Identifying Swords (somewhat urgent)

[caedmon]

Really old post Jack ! I wouldn't worry !

Yes, but as semi-absentee landlord I reserve the right to resurrect the dead whenever I see fit.


-Jack

[RikJohnson]

I've bought a number of good blades over the years.
BUT it takes experience and a good eye and I make mistakes.

incident 1:
I saw an ad in Craigslist for a sword for $20 and it looked different from all his other SLO.
So when I bought it, it 'felt' different. he was selling it as the simplicity didn't match his fancy SLOs.

I placed pics and a description on the Sword Forums and found that I had spent $20 to get a $500 Del Tim!

Incident 2:
Another similar purchase from Craigslist netted me a $300 Valient.

Incident 3:
A visit to a local pawn shop saw three blades on the wall. I recognized one but at $400 each I walked away.
The price dropped to $350 and I looked them over only because the cashier was having trouble ringing up my $5 DVD purchase and I wanted to kill time.
One was a SS wallhanger.
One was a Cold Steel Warrior and the other looked like an Oni or Cheness... ALL in perfect condition.
The guy offered $300 each, I counters "Both for $300 thinking he'd laugh and instead he said "deal" and I walked out with a perfect Cold Steel Warrior Katana for $2150 and an unknown blade that was later identified as an older Cheness worth more than I paid for both.

Incident 3:
I was trying o sell a Hanwei kat which some guy wanted to buy it for his 7-year old son.
I refused! No kid that young needs a sword made for kendo cutting!
The guy insisted that his son was old enough and besides, his father had given him, a hand-forged stainless steel katana that was folded 440 times!
How did he know this? Because 440 stainless was stamped on the blade!

Yes! There are deals out there.
Yes, 99.9% of what you find are SLO or at best, wall-hangers.
But it takes experience and a good eye to be able to tell and most people get burned.

[RikJohnson]

I was watching the Home Shopping Network one day when the salesman was showing their 'battle-ready' ninja sword.
He showed how good the blade was by banging it on the table.

The blade snapped off, bounced back and buried itself into his body.

he fell to the ground screaming for a doctor and another salesman was pushed onto the stage to continue the sales pitch, all the while the first guy was screaming fro0m his feet while #2 kept looking down at the guy, trying to not get blood on his shoes and looking off-camera for instructions..

instructions were to 'sell the sword'.

so much for live TV on Cable.