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Alex,
I wish Joel Jacobs were presently on list as he could answer your
questions.He used to work with the family and actually had something to do
with the developement of some models.
I purchaced mine directly from the plant in Osaka in the mid-late 70's.It
was a small operation(relatively)then and most likely didn't get much
bigger.What was impressive was the advanced(for the time) machining facility
they had to manufacture these instruments.
The Tamaya Corp has their hands in more pies then just manufacturing
sextants.Even back then they were more intersted in quality than
quantity.They were also in cahoots with the leading Japanese astromonical
optics company.In fact the 6x scope I got with mine was manufactured by that
company and fitted onto the MS-733. I'll dig the scope out tonight and get
the name of that company off the scope.The Germans have NOTHING on the
Japanese when it comes to the highest quality optics or most other products.
I wrote in a post quite awhile ago that it is possible to get things in
Japan for Japanese products that are unavailable anywhere else in the
world.I can't prove it(I'm not a metallurgist)but I believe the alloys of
the sextant I got in Japan are superior and differant to the metals in
sextants made by Tamaya for export.I know the optics in both the 3x and 6x
scopes are.In fact they didn't even offer 3x or 6x scopes for  their
sextants that were to be exported then or now.
I base the alloy allegation on more than one thing.I've seen and held other
Spica and Jupiter sextants that belong to mariners who purchaced theirs in
the States and Europe.I also purchaced some fishing reels while in Japan at
differant times.I know for a fact that the alloys of the metals and
engineering of those reels were vastly superior to the same model reels
built for world wide export.
When I bought the Tamaya in Osaka I paid better than the price charged in
the U.S. and that isn't including the extra price for the scopes.
So it really wouldn't suprise me if they sold less then 100-200 units a year
worldwide.

   

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