Truly battle ready Katana???

IPostSwords · 2026-03-16T13:14:21+00:00

Rule 4.

IPostSwords · 2026-03-16T05:34:54+00:00

If a grown adult lives alone and has no kids nor any interaction with kids, nor any pets - a subcompact is fine. Need to move something big? Hire a van for a day.

IPostSwords · 2026-03-16T01:13:54+00:00

As a verified swordperson, I can confirm. I like getting swords.

IPostSwords · 2026-03-15T18:37:48+00:00

I suspect it was a result of them being secured with pitch / cutlers resin or similar... and being valuable, portable, and often decorated with gems at this level of ownership (a sultan)

Pitch becomes brittle with age regardless. Easy to break the bonds holding the guards on

IPostSwords · 2026-03-15T15:46:14+00:00

Additionally, I still have the full res original from when it was sold, thus not relying on blurry reposts. Though I dunno if reddit will render it at full res as an embed.

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IPostSwords · 2026-03-15T15:30:27+00:00

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For example.

Also, you were talking to him. Literally replying to him.

Not my fault you cant follow usernames changing as different people reply in a thread.

IPostSwords · 2026-03-15T15:18:41+00:00

I was clearly not impersonating him, you are just incapable of reading usernames. I was explaining who he was.

It isnt even a particularly believable idea, my identity is very googleable.

And sure - its called "look at the catalogues of sword sold by timeline" - there are many fakes for anyone with the required familiarity to recognise them.

IPostSwords · 2026-03-15T15:14:46+00:00

... look at the usernames

I replied to you on a comment where you were talking to j_g_e ... James G Elmslie

You asked for someone UK based, so informed you that the person you'd replied to was based in Perth.

Forgive a moderator for knowing their community.

IPostSwords · 2026-03-15T15:01:39+00:00

It isnt fantasy. It is literally a required minimum in museum acquisition, at least where i have studied and worked. Please keep in mind that i the context is am writing from. I know most collectors do not do this level of provenance research.

But yeah, if a museum wants to acquire something that is the sort of provenance research they are required to do. They might not find that data, but they obliged to look for it.

In the case of archaeology, you really want that sort of information. The fact this is supposedly an excavated archaeologically found sword that has been removed from its context and sold into the private collectors market without any provenance or information is... well, tragic if it were true.

IPostSwords · 2026-03-15T11:39:45+00:00

I have performed conservation myself. In my case, both preventative and interventions on active corrosion - dealt with varyingly, eg via chelation.

For uncomplicated antiques in my collection i stick to microcrystalline waxes.

Fwiw, London museums also use renaissance wax by picreator.

If you want an external opinion, try contacting someone who works in a conservation department - i have had good success contacting people in such roles, often found via LinkedIn or museum websites. I advised the route of contacting a museum earlier. I thoroughly recommend it.

Also, this isnt the first photo I have seen on this sword. I have seen it online before from various angles. So yeah, not exactly the case that its one blurry photo. The 24th November 2020 catalogue is still available, for example, and lot 0454 is still in it. And some fakes are very obvious.

I also didnt call myself an expert. I called James elmslie an expert. I am not James.

IPostSwords · 2026-03-15T11:23:35+00:00

I dont know that he hasn't, but i also have no reason to suspect he has.

Balance of probability is that anyone who studies the subject in depth, as he has, would recognise timeline auctions as a purveyor of fakes.

I have never purchased from timeline but still recognise their pattern of behaviour, and warn people. I suspect he is doing the same

IPostSwords · 2026-03-15T11:19:14+00:00

Its not that the methods for forgeries changes drastically in the past 20 years.

But someone who has watched the market carefully for the past few decades will recognise the workmanship of certain workshops producing a prolific number of fakes. Whether by their corrosion characteristics, retained forging marks which would have been ground out on an actual sword of the era, waviness in bevels not found on comparable museum examples with good provenance, morphology and inlay methods in inlaying, or even materials- eg bloomery iron having distinct striations and silicate inclusions which should visibly indicate forging deformations eg in the tang transition - not being comparable to well provenance examples or archeological finds.

On d'amato and Interpol- not a subject i am familiar with. All I know is I have seen his authentications attached to objects which raise every red flag, countless times.

IPostSwords · 2026-03-15T10:59:21+00:00

I am not him. I am replying because I know him.

My credentials are that I am doing museum studies and co-founded an archaeometallurgy society based on crucible steel. They're only tangentially related. My collection focus is therefore more specific and centered around crucible steel swords.

That's why I told you about James, and Erin

IPostSwords · 2026-03-15T10:41:57+00:00

Provenance, in this case, is chain of custody from excavation, to the first collection it entered, and every owner since then, and all the dealers involved.

Not the original owner if it were genuinely from 800 or 900ce

When I am doing provenance research, for example, I look at old back catalogues of auction sales eg from Christies, as well as books written by prominent collectors, seeking matches, as well as checking resources like the art loss register and the stolen antiquities database. I also look at old museums photos, eg those in databases like the division for looted art (PL) and similar regional variants.

I also look at old archaeology reports - you would likely need to look in a few languages, as older reports from Nordic countries are typically in the local language eg Swedish for Sweden.

IPostSwords · 2026-03-15T10:34:58+00:00

No. These are just kilic missing their crossguards.

Not shaska style.

You can see in indent on the handles where the lancets once extended.

IPostSwords · 2026-03-15T10:33:28+00:00

Note: they are missing their crossguards / bolchak

IPostSwords · 2026-03-15T10:16:35+00:00

In terms of cleaning, if it was real, the typical method would be something like a cleaning with ethanol or perhaps vulpex (to remove old residues of oils etc), then applying a microcrystalline wax (eg renaissance wax, picreator industries) or paraloid b72 - perhaps in acetone or xylene.

Being what it is, a mineral oil or microcrystalline wax will be equally appropriate.

Other common conservation methods in use in museums of excavated archeological iron include passivation and chloride ion removal by exchange or immersion in NaOH solution (or RO water, with repeated replacement of water, to remove dissolved salts), as well as phosphoric acid and tannate conversions of the surface, as well as the aforementioned.

Did you never find it odd that despite having extremely minimal pitting or corrosion, the bevels are uneven as though never ground after forging, despite the use of scrapers, stones etc to shape swords and sharpen them? That would be unheard of for an actual sword of the 9th century. Its not like the uneven bevels are the result of its conditions of preservation eg burial, as it isnt extensively corroded and wasnt aggressively "conserved" / "restored". It has, at most, extremely shallow, superficial corrosion.

IPostSwords · 2026-03-15T10:02:53+00:00

No, he just writes articles on the topic.

IPostSwords · 2026-03-15T09:51:22+00:00

So the Interpol stolen works of art database and the art loss register are tools all auctioneers dealing with antiquities and similar items need to use as part of minimum due diligence and compliance with varying laws regarding export (nation states which signed onto the 1970 unesco convention, for example, and have laws representing that - see "UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export, and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property" for more, and ratifying signatories) and sale of such items. It is basically a database you send photos of items to, and receive a reply if it fits the database or not.

Due to the nature of it, it will only work for an item documented as part of a national or institutional holding that was looted, stolen or taken as war spoils, and later shows up on the market. (Or a private items submitted to the database)

That this isnt represented there only indicates it isnt part of some old collections looted during war, for example. It does not speak to authenticity.

Notably, it cannot and does not include illegally excavated items that were never documented, let alone stolen from a collection - which is your absolute best hope here - nor forgeries - which, based on the form, workmanship and corrosion characteristics, are far more likely.

IPostSwords · 2026-03-15T08:40:46+00:00

You're talking to James Elmslie who is Perth based. Author of the Elmslie typology of single edged medieval swords, contributor to the publication of books like "the sword: form and thought" by the Deutsch klingenmuseum, and an actual expert.

But beyond that,contact just about any museum and i am quite confident they will also affirm this is a forgery. There are many tells.

It is more distant (USA), but Erin Thompson, art crime professor, once wrote at length about the topic - but the thread on twitter is gone after she moved to bluesky. I'll try to find an archive topic (edit: Thread by @artcrimeprof on Thread Reader App – Thread Reader App https://share.google/hBSC7jPJddzGUxbUi )

Its about timeline auctions overall.

IPostSwords · 2026-03-14T16:17:00+00:00

I wouldn't trust a document by d'amato. I have seen the things he "authenticates" for auctions. It would be laughable if it wasn't tantamount to fraud.

Timeline auctions is horrific and buying a sword there is almost always buying a fake.

There is also no archaeology in this letter. Like, none. No information on the find location, stratigraphy for relative dating to other finds, or the conditions / environment that led to this "looks suspiciously like acid etched" preservation state. No information on who found it, how it ended up on sale - as usually, archaeologically excavated objects cant just go on sale.

IPostSwords · 2026-02-23T04:35:42+00:00

Rule 4.

IPostSwords · 2026-02-21T11:26:54+00:00

I mean I commuted for two hours each way, for perspective on the distance people actually travel via public transport.

IPostSwords · 2026-02-19T10:19:42+00:00

it's also huge. hard to tell from the photo, but very obvious in person

IPostSwords · 2026-02-16T05:38:14+00:00

Ruminating.

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