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Post by LG Martial Arts on Aug 10, 2014 0:41:42 GMT
:shock: :oops: :cry: Wow... I was channel surfing and landed on an episode of Pawn Stars where some guy was trying to sell his "Kamakura Era" Koeda Ishida katana for $1,000,000 :!: The thing was a piece of crap valued between $50-$200, not a true nihonto as you already should have guessed. Below are screen caps of the episode and the Chinese replica. When the nihonto expert came in to check it out, he immediately stated that it was a Chinese repro made around 15 yrs before, not an antique katana.
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Kuya
Registered
Posts: 1,396
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Post by Kuya on Aug 10, 2014 1:42:54 GMT
Imma laugh if the bo-hi termination was the cheap rounded fade-out style of the wheel polisher technique.
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Post by LG Martial Arts on Aug 10, 2014 13:50:51 GMT
I don't think it had a bo-hi, but the hada/grain structure was a classic Chinese folded pattern - dead giveaway. Aside from that, the blade looked wavy, like the maker hadn't done the profiling by hand. The guy who was trying to sell it said something like "I collect reproductions, and this is the first real sword I bought". I'm wondering how much he spent on it seeing as he also said "I've been told these can go between $20,000 - $100,000". Hope he didn't get fleeced himself. This is a classic example of someone buying a sword without being in the know about what to look for and what to avoid. All the signs were there that this was a cheap repro, but the guy ignored them. That being said, I think Adrian.Jordan's "Guide for New Katana Buyers/Owners" is very helpful for newbies and the like: /thread/25537
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Aug 10, 2014 14:35:13 GMT
We have a platform here in germany called "egun" where things like that happen all day; even 440er wallhangers are sold as sharp & battle-ready; i mailed to the mods a couple times but no reaction so far... :roll: ...well its mainly a hunters/firearms site so no one seems to have a clue about real swords!
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Post by whitefeathers on Aug 10, 2014 18:02:11 GMT
That blade looks bent in the picture. Or is it my tablet messing with my eyes?
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Post by LG Martial Arts on Aug 10, 2014 19:34:28 GMT
nope - your eyes are fine... the blade definitely looks like it was bent out of shape. Don't you know that's a testament to Japanese ingenuity? It bends without breaking! Must be worth more than the $1,000,000 the guy was asking for :shock:
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Post by svartalf on Apr 11, 2022 12:30:11 GMT
I don't think it had a bo-hi, but the hada/grain structure was a classic Chinese folded pattern - dead giveaway. Aside from that, the blade looked wavy, like the maker hadn't done the profiling by hand. The guy who was trying to sell it said something like "I collect reproductions, and this is the first real sword I bought". I'm wondering how much he spent on it seeing as he also said "I've been told these can go between $20,000 - $100,000". Hope he didn't get fleeced himself. This is a classic example of someone buying a sword without being in the know about what to look for and what to avoid. All the signs were there that this was a cheap repro, but the guy ignored them. That being said, I think Adrian.Jordan's "Guide for New Katana Buyers/Owners" is very helpful for newbies and the like: /thread/25537
I'm laughing myself as I discover this years later... the video did not let me see the blade like I wanted, but from the start I noticed the tastelessly ornate decoration of the fittings, not proof but uncommon on Japanese swords, and that the saya and handle wrappings made it look like it had been refitted as a guntô, which seems extremely unlikely for a kotôi period blade more likely to be enshrined than taken to modern battlefields.
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Post by svartalf on Apr 11, 2022 12:34:55 GMT
I'm laughing too... the saya and handle wrappings make it look like it was refitted as a guntô, extremely unlikely for a blade that is more likely to be enshrined due to its age and history, and an officer would not have had this kind of tasteless ornamentation put on his field sword... also, my eyes googled and my ears popped when I heard the seller refer to Koeda as a possible descendant of Mitsunari, when it's pretty obvious that a renowned smith is quite unlikely to be related to a high ranking buke. The guy got had, because he simply kknow nothing at all, and so will believe anything.
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