I purchased my first Japanese NCO sword a couple weeks ago and would like to share it with you all. I have not been following these very long and just recently began studying them. I am reviewing Jim Dawson’s book on “Swords of Imperial Japan “and have scoured the web studying the good, bad, and the ugly. With the advances of the Chinese copies, I enjoy surfing this forum and testing myself with similar posts that request authentication opinions.
I believe this to be an original early aluminum handle NCO sword. The man I bought it from said he had acquired it about 10 years ago from the vet. The vet said he obtained it while trading with other GI’s. I have no provenance, so it is just a story. The scabbard is matching and almost completely void of the original green paint. I believe this was deliberately done, but have no way of knowing if it was done by the vet or the Japanese soldier. There are some pictures that still show small traces of this paint in the corners of the scabbard. The blade is very nice with some scratches (mostly on one side) that look to be caused from the scabbard. It has not been sharpened and there are very small traces of corrosion. The handle has a fair amount of wear with an equal amount of paint worn off. The tsuba is pierced brass and has some areas where rubbing or impact with other objects has transferred paint/greese/debris onto it.
Overall, I am happy with my first sword and think I got a good deal. I welcome opinions to you seasoned collectors and was also hoping some of you can comment on some specific question I have:
1. The pommel barrel nut and handle screw not completely seating (pictures 15 and 22). I would rather not mess with them, but also would like to know if any of you have seen this before?
2. I have read on other posts that Flitz is a good alternative to cleaning the blade and removing some of the very small corrosion dots. I have a couple of pictures that show the corrosion I am referring to (the pictures make it look worse than it is in my opinion); pictures 8 and 10. I don’t want to do anything that will show evidence of polishing or scrubbing. I have used Flitz before, and if not used aggressively, wonder what result can be expected.
3. The cherry blossom paint is interesting. Perhaps it is the extreme close-up I have taken which is not like any others I have seen, but would like comments as to what the experts think of it.
I will give fair warning that there are a lot of pictures on this post. In total there are 33 of them equating to about 4mb. I hope that is not too much.
Thanks,
Jason
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I believe this to be an original early aluminum handle NCO sword. The man I bought it from said he had acquired it about 10 years ago from the vet. The vet said he obtained it while trading with other GI’s. I have no provenance, so it is just a story. The scabbard is matching and almost completely void of the original green paint. I believe this was deliberately done, but have no way of knowing if it was done by the vet or the Japanese soldier. There are some pictures that still show small traces of this paint in the corners of the scabbard. The blade is very nice with some scratches (mostly on one side) that look to be caused from the scabbard. It has not been sharpened and there are very small traces of corrosion. The handle has a fair amount of wear with an equal amount of paint worn off. The tsuba is pierced brass and has some areas where rubbing or impact with other objects has transferred paint/greese/debris onto it.
Overall, I am happy with my first sword and think I got a good deal. I welcome opinions to you seasoned collectors and was also hoping some of you can comment on some specific question I have:
1. The pommel barrel nut and handle screw not completely seating (pictures 15 and 22). I would rather not mess with them, but also would like to know if any of you have seen this before?
2. I have read on other posts that Flitz is a good alternative to cleaning the blade and removing some of the very small corrosion dots. I have a couple of pictures that show the corrosion I am referring to (the pictures make it look worse than it is in my opinion); pictures 8 and 10. I don’t want to do anything that will show evidence of polishing or scrubbing. I have used Flitz before, and if not used aggressively, wonder what result can be expected.
3. The cherry blossom paint is interesting. Perhaps it is the extreme close-up I have taken which is not like any others I have seen, but would like comments as to what the experts think of it.
I will give fair warning that there are a lot of pictures on this post. In total there are 33 of them equating to about 4mb. I hope that is not too much.
Thanks,
Jason
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