Japanese katana question

[Military Trader]

Hi. A guy I know gets in militaria from time to time at his shop. He had a katana in this time. The habaki had grooves or ribbed I suppose. All the ones I've seen were solid metal. Is this ok?

The sword was an officer's one and the scabbard (green metal) had a couple of good sized dings towards the end. The wrapping had a little tear. The blade was pretty good with a couple of grey spots but not too bad. The push button mehcanism for the scabbord was missing.

I know you don't have a photo but I was offered the sword for $500. I turned the sword down though as it was kind of mid level condition (Also the guy stuck the price tag right on the paint with tape) Hope I didn't make a mistake but I figure a decent one was around $850 or so.

So are some period habaki's kind of grooved?

Thanks for your time

Dennis

[Stu W]

Hi Dennis,

Habaki came in numerous decorative styles so yes it's quite possible one would have grooves of some sort. Have a look here...

http://www.google.ca/search?q=images...w=1272&bih=819

Regards,
Stu

PS: As to the sword, without seeing it in hand or clearly depicted in photographs it's impossible to tell value. Chances are it was nothing special unless it had a valuable family ancestral blade mounted in WWII period gunto fittings.

[Military Trader]

Thanks Stu -- I'm pretty sure it was a good sword but like I said it had some dings and flaws ect. $500
wasn't totally out of line but in this ecomomy no steal either. I suppose I could ask him if I could take the handle off to see if there was a signature but he told me if I didn't take the sword today it would go to $750 tomorrow. Also like I said he put the large price tag on the painted scabbrd pretty firmly with clear packing tape stcking all over the paint.

Could I gently use a small steel punch to remove the peg or does it have to be wooden to prevent damage?

[Bob Coleman]

With the form of habaki you are descibing, the blade is likely an older hand made blade Military issue swords have plain smooh finish copper habaki A signature is important only if it is genuine The concern would be the dings you mention If deep,much of the blade cutting edge ould have to be be removed in polish Such dings can also have hagiri which is a fine crack vertical to the cutting edge. Hagiri are fatal to the value of a blade.

[Military Trader]

The dings are on the scabbard only -- the handle has some minor damage also.

[Bob Coleman]

The dings are on the scabbard only -- the handle has some minor damage also.

That should not be a major problem.

[Luis22]

That should not be a major problem.

From the description you made I believe $500 its a good deal...salty NCO swords go for more...

[Military Trader]

Here's a couple of photos

[Military Trader]

2

[Military Trader]

3

[Military Trader]

4

[Stu W]

Hello Dennis,

In answer to your question about removing the peg...either will do as long as you are aware that the pegs are tapered so make sure you punch it from the smaller diameter end.

Now, what I'm seeing so far is a standard Type 98 military sword.

http://www.h4.dion.ne.jp/~t-ohmura/gunto_021.htm

Are you able to pop out the peg and let us see what's underneath?

Regards,
Stu

[Military Trader]

Will do when I get some time maybe Thur. -- the sword looks a lot better when out of the dingy store.

Glad you mentioned about the taper.

[checkit]

I would guess it is likely an older hand-forged blade. That is just based on the high quality Habaki, the looks of the blade at the Habaki, and it looks to have a fairly low Sori, which you would not expect to see in a WW2 era manufactured blade.

Based on the pics, I would take a chance at $500. Really, nothing to lose at that price, and much to gain. But it's a gamble - if the blade is cracked then all bets are off.

[Stu W]

Hi Don,

Hope you are well. That comment about the sori caused me to pause and think more on this piece. At this point I'm still not convinced that it's anything more than gunto but in my admittedly limited experience sori of WW2 period blades range from about 12-15mm on average. If the sori of this one is much less, say in the 6mm range, then it would indeed be different from that I'm used to seeing and quite possibly indicative of an older blade. Thank you for bringing it up as it's all good learning for me and hopefully others here as well.

Dennis, I'm going to add a link here that explains what Don has mentioned about sori. Perhaps you can measure the sori and let us know what it is.

http://www.ncjsc.org/gloss_sori-1.html

Kind Regards,
Stu