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- 108
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The BladeForums.com 2024 Traditional Knife is ready to order! See this thread for details: https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/bladeforums-2024-traditional-knife.2003187/
Price is$300$250 ea (shipped within CONUS). If you live outside the US, I will contact you after your order for extra shipping charges.
Order here: https://www.bladeforums.com/help/2024-traditional/ - Order as many as you like, we have plenty.
Who can id these japanese swords?
- Thread starter Larry Chew
- Start date
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*restrain's self* I personally would advise other forums such as the bugei forum (www.bugei.com), Guido may know what his doing but their are others out there such as Richard Stein whom could answer any questions (I dont think too highly of Mr.Schiller, sorry).
But what you have there Larry is a WWII gunto, without further pictures of the nakago (tang) I cant determine if its a traditional blade or a gunto machine made blade. The corrosion has left the blade with no definition to tell, as gunto mounts sometimes had older tamahagane blades put in the military standard mounts, but poorer officers had oil quenched carbon steel blades which on the nakago show an arsenal stamp then sometimes a mei inscription.
But what you have there Larry is a WWII gunto, without further pictures of the nakago (tang) I cant determine if its a traditional blade or a gunto machine made blade. The corrosion has left the blade with no definition to tell, as gunto mounts sometimes had older tamahagane blades put in the military standard mounts, but poorer officers had oil quenched carbon steel blades which on the nakago show an arsenal stamp then sometimes a mei inscription.
- Joined
- Oct 13, 1998
- Messages
- 108
Thanks for the tip! They look old enough to be WWII, and sadly they are not in the best shape.
Thanks!
Larry
Thanks!
Larry
- Joined
- Apr 17, 2003
- Messages
- 5,283
I can definately attest to them being WWII...BUT heres the pickle, keep the blade well oiled, a fine coating applied every now and then will be fine. Alot of antique blades were put into gunto mounts as mentioned, and from the pictures you could possibly have the blades restored by a professional polisher if it is a nihonto.
But then again, if you remove the peg from the nakago (tang) your able to dismount the tsuka (handle)...if you take a photo of the nakago I will be able to tell you if its a machine made or if its a typical machine made. But be aware some WWII blades are VERY valuable, I recently missed out on a Yasakuni Shrine blade made in WWII, mounted in gunto mounts and the sellar was asking $1000, if I had it repolished to full polish grade it would have been worth around $6,000 to $10,000 depending on many factors.
So till you get that checked, look after them...treasures of the nihonto world are lost and waiting to be found, for example the Honjo Masamune tanto, worth more money then the american treasury has. It's believed to be somewhere in the US, a few have claimed to have it but the oshigata didnt match.
eep! sorry for the rant
But then again, if you remove the peg from the nakago (tang) your able to dismount the tsuka (handle)...if you take a photo of the nakago I will be able to tell you if its a machine made or if its a typical machine made. But be aware some WWII blades are VERY valuable, I recently missed out on a Yasakuni Shrine blade made in WWII, mounted in gunto mounts and the sellar was asking $1000, if I had it repolished to full polish grade it would have been worth around $6,000 to $10,000 depending on many factors.
So till you get that checked, look after them...treasures of the nihonto world are lost and waiting to be found, for example the Honjo Masamune tanto, worth more money then the american treasury has. It's believed to be somewhere in the US, a few have claimed to have it but the oshigata didnt match.
eep! sorry for the rant
- Joined
- Oct 13, 1998
- Messages
- 108
I have had these apart and what I can tell you is that one sword has a bamboo peg and the other does not. The one without a peg does not even have a hole in the tang. There are no markings on the tang of either piece. The tangs are black with alot of grind and hammer marks. There is no visable hamon and the edges don't appear to have ever been sharp. Any idea of a value as they are? I got these from a buddy of mine that owns a pawn shop. Someone pawned them and never picked them up.
Larry
Larry