Any information on my WW2 Katana?

L

Loganmitchell36

Joined
Feb 15, 2016
Messages
3
So I have been looking for information about something my grandpa handed down to me.
He acquired the katana from I think his brother who got it from a guy who owed him money and he had brought these home after he got back from WW2 and they settled on a "trade" for two of these katanas.
My Grandpas brother then gave one to my Grandpa and this all happened shortly after he got home from the war so i know the sword is old regardless.
I know for sure that the only time the sword was sharpened by any of us was back when my grandpa first got it. He sharpened it up real good and did very little as far as using it because he cut his hand open and it resumed to spend the rest of its years in the back of his closet until i came along and was snooping around and was bright eyed and astonished to find this as a little kid. I would go in his room and every time i would open it farther and farther.
Fast forward to today, this is all the information i have on it but the strange thing to me is i can not for the life of me find anything else on this blade besides the number 2 stamped in the side of the brass fitting/collar on end of the "sheath".
The handle and the outside of the "sheath" looks like very old leather and is very worn and cracking and absent in some of the most used parts.
The wood is visible where the leather is missing on the end of the handle and the inside of the sheath is also wood.
With the sword completely in the the sheath it measures 40 inches long. 28 3/4 from the tip of the blade to the cross guard. The handle is nearly 10 inches long. The extra 1 1/4 inches is in the end of the sheath where the blade obviously ends before the sheath. The blade is a hair over 3/16 thick at the base and slowly gets to 1/8 except for about 2 inches from the tip of the sword it increases very smoothly to 3/16 before coming to a tip.
The sheath releases from a brass button on the handle which i found to be very odd and because of it the brass piece on the open end of the sheath has been pulled out. The sheath also has a brass circle ring attached to another ring that is part of a metal band (half an inch wide) that wraps around the sheath underneath the leather. I have not sharpened it at all and i haven't touched the pins in the handle.
Im just looking for any information. Thanks

http://imgur.com/a/jLsSf

^Heres the pictures i just took of it in the link
 
Last edited:
Pictures.

To help you at all, people will need pictures.

"Grandpa sharpened it up real good" is about trying worst thing to hear about a katana, or any other real sword.

Sharpening likely ruined any value.


What you are describing could be a factory mass produced sword that was actually issues to a soldier in WWII, or could be Chinese junk.

Pictures. As clear as you can post them, full length, and pictures close up of any markings.

There may be markings under the handle, as well.
 
There are so many WW2 katana being sold here since Thailand military is allied with Japan at the time... all I can tell you is most of them are not very quality stuff.
 
I disagree solely because the sharpening of the sword when it was used in combat would have been within a year of when an american could have got it and he sharpened it when he got back from WW2, the point of not sharpening an antique sword is to preserve the history and the age and the sharpening was done right with a wet stone. I understand that a lot of people get all uptight about sharpening and frankly i don't quite care because I'm not going to sharpen it and the sword is the same that it was 71 years ago. I did post the pictures if you get the chance to see them. Thanks
 
20 to 30 years ago, many Japanese swords appeared at gunshows. This is about the time when the WWII vets had aged and they were beginning to get rid of stuff. The katana could be valuable. There are books that you can use to look up tang markings. In general, many old family swords were used in WWII by the Japanese.
 
22-rimfire said:
20 to 30 years ago, many Japanese swords appeared at gunshows. This is about the time when the WWII vets had aged and they were beginning to get rid of stuff. The katana could be valuable. There are books that you can use to look up tang markings. In general, many old family swords were used in WWII by the Japanese.
Click to expand...

Where did you hear this? Only the Buke (warrior class) families had family swords to start with and as a result such "family swords" being carried into the field were limited to officers of such family background. Most of these need to have the Nakago (tang) examined for a maker's signature. The vast majority of officers carried "Gunto" which were mass produced and of not high quality. Many of these have Armory markings known as "Showa marks" which obviously will not see in
truly old swords.
 
KenHash said:
Where did you hear this? Only the Buke (warrior class) families had family swords to start with and as a result such "family swords" being carried into the field were limited to officers of such family background. Most of these need to have the Nakago (tang) examined for a maker's signature. The vast majority of officers carried "Gunto" which were mass produced and of not high quality. Many of these have Armory markings known as "Showa marks" which obviously will not see in
truly old swords.
Click to expand...

I can only relate to the swords I looked at back at that time. Yes, only officers carried family blades. I am not a sword guy. A friend used to buy them at shows and we fondled them together. There were few references back then to look up stuff. It is really amazing, but you could pick up Japanese swords used in WWII for a couple hundred $. The better ones sold in the $500-$600 area and are worth thousands now. These were mostly swords that were sold in the parking lot (car trunks) versus on dealer tables. Basically the seller would carry around a sword at a show and if you were interested, you'd head for the parking lot to look at his stuff.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top