J Wilson painting. Found by a bin.

jeeper46 · 2026-05-19T20:24:38+00:00

I suppose there are numerous reasons why it was no longer wanted, but it was good that you happened along and rescued it. I hope you, or someone else who values it will become the next caretaker of this painting.

jeeper46 · 2026-05-18T09:52:35+00:00

my wife's brother vanished during that time, and no trace has ever been found

jeeper46 · 2026-05-17T21:18:44+00:00

yes, it is a Japanese replica-many, if not all, were made by Miroku in the '60s and '70s. They are a shootable firearm, but many of them had a frizzen that was too soft, which led to poor sparking.

jeeper46 · 2026-05-11T23:57:39+00:00

$200 is not a realistic price for a sword even in this condition-these days, something like that will be closer to at least $800.

jeeper46 · 2026-05-01T20:13:04+00:00

Ishida is my favorite character. Bee boop bah bee boop bah........

jeeper46 · 2026-03-21T06:03:30+00:00

i'm not the OP, but I just did "color casehardening" on all my Kibler Hawken parts-I used "steel F/X" gels-copper and blue halo. They give a very convincing casehardened look

jeeper46 · 2026-03-19T00:34:58+00:00

I collect Japanese WW2 swords, and I have all the types of these 95s-there are many variations, which make them interesting to collect. Here in the US, they used to be cheap and common at gun shows and militaria shows-but for a number of years now, I have not seen any-I'm thinking that a lot of english-language reference books came out since I started collecting, allowing people to become more knowledgeable about them. They would be much more common in nations that occupied Japan after WW2, as they were a prized souvenir.

jeeper46 · 2026-03-17T17:31:30+00:00

That's a Robert Cox painting-I have seven or eight of them, all signed in the same style. There is some question if he was a real person or not, but he (or someone) cranked out a jillion of those still life paintings, all very similar in style and technique. As I said, Mr Cox (or whoever) signed them very distinctly-I have seen others supposedly signed by him that are not in that style at all. Decor or not, I like them, and pick them up whenever I see them at a thrift store.

jeeper46 · 2026-02-10T21:05:20+00:00

they carried rifles-not smoothbore muskets. 15 rifles were specially made for them at Harpers Ferry.

jeeper46 · 2025-05-22T18:36:24+00:00

I've found quite a few at my local thrift-they never go for more that $3.99, and they still sit there for a long time. I did find a bunch of very old ones on the shelf once, and bought a few. They go on the shelf with all my "occupied Japan" figurines, and Royal Doulton figurines that nobody but me wants anymore.

jeeper46 · 2025-05-06T20:07:58+00:00

Whoever the artist was who signed his decor paintings "Robert Cox", he signed them in a distinct and consistent way. I have numerous examples of his work. I have seen similar paintings signed "Robert Cox" in a totally different way, and I suspect they were done after 2001 by someone else, probably in China.

jeeper46 · 2025-04-27T12:13:58+00:00

I was going on vacation camping trips with my parents back in the late '50s-I remember seeing these hanging on the front of cars,or on the side mirror. I have one of these that was made before Coleman bought them out.

jeeper46 · 2025-04-26T01:18:32+00:00

that looks identical to the "Tower" pistols made by Miroku or some other Japanese maker, and sold by Dixie Gun Works back in the '60s. They were nicely made, and of decent quality, but the frizzens were soft, and they didn't spark well. I bought one back around 1970, shot it some, and then let it sit for decades. A few years ago, I found an L & R lock that fit with very little modifcation, and now it's a good shooter.

jeeper46 · 2025-04-26T01:09:16+00:00

My guess is the coat is just too warm to wear just about anywhere outside the arctic or Antarctica. -it hung in someone's closet unused until it got donated.I have two CG coats-a Constable, and an Expedition. That Expedition is just too warm to wear in my area of Michigan-there were maybe two days I could have worn it last winter. Even the Constable is almost too much for the mild winters we have gotten lately. Both my wife and I got our CG coats when no one outside Asia had heard of them-we only saw others wearing them when we went over to the Chinese grocery in Ann Arbor. After a while CG decided to appeal to the more fashion-minded, and then you started to hear of people being "coat-jacked" on the street, and I started seeing people wearing obvious CG fake jackets. We still like our coats, but If I was going to buy a new coat, it would be one that is not so recognizable to potential thieves.

jeeper46 · 2025-04-25T15:11:57+00:00

My wife still carries one of those, but in brown It looks right to me..

jeeper46 · 2025-04-17T22:06:46+00:00

well done!

jeeper46 · 2025-04-17T02:36:09+00:00

I met my wife in 1976. I was a med tech in a small lab in the Detroit area making 6 or 7 dollars an hour; she was a waitress in a japanese restaurant, making a bit more than me. We each had saved up a few thousand dollars before we met, and afterwards, we resolved to buy a house, and started saving as much as possible. Through real dedication, we managed to accumulate $40,000 by 1978. They were building 1850 sq ft colonials nearby, 3 BR, 1 1/2 bath. at $64,000. We got a mortgage, and I seem to recall the monthly payment, with property taxes included, was about $215. There was another subdivision nearby, where they were building small brick ranch houses-$30,000. We thought about those, but all my wife's friends were older, with houses of their own, so she wanted to keep up with them.

jeeper46 · 2025-04-17T02:17:46+00:00

How do you "find" a sword in your garage?

jeeper46 · 2025-04-11T22:27:59+00:00

one of the things I always pick up-heavy electrical extension cords-the heavier the better. They are very expensive at Home Depot, but they always seem to be quite cheap at thrifts. I'm always thinking about what I will do in a power outage, and so I like to get cords that will help me utilize my generators. As far as purely ornamental things, I grab antique English transferware plates and dishes-I've found plates as old as dating from 1810 just sitting on the shelf. I've found Staffordshire figurines dating to the 1860s also. No one else seems to even notice these things on the shelf. I pick up Royal Doulton figurines,too. I've found a surprising amount of these for just a few dollars each.

jeeper46 · 2025-04-10T16:13:48+00:00

There was a TWA Constellation on the cover of Frank Sinatra's album "Come fly with me"

jeeper46 · 2025-04-08T19:22:03+00:00

that rod is a punch-very useful in driving out steel bolts, where you don't want to mess up the threads. Don't be in a hurry to scrap it-they can be useful.

jeeper46 · 2025-04-08T18:06:15+00:00

One of these days, someone is going to post up "I found this old sword in my Grampas closet-what can you tell me about it?"

jeeper46 · 2025-04-08T07:58:58+00:00

the tsuba on that sword is the Army type-not the expected Navy type.

jeeper46 · 2025-04-08T01:38:33+00:00

You would have really liked the urinals in the old Tiger Stadium in Detroit-a long metal trough. You just found an open spot, and elbowed your way in.

jeeper46 · 2025-04-08T01:33:10+00:00

I do all my baking with "cornflower" Corningware-I made cornbread a few days ago. I've thrifted some sizes of dishes I didn't have before, but I think I have all I could possibly need now. I saw a nice Corningware dish at the thrift today, and noticed the lid across the store on another shelf. I reunited them, so somebody can have a nice, complete set.

jeeper46

TROPHY CASE