Japanese sword help needed

[all1knew]

Hello there,

I don't believe I have ever posted in this section of the forum as I just don't know anything about Japanese blades. Please help me out if you could.

Estimation of value and description please!

Thank you.

William Kramer

[all1knew]

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[all1knew]

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[all1knew]

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[Budo45]

William


think were going to need more pix, the tang and tsuba need to be seen, as of now not liking the habaki pix hope its just the angle of the pix. they are the first clue if the blade is late war and or well made and not a copy.



the tassle looks way too big....hope we have better news with more pix

[all1knew]

Hello again,

Here is what the seller stated about the sword:

The steel guard disc seems to have a horse or something designed on it and the scabbard shows the piece of leather missing but i had been told that these swords sometimes had a canvas cover near the hilt with a laced opening to hang off the belt and the humid weather often rotted the canvas and the leather underneath was duly damaged this may explain the section being missing .

I had considered having a canvas section constructed to cover the hilt area of the scabbard but decided to leave it as original.

I can only tell you the japanese sword has a double holed tang, unsigned, which indicates it was a much longer blade originally probably the Edo period as the Tsuba is from that period and is highly decorative with relief work of horses etc,which would have been professionally married to an issue standard japanese handle during ww2 and the original scabbard which is lacquered under the leather has been shorten to match the blade and then covered with light brown pigskin leather as used on the more common arsenal made swords issued during WW2.

I had been told that it was common practise to send japanese officers off to war with the old historical family swords as a sort of samurai thing, but the longer swords were a problem in dense swamps and undergrowth so many were shortened from Katana length and bigger down to wakizashi size which this is said to be, but they retained the original fixtures and fittings where possible instead of the cheaper standard brass fittings eblazoned with the national flower motifs namely the chrysanthemum.

Does any of this make any sense?

William Kramer

[Steve Flanagan]

Sword

As Budo said, its already a questionable sword and I dont like the weave or material of the tassel, so habaki and the tassel are strange so see if you can get some detailed photos

[brannow]

Hi,

The sword is a real one but you do need more pics.

[all1knew]

Hello again,

I will try to get better pictures. From what you have seen, if real, can anyone give me an idea as to the value or what I should offer?

William Kramer

[brannow]

Too difficult with out the pics. If the guy is pressing to sell it to you with these pics, pass as it is for sure not a national treasure.

[Bob Coleman]

I agree with Bill that this is appears to be a real sword. The tsuba appears to be a low quality casting. Pictures of the blade stripped of all fittings is a necessity.

[BryanD]

The tuska ( handle ) and saya ( scabbard ) appear to be Meiji period (1868-1912 ) military mounts. It was common during that period to use menuke of personal choice rather that the cherry blossoms. The scabbards were kind of crude and painted black. I absolutely cannot tell you anything about the blade without close up pictures. With the mounts I would assume that the blade is an older one. But that is just a guess.
The story about shortening blades in the jungle is fantasy. I think the leather scabbard cover has been trimed back. I have never seen or heard of a piece of canvas being added to a leather scabbard cover.
I do not know what the sword should sell for. Prices have gone up quite a bit since I was aware of the value of swords.

Oops. Bob posted while I was typing. Mr. Coleman is the real expert here.

[ZERO-sen]

IMO tassel is fake, leather cover was trimmed due to damage or rotted away. late war home defense/civilian militia mount.

[gunto]

Fake tassel made in Pakistan (seller is on bay).
Habaki looks like it was forced over the mune ha and that is wrong.
Seppa looks new.
I would stay away from this one.

[all1knew]

Hello again,

Well thank you for all of the opinions. I asked for better pictures anyhow, and if it is a fake then we'll have this one on file fore reference. He also was selling these:

http://wehrmacht-awards.com/forums/s...d.php?t=398030

Thanks.

Bill