eBay purchases - thoughts?

[Stever]

Greetings, folks...

 

Being an excited newbie to the world of nihonto, and unable to contain my desire to own one of these beautiful, historic works of art, I charged off and bought a couple of swords from eBay (stupid, I know). My next purchase will be much more carefully considered. Anyway, I just thought I'd post the auctions for comments, to find out just how stupid I was.

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=150059182534&ru=http%3A%2F%2Fsearch.ebay.com%3A80%2Fsearch%2Fsearch.dll%3Ffrom%3DR40%26satitle%3D150059182534%26fvi%3D1

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=150059232388&ru=http%3A%2F%2Fsearch.ebay.com%3A80%2Fsearch%2Fsearch.dll%3Ffrom%3DR40%26satitle%3D150059232388%26fvi%3D1

 

Both pieces are out of polish, but not horribly. There are a few weld flaws and a couple of small chips in the edge. There don't seem to be any fatal flaws, but the larger sword looks kind of tired (to my very inexperienced eyes).

 

Any and all comments are welcome. Feel free to ask me any questions about the pieces.

 

Thanks in advance,

/steve

[sencho]

Ebay is definitely not for beginners to buy....

 

I am a newbie too (1 year) and I have bought one sword from Moses Becerra (a very well respected and referenced sword dealer and polisher, http://www.nihontoantiques.com) and I bought one from ebay (but not before I had done some decent background on the seller).

 

Also before I bought anything, and on the advice of Rich T here on the board, I bought a good book to start to learn what to look for.... It took me 8 months before I made the first sword purchase and 6 months after getting the book.

 

For the money you spent you could have got a nice wakazashi or katana from a resepcetd and honest dealer, and you would have known exactly what you were getting, with a clause in the deal that you have an inspection period, etc.

 

Anyway... live and learn... I have no comment about the swords you have bought as I am not knowlegable enough to evaluate, but some of the guys here will have something to say I am sure....

 

Good luck

Cheers

[pcfarrar]

I don't think you've done that bad on the $800 wakizashi. Hard to say on the katana as the pictures arent good but I think you paid a little on the high side for it. Looks a bit tired and the geometry is messed up. Both blades need polishing really.

 

The notches in the nakago aren't kill marks as mentioned in the auction description. I believe they are either polisher marks or old koshirae fitters marks.

[Stephen]

good news both are real nihonto bad news is the first one is very tired and needs a polish which would take it to core steel (and the mei,shudder is BADLY CUT...i think from the pix..the mounts are cilvian showa era, second blade, older mounts and blade, but its very tired... like the skipper said that kind of money woluld have went along way to a nice sword. Any one new to the board ask before you leap...lot of good folk here to be your guide.

[pcfarrar]

At least it would be easy to remove the gimei, just needs a quick suriage along the ichi :lol:

[Thekirsh]

Hi all,

 

Stephen as a beginner also I would love to know what you see in the blades above, that tell you they are tired.

Are there any specific things to look for? Unfortunatly I would have said

" nice blade, just needs a polish " As usual all advice is very welcome

Thanks Simon

[Rabro]

Hi Steve,

 

I quite like the wak and for the price that you paid, it doesn't seem too much. I would try to get it into the hands of someone who can really tell you what you have. As for the Katana, $1800 is a lot for an out of polish mumei blade but who knows??. All that I can offer you is that there is a lot to know and that it takes a really long tme just to find out what you don't know. That said, I follow a basic rule that I got from a collector of many years which is......If you like it and can afford it and don't expect to make a profit from it.....then buy it and enjoy (or at least learn from the experience)

 

Roger

 

PS you should see some of the c**p that I bought when I started.

[Stever]

Thanks for the feedback, folks. I second one of the questions from another member - what is it that tells you the blades are tired? The big one, to me, seems to have some spots that look like core steel, but not being that familiar with the look I'm not sure. What about the wak (o-wak?)

 

I will say I'm not unhappy with the purchase, but I tend to agree, I think I did ok on the wak and let myself get sucked into paying a little much for the katana. I want to try to get them to someone who knows a lot more than I do, to take a look at them in person (as soon as I find them, heh) and let me know if either one could stand another polish, and find out as much as I can about them.

 

BTW, the (gi)mei on the wak looks a lot better in person than in the photo on eBay, thankfully, but it's still kind of rough. Ah well.

 

Cheers,

/steve

[Stephen]

I was down and out for a week with a the bug that had me camping in the lou and missed your question,,,I based the tiredness on the mune and ha machi...both blades would need a polish and I cant tell for sure, but believe there would not be much left, pluse it looks like a lot of loose grain, a big nick in the wak would take a lot of meat of the blade, I did not mean to insult ...if you had seen some of my Ebay fiascos you'd be rolling on the floor so take it as a learning experience and onward and upward is the only way to take it...id go to sword shows and do some trading up or just keep them as bench mark as what to look out for. if you want to ask more fell free to contact me at h2obro1@aol.com