The Samurai Sword Blog

Recently I was in Japan buying parts for the Ronin tamahagane katana line, which should be on sale next year. Between traveling from city to city collecting sword parts and books on katana, Paul Southren (Sword Buyer's Guide) and I stopped at a ninja shop to buy a few things and put on a shuriken throwing clinic for the Japanese. Lot's of ninja gear and samurai swords for sale, although none of the katana for sale were high end. …

This post focuses on antique tsuba for sale in Japan. Japanese sword dealers offer fully mounted katana for sale, bare blades for sale, and tsuba, fuchi, and kashira sets. Silk and cotton are available as well, if you know where to look, but not at the antique sword dealers. Here's a look at some of the tsuba, fuchi,kashira, and menuki available. …

Recently I spent a few weeks in Japan buying parts for Ronin's upcoming tamahagane line and studying bare blades and fully mounted katana in museums and with some of Japan's leading dealers, who often had 20-30 katana for sale and on display. While I did not buy any katana, my focus is on dotanuki, I did purchase quite a few rare books which I was missing in my library. I was also allowed backroom access to dozens of swords, and allowed to take pictures of quite a few. So without further ad …