great polisher, but it's possible to bring a decent finish to these chinese blades, and avoid using genuine Japanese blades for replicas.
I would make several movie swords for my collection, using geniine Japanese parts if possible, or replicating them myself if not, and using either chinese blades or tsunagi if I want to make only the fittings.

The last samura sword will be tricky, because of the 1000 monkeys tsuba and oni nanako fuchi and kashira fittings.
The highlander ivory handle will be tricky too, because the design is meant to be made from several parts if I want a historically accurate result, I checked some real ivory mountings and most of the times it's a complexe assembly, for the highlander handle it would be made from 4 parts.
And of course, my dream is to own a pair of Japanese swords, one day I will.

[Stephen]

Patrice? right?

please sign your name per posting rules.

 

Enjoy your adventure, this website is for true Nihonto, so read and learn, then you're on the way to the real thing.

[Carlo Giuseppe Tacchini]

Welcome   

[Tsubaplayer]

Nothing here, sorry.

[Gianluca Venier]

Hello everyone, thank you for welcoming me to your community.

My name is Gianluca, I live in Florence, Italy, and I am captain of pleasure boats, in specific vintage sailing boats. In the past I have been a professional musician for over 20 years.

I am a member of the board of directors of INTK (Itaria Nihon Token Kyokai) and, since 2012, I am responsible for the quarterly publication (only in italian language at the moment) of that association. Currently I am also director of the newborn NBTHK Italian Branch.

I'm convinced that we will have the opportunity to inaugurate a fruitful collaboration and to deepen our common passion.

Greetings

[Ken-Hawaii]

Welcome to NMB, Gianluca. It's great having someone with your knowledge and connections as a member. I look forward to hearing what you and NBTHK are doing in Italy.

 

Ken

[Stephen]

Ciao Benvenuto Gianluca, in attesa della tua esperienza de Nihonto. 

 

I pray Google did a good job of translation. 

 

Looking forward to your Nihonto experience. 

[Brian]

Welcome Gianluca. I hope you and your members will find a nice place here.

[b.hennick]

Welcome - I'm sure that you will make great contributions and learn from the wealth of knowledge available here.

[Carlo Giuseppe Tacchini]

Benvenuto Gianluca !   

[Jean]

Welcome Gianluca

[Gianluca Venier]

Thanks to everyone for the warm welcome !

 

I am really honored to be part of this community.

[Jame5m]

Just joined,

 

Been looking into getting a Japanese Sword after watching a BBC documentary!

 

After doing a lot of looking around I can see it really is a potential mine field!

 

Will be asking lots of,questions I'm sure!

[Stephen]

Welcome! Thats why were here, enjoy your adventure. 

[Carlo Giuseppe Tacchini]

Your first step is very savvy! Welcome...  

[Ken-Hawaii]

Welcome to the forum.

 

Not really as much a mine field as a money pit. So please spend your initial Euros on some good books, rather than running out & buying your first blade. You are far less likely to be sorry that way!

 

Please set up your signature with at least your first name, per Brian's rules. Hard to address you as Jame5m!

 

Ken

 

[Gunome]

Welcome on the board

[Keiji]

Benvenuto Gian! 

[dirtvictim]

Hey guys just signed up to check out the forum and seek info on a blade. Looks like a lot of information to digest.

I am a watchmaker by trade but have made several knives over the years. I made a few leaf spring swords in the 80's after being introduced to angel sword at the Wisconsin ren fair.

My finest work was a matching pair of hand made Ninja To that angel sword bought off me. Along with being a watchmaker I currently make and sell a custom g10 handle conversion to a couple Cold Steel knife models.

[b.hennick]

Welcome, David! You will find a few knife collectors and watch collectors among the group. You should start to feel at home soon.

[dirtvictim]

Welcome, David! You will find a few knife collectors and watch collectors among the group. You should start to feel at home soon.

That's cool, watches and knives are my thing. I am happy to give free advise on watches.

David

[Ken-Hawaii]

I'd guess there are more of us who collect knives, than those who don't. If we didn't like sharp things, we wouldn't be here. Welcome!

[dirtvictim]

I'd guess there are more of us who collect knives, than those who don't. If we didn't like sharp things, we wouldn't be here. Welcome!

Thanks I look forward to the interaction here.

[Jeffnyc]

Hi friends! Well now that my full-time job as a softball dad is coming to an end I need a new hobby (obsession) and nihonto seems like an excellent tmesink. I am hoping that it will keep me off the streets and cost under a hundred grand.

 

My first step was to read a bunch of online articles and watch all of the forging videos. Today I thought I would walk over to the Met and actually see an actual sword in person. I was kinda hoping that I would not be overly impressed, and that I could instead turn my attention to stamp collecting....but WOW...I was fairly awestruck. I will be asking a few dozen newb questions and I thank you in advance for your patience and understanding.

 

As an aside, the exhibit at the Met also had a bunch of European swords which looked like sharpened shards of junkyard metal - how.is that stuff "art?'"

[Katsujinken]

Hi friends! Well now that my full-time job as a softball dad is coming to an end I need a new hobby (obsession) and nihonto seems like an excellent tmesink. I am hoping that it will keep me off the streets and cost under a hundred grand.

 

My first step was to read a bunch of online articles and watch all of the forging videos. Today I thought I would walk over to the Met and actually see an actual sword in person. I was kinda hoping that I would not be overly impressed, and that I could instead turn my attention to stamp collecting....but WOW...I was fairly awestruck. I will be asking a few dozen newb questions and I thank you in advance for your patience and understanding.

 

As an aside, the exhibit at the Met also had a bunch of European swords which looked like sharpened shards of junkyard metal - how.is that stuff "art?'"

Welcome to the board, Jeff! Definitely come visit the New York Token Kai at an upcoming meeting. A lovely group of folks who can teach you a lot and help guide you. http://www.ny-tokenkai.org/

[Ken-Hawaii]

Welcome to the forum, Jeff. Nihonto a "timesink?" Yes, but it's also a "moneysink!" Truly the most-expensive hobby you will ever have.

 

There are a number of excellent threads that you can search to find which books to buy to get you started, but I would also like to point you to member Markus Sesko's excellent series of articles on kantei (sword evaluation) at https://markussesko.com/2015/02/06/kantei-introduction/. You will need to look up each term to understand it, but that's the way we all learned.

 

Have fun!

 

Ken