WWII Sword - opinions

E

elimir

Joined
May 31, 2013
Messages
2
I am a newbie, so I apologize in advance for any stupid thing i might say or do :)

Here are two pictures of a WWII memorabilia. it is not mine, so it would be hard to convince a person to actually remove the handle. As far as understand, this sword has low value as it is machine made, with no really distraction. It was brought back by US soldier from Philippines.

Is there anything that can be said about it from from those two photos?

Thank you in advance!

I am not allowed to add attachments of HTML tags so here is a link to Flickr (use right click -> original, to see the detailed picture)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/96738754@N02/
 
Welcome aboard

What I get from those two pictures is that it has been apart (the mekugi/pin has been disturbed, one way or another) and that the same (ray skin under wrap) is awfully new looking, as are the polished menuki (tokens under wrap). the wrap (ito) looks pretty fresh as well, when compared to the fittings which show significant handling/wear.

Look at the item, not the story. Compare what similar swords exhibit.

I am by no means a closet Japanese mr happy pants authority on these but something seems either redone or mixed to match. Just my thoughts, which are really not worth much.

Cheers

GC
 
Thanks HorseClover!

Those are interesting observations! The sword is not in my hand, it is in another country thus all i have are those photos. I will be able to examine it deeper later this year. In general this looks like a type-98 campaign officer's sword (vs. Naval, vs. Sergeant's), machine made blade. Given the insight that this might be a collection of unrelated parts - unless i open it up the - nothing can be sure about the blade.

Dear forumers: do you see any other detail that might help with classification?
 
The scabbard seems to be that of a Special Naval Landing Forces mounting. But the handle is not. There is no way to tell what this item is without really good pictures - including of the bare tang.
 
Would have to see the Nakago (tang) for signature, Tan Stamp (military acceptance stamp depending on when the blade was made), yasuri-mei (File marks) mekugi-ana (hole or holes for the mekugi pin) surface of the steel, hamon, any activity etc. Fittings can be complete crap and still have a valid blade, have seen it many time on military bring backs. Good live blades ( by which I mean real Nihonto) in mix mash of fittings put together by the GI, this was common. The blade needs to be judged on its own really as military mounts were never that good for the most part. I do like the blade shape
 
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