Japanese Katana, Vet Bring-Back WW2

[Marksharky]

I inherited a Japanese katana-sword from a relative a year or so ago and I am just getting serious about researchcing it. I collect ww2 militaria, but my emphasis is European, not Japanese, so my knowledge in this department is VERY limited. I am hoping that I can find some answers here on this forum.

Here's the background story on this sword........... The sword was brought home by a US veteramn who served in the south pacific during WW2. When he got home, he gave the sword to my relative, who was just a young boy at the time. living just outside Chicago. He used the sword as a "Toy", chopping branches, bushes and playing "army" with it for years. It has been in his closet for years and years until he passed it on to me. The sword is in the condition I received it in. He does not remember re-wrapping the grip with string, so the grip wrap may be original............. I can see no markings at all on it.

Here are a few photos to get this thread going:

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[checkit]

That's a very unusual hanger system. Maybe it was made to accommodate hanging it from a saddle or something. If it were mine, that string would be gone in seven seconds, and I'd have had a look under the handle. Highly unlikely that the string has anything to do with the sword as-captured.

[Marksharky]

Here are a few more detail photos.......... I should also note that the blade does not have any temper lines.

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[Marksharky]

Before I pull off the string wrap, I'll ask my relative again, about where the string came from. I'd hate to find out the wrap was an odd variation or type of seldom seen style that I just trashed by being too hasty! I does look suspiciously like something that a kid would have done to the sword though........
I'm headed out to cut fire wood at his place today and I'll talk to him about the sword again........

[checkit]

Well, if the peg is exposed as it appears to be in the first picture you just posted, then just knock it out with a drift punch and the handle should come off. If the handle is still tight - first, make sure the handle doesn't have TWO pegs in it - second, give it a knock on the Tsuba with a hardcover book, holding the blade with a towel, hitting the side of the Tsuba that is away from the handle, and striking towards the handle. That should do it.

It might still have a temper line. When the blade is out of polish, it takes considerable practice to be able to see it. One trick is to take it out in the sunlight, and hold the blade at different angles in the light until you see something. Then, try to follow that 'something' and see if it goes up to and around the tip.

[Stu W]

Don's suggestion is a good one. A hamon, particularly suguha, can easily be missed if the sword is out of polish or been filed.

Regards,
Stu

[gunto]

IMO its a native faked sword postwar.

[checkit]

I do fancy that I see a very narrow Suguha that runs off at the tip, but would need more pics to be sure.

This will continue to be a problem - modern fake swords made in China, that are actually better quality than a mediocre original. Also, some swords were faked during the war by Australian troops, to sell to GI's.

If you collected swords back in he 60's-70's, then you will recognize some of these that were around BEFORE the current run of fakes, and that came straight from the vet. Soon, Japanese sword collecting will become the proverbial "story behind the piece" that has plagued Third Reich collectors for 30 years.

[Marksharky]

I just got back home from a visit with my god-parent........... He said that he was given the sword VERY shortly after the veteran returned home from the war, He said that the grip was definitely wrapped in the same cording that is on it today. He also said that the veteran told him that he had personally taken the sword off the original, but dead owner, himself, after fighting on one of the south pacific islands. As he recalled the grip was dirty and had fresh "blood stains" soaked into the sting wrapping, as he was told by the vet. I must say that my god-parent is very well educated, and went on to become a Naval Inteligence officer in the 1960's. He is still very clear minded and has a very clear recollection of receiving and playing with the sword as a boy, and in fact kept it safe all these years because it was so important to him.

I have a hard time believing that the sword would be a fake that would be sold as a souvenir to a returning GI, and have the grip wrapped in such a "non-japanese" way.........

I'll see about tapping out the peg and pulling off the wood grip. Maybe I'll be lucky and there will only be one peg! I'll post photos after the grip is off.

[gunto]

I belive there will be 2 pegs on this "type" of sword.