Japanese Samurai W hand Forged Blade

[Jareth]

On another site a similar sword as identified as being made in a Japanese occupied country for puppet troops fighting with the Japanese

[clestuff]

Quote: The only thing Japanese about this sword is if its made from melted down toyotas.

Naah Toyotas are much better made than that

The sword is 100% junk.

Tom, If you dont know what you are talking about you should keep your comments to yourself. You are not funny. Trashing somebodys item without showing you have a clue to what youre talking about has no value to this forum.. This is a WWII sword. Perhaps not made in Japan but definatly of the period. It's allways the odd ones that confuse people and often turn out to be rare examples. This could have been made in colonial Manchuria or it could be Showato, Muratato or Yotetsuto. It is not "100% junk" as you say it is. It has much more value then anything you have said.

[reeder3]

I know I've seen that sword for sale somewhere. I am not an expert by any means, but I would pass on it every time it popped up for sale as I do not believe it to be Japanese. It has all of the features of a Chinese repro.

[Michael Downey]

Tom, If you dont know what you are talking about you should keep your comments to yourself. You are not funny. Trashing somebodys item without showing you have a clue to what youre talking about has no value to this forum.. This is a WWII sword. Perhaps not made in Japan but definatly of the period. It's allways the odd ones that confuse people and often turn out to be rare examples. This could have been made in colonial Manchuria or it could be Showato, Muratato or Yotetsuto. It is not "100% junk" as you say it is. It has much more value then anything you have said.

I have always been amazed at the great variety of styles of Japanese swords that appeared towards the end of the war. Some styles were very uniform suggestive of a production line assembly whereas others styles seemed to be simply one off examples.

While the details of the sword under discussion do not look very Japanese that would not exclude the possibility that it was locally made for Japanese occupation troops. It should not be forgotten that the Japanese troops occupying many South East Asia countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Borneo, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and New Guinea received very limited supplies from Japan during the latter part of the war. Each of these countries have their own distinctive craftsman styles.

I have something like 150+ Japanese WWII swords in my collection including a number of these odd ball locally made swords. Collectors need to be wary of dismissing period swords as modern day copies.

[Jareth]

here's an interesting discussion on another very similar sword. http://forums.gunboards.com/showthre...ments-on-Sword

[Ty Smith]

Looks very Chinese to me... like from the 1990s or 2000s...

[BobI]

I have seen a lot of swords like this over the years, they normally come from the Philipines. The blade was "probably" made from a truck spring. Copied from a Japanese sword but far inferior in quality. They do vary a lot in quality but never close to Nihonto.
Bob

[Steve Flanagan]

Sword

The way the Same (ray skin) is wrapped on the hilt under fuchi reminds me of the way its done on Burmese Dha swords,,,perhaps thats where it was made?

[GHP]

The way the Same (ray skin) is wrapped on the hilt under fuchi reminds me of the way its done on Burmese Dha swords,,,perhaps thats where it was made?

I didn't notice 'till you mentioned it, that the same-gawa [鮫皮] comes all the way to the top of the handle. Usually the same is cut even with the first wrapping, where it meets the fuchi. The image below shows the most common method using two panels of same, one on either side of the handle; you can see where the same-and-fuchi line is:



Also, I just noticed the handle is a "full-wrap", where the same fully encompasses the handle blank. This method strengthens the handle and is more costly.




--Guy

[clestuff]

Looks very Chinese to me... like from the 1990s or 2000s...

Really?? I guess I'm not the best photographer. In hand the sword is very obviously very old and very well used. It has layers of natural patina that would be impossible to duplicate.

[Jareth]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/190695215295...84.m1438.l2649

[clestuff]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/190695215295...84.m1438.l2649

Whats that link for, Jareth? It's nothing like my sword. To me, that one looks fake.

[gunto]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/190695215295...84.m1438.l2649

Dont like that sword , the ingraving look somehow new.

[tom clancy]

Apologies for my late reply, they only let me out at the weekends.


Cliff you are 100% correct I know absolutely nothing whatsoever about Japanese swords except what I have seen in picture books and Kill Bill.

I was wrong and you are right - Over and Out.

__________________________________________________ ____________

Jareth
10 out of 10.

[clestuff]

Apologies for my late reply, they only let me out at the weekends.


Cliff you are 100% correct I know absolutely nothing whatsoever about Japanese swords except what I have seen in picture books and Kill Bill.

I was wrong and you are right - Over and Out.

__________________________________________________ ____________

Jareth
10 out of 10.

"Kill Bill"....Now THAT was funny!! The jury is still out on this sword Jareth. I'm sure it's an old one but really having a hard time finding anything out. There are some fold marks [or lamanations] in blade if that helps anybody. I dont think it is traditional but definatly hand forged.. I did read somewhere that some pre-war swords had blades made with power hammers. The Tusba has remanants of a reddish or brown paint. Tusba and all of the other parts are solid hand tooled brass. Not cheap metal like seen on fakes. Seems like too much hand done work went into this sword to be some kind of repro. If they were going to go through all of that to make it and then age it, wouldnt they want to make it look more like a REAL Japanese sword??