Pelleman

What would be the ideal photos to help figure this one out? More detail of the tsuba? Closeup of the blade?

It's not my tsuba, it's just a picture I have for comparison. Found it on a collectors site. From what I gather, there were at least six different types of tsuba and two with an open design like that of the sword in question.

If you look at a known genuine tsuba like this, the details like those on the flowers are more detailed and less "messy".

Hi! My first post here. I guess you guys get a million "is this sword genuine?" questions but I don't know where to turn. I have spent a whole day searching and reading about shin guntos as I have found one on a Swedish auction house. They claim it's an original but I know that even though they are a respected firm, even those make mistakes. I am leaning towards it being a fake actually. I only have three pictures to go on and what raises my suspicion is the Tsuba. The wrapping is all wrong also but that culd have been messed up by anyone during the past 60+ years. Regarding the tsuba, I have compared it with pictures of genuine shin gunto tsubas from known collectors and if you look at details like the flowers it just doesen´t have the same finesse and detail. Or did they become less delicate in the production later in the war? Pics are too big to post so you'll have to cut & paste the address http://193.238.185.184/images/2182372?s ... al&index=1 http://193.238.185.184/images/2182372?s ... al&index=2 http://193.238.185.184/images/2182372?s ... al&index=3