Help With a Couple Of Swords

[Paul G]

China Fake NCO! Is it from the same source?

PG-

[Michael Downey]

No problem. I base my opinion based on numerous swords I purchased over the years from veterans. The blade appears to be an honest older hand made blade. I can not tell more due to the quality of the picture. The majority of the swords I bought with the plain handle fittings were brought back by veterans who were in China. It is quite possible that these fittings were period made in theater to replace a handle broken in combat. I have also seen them mounted on blades that were locally made and not much better than an old car spring. I base my opinion on having handled thousands of Japanese swords over the years.

Well spoken Bob. I have often been amazed at how badly made these locally made Japanese WWII swords are. I have a number of examples in my own collection. No one sword is anything like the next in design or finish.

[LetsGo82nd]

China Fake NCO! Is it from the same source?

PG-

Different sources. Looks like I have a lot of homework to do on swords. Thanks guys for all the help. -Jeremy

[Stu W]

Hello Jeremy,

Have a look at posts 17-18-19 on this thread...

http://dev.wehrmacht-awards.com/foru...=493937&page=2


...that will give you an idea of some of the details you will want to see on an NCO Type 95.

Regards,
Stu

[checkit]

The officer sword looks original to me - just not outstanding quality. There are many features there that I have seen in plenty of swords brought back by vets.

There has been speculation in the past that maybe some swords were theater made out of whatever was at hand, as when NCO's were promoted to officer, and there was just no supply line at the time to get anything nice from Japan. And yes, I have seen some really old blades with the tangs messed up like that and mounted with this type of mismatched fittings.

I have also seen many apparently late war rigs that were not in the iron mounts.

But anyway, the big problem with what I call "soft mounts" (they seem to lack the detail of the earlier stuff) is that the Chinese are already doing better ones than that. I have been collecting for years, and never saw the need to buy one of these - I'd rather have one nice sword than 5 of this type - but it seems the times they are a changing.