Kuya
Registered
Posts: 1,396
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Post by Kuya on Aug 27, 2012 2:38:20 GMT
I'm not as experienced as most, so please excuse my lack of knowledge. And well... this forum is for educating us newer sword folk, right? While shopping for fittings and decorations, I noticed that there are some very very very similar (read: identical) designs out there that are sold by Fred Lohman's site for over twice as much as the others. So what I would like to know is are the koshirae fittings from Fred Lohman really a case of "you get what you pay for" and higher quality than the others, or am I paying for the name and "oritinal-ness" since he used to be the only game in town and could charge and control the prices however he saw fit back then? I would like to know what's up, because I'm not a rich enough man to just buy and experiment with what I end up with. So I'm trying to learn more about the industry and current standing of products compared to each other.
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Post by stickem on Aug 27, 2012 20:36:30 GMT
Kuya ~ I have bought fittings from Fred Lohman a couple times. They are definitely nicely cast & often use silver as the base. Some of his offerings are definitely identical to the ones folks like Bugei sell. Some of his offerings are difficult to fit pieces (such as koiguchi & habaki) that may be difficult to find elsewhere. Sometimes there can be some differences when you buy similar items from other vendors at lower prices. For instance, I bought this tsuba from Lohman: It is amazing what the 3-D version looks like. The curves make your eye point towards the sky and you can see these geese against the backdrop of the moon very easily from the geometry... doesn't take much imagination to see it like it does for some sukashi tsuba. Also got what looked like the same thing from Cheness thinking I could save some money (like $100) here: What arrived was smaller and flat, no 3-D to it at all. That said, if $ is the primary concern (as it is for all of us), you can definitely find very similar materials at a much lower cost; in the case of this tsuba, $125 vs. $25 lower cost. It this case, I used the Lohman one because there is a real appreciable artistic difference. But if I had only seen the Cheness version, I would have been satisfied for the price. The quality is there with most of Lohman's fittings, but I agree there are lower cost alternatives which are very similar. What you should do probably depends on your specific project & budget. My suggestion depends on the circumstances: If you have to use silver or see some thing you love or have a fancy project or need something to fit certain specs, then Lohman is good. If you can find it elsewhere and are happy with the quality, then do that instead and save the $. In sum, not all that glitters is gold, but sometimes you don't need gold anyway... :lol: Hope that helps!
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Post by Krelian on Aug 28, 2012 1:39:21 GMT
Stickem's insight matches what I've heard as well. Lohman's fitting are generally made of better quality and/or precious material than the same fittings from Chinese origin. Additionally, the detail will usually be much sharper/better defined than on cheaper versions (since many of them are actually mediocre copies of Lohman's). Same as the quality difference between the mass produced Chinese fittings you find from most eBay sellers and Japanese suppliers like Tozando and Yamato Budogu. Bugei is a reseller of Lohman fittings so the same ones there will have the same higher level of quality and detail (and price). So yeah, you DO get what you pay for but like most things in life there are deminishing returns. At the end of the day the fittings are pieces of metal. Some are noticeably better made than others. If one is worth two to five times as much as another is up to the buyer...
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SanMarc
Senior Forumite
Posts: 3,193
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Post by SanMarc on Aug 30, 2012 21:05:27 GMT
I have a Fred Tsuba and yes the quality is worth the price.......
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