Osafune Kiyomitsu Made My Sword

[Zander]

Maybe he was already spending the money in his head ("Twenty-five ryo for Kastuko...").

At the risk of being a pedant, most Japanese women's names didn't end in 'ko' until about 100 years ago (late Meiji period).

By the way, can you drop a silk scarf on the blade cutting the scarf in two?

 

[A'koss]

But modern smiths (even non-Japanese smiths) are turning out better and better swords all the time.

The best modern bladesmiths can create blades that can outperform anything done historically. Just the body of metalurgical knowledge today, modern steels, heat treatment... power hammers. Guys like Howard Clark, Randal Graham, Scott Slobodian, Kevin Cashen, Rob Hudson, Don Fogg, Rick Furrer, Al Massey... they produce some amazing and often truly beautiful works. That said, if I had had buckets full of money, I'd snap up a nice daisho set from the mukansa Yoshindo Yoshihara (is he considered a National Living Treasure yet?) in a heartbeat.

Cheers!

 

[barsoomcore]

There's no such thing as a topic upon which I have more knowledge than the accumulated wisdom of ENWorld.

Except, of course, what it's like to DM stewardesses...

Thanks for all the cool info, folks!

 

[Desdichado]

There's no such thing as a topic upon which I have more knowledge than the accumulated wisdom of ENWorld.

Except, of course, what it's like to DM stewardesses...

Everyone's got to have a specialty. You do have a pretty nice one there...

 

[azmodean]

I was looking at the tang inscription last night and thinking that some 400 years ago, a guy MADE this thing and put those characters on it. He must have sat back and wondered what would happen to this beautiful object he'd crafted. He probably hoped nobody would trace the false inscription back to him. Maybe he was already spending the money in his head ("Twenty-five ryo for Kastuko..."). And here I am, centuries later, looking at what he wrote and made. His hands to mine. With who knows how many pairs of hands in between.

A friend of mine inherited a katana about a year ago, the thing is, you can tell it has seen heavy use. Looking at it, not only is there the question of where it has been/who it has seen in its lifetime, but what has it been used for.

On a side note, it is one of the two objects I have ever run across that I sensed an aura from. I don't typically consider myself "sensitive" in that way; just my luck and both objects struck me as being evil.

 

[barsoomcore]

It's gotten to the point where I can pretty much exactly predict people's reactions to my sword. Upon first seeing it they blink, sometimes take a step back (even if they don't, they usually retreat minutely) and then begin to stare.

When I offer it to them and they take it in their hands, everyone says, "Oh." Most people seem to instinctively hold it pretty well and you can see their eyes travel up the blade and then out in front of themselves, suddenly picturing somebody there who's about to get cut in half.

Nearly everyone says something like, "It feels like a weapon."

The guy with the Blue Orchid said exactly that. And yeah, it felt different than his sword. Maybe just cause we're katana geeks and get ourselves all wound up, I dunno. But people seem to have the same set of reactions to it.

Except for Japanese people. Non-swordy Japanese people run away (seriously -- I showed it to some of my co-workers in Tokyo and they scrambled back from it so fast one girl fell over a table), and swordy people just go, "Mm. Very good."

 

[Sarellion]

Do you know why the non-swordy people react this way?

 

[Len]

They're scared he might cut them in half?

 

[Vocenoctum]

The guy with the Blue Orchid said exactly that. And yeah, it felt different than his sword. Maybe just cause we're katana geeks and get ourselves all wound up, I dunno. But people seem to have the same set of reactions to it.

I've noticed it with Colt 1911's (my specialty). The old one's have an indescribable difference in feel. The dimensions are the same, the weight is the same, but you can feel the age of the gun.

 

[Arrgh! Mark!]

Oddly enough, a friend of mine has a 1600-era rapier and a basket-hilt arming sword. A local swordmaster has a smallsword from a bit later. Both were used back by various now dead people.

They have a feel. My various groups might play with historical swordplay, but there's a difference between play and real.

It doesn't really occur to you how fast you can die until you hold one and realise those thrusts and cuts are going to go through you like a butchers knife through a piece of meat.

Odd, isn't it? They say real combat was a lot more defensive than what we play at today - and when you feel one, you know why.