Interested in Authentic Japanese Swords ?
This morning, we received a phone call from a lady who was dealing & selling authentic Japanese swords. First she was asking me if we bought/sold these kind of swords. ”From time to time”: I told her “so if you have something, you can always contact me”.
At present we don’t sell these things ‘public’ but when a customer ask about it we start searching..in the future we’re planning to open a new category on the site with real authentic Japanese swords.
Back to the little ‘story’…Before we arranged an appointment , I asked her what was the average price of her Japanese swords. To be honest I didn’t expect a cheap price for these but her “between 19.000 – 120.000 euro” answer knocked me off :D. For their lowest price we can buy 2-3 very nice nihonto in Japan… Read more
The “new style” pictures of our Samurai swords - part 2
So…we continue with more pictures. This is the folded tachi sword of the Huanuo Forge.
A Japanese tachi is a sword which was generally larger than a katana. Usually, the blade of a tachi has a deeper curvature near the tsuba ( koshizori in Japanese) than a katana and the tang follow the curve of the blade. The Japanese tachi mount has the typical loops on the scabbard so it can be hung from a belt with the cutting edge down, where a katana is stuck into the waist belt.
Another difference between a katana and a tachi is where the mei is written, the signature of the swordsmith is written on the omote side of the nakago, while it’s written on the ura side of a katana. Read more
The “new style” pictures of our Japanese katana swords - part 1
It was a beautiful day yesterday and we decided to take our camera & some swords and try something new. When new swords are coming in, taking pictures is one of the first thing we need to do here. Because selling swords without pictures…it shouldn’t work at all. Usually we shoot inside with artificial light. Now that’s a hard job because it’s really difficult to get te right light in order to make good quality pics. I’m sure a real professional can do the job very easy but they’re not cheap and they still have no idea how and from which part to take pictures of.
Personally I do think the first results are not that bad at all…so please give some comments on how you would like to see the pictures of the swords. You like the regular pictures, taken indoor OR you prefer to see the outdoor pictures ? Read more
What’s the difference between a €200 and a €800 katana ?
That’s a question we do get on a very regular base. “They both look the same so where is the difference?”. And sometimes it’s hard to tell if you only get to see some pictures. Here at our shop we try to provide you as many detailed pictures as possible and believe me it takes some time to set up the whole thing and edit them.
There are some things you can look at and see very clearly where is the difference. The overall look may be the same but in most of the cases you will see why a €800 sword isn’t the same as a €200 katana.
Let us start with some basic things you can look at :
Hamonline of a katana
The Hamonline often referred to as the ‘tempered’ edge of the sword. The hamon is the area of the sword where it has been quenched to provide a high carbon steel area which will hold a sharpened edge. It’s the white wavy (or straight) line that can be found on the blade. Read more
