adanymous

I dont currently have that pic and am vacationing in the virgin islands. Ill see if I can get my assistant ti take one. If not it will have to wait til monday I guess

The blade is a bit over 15 inches as I recall. Im about to board a flight so obviously I dont have it with me. The tang is maybe a bit over 4 inches. The thing that strikes me as odd about it is its sharpened only on the right side as the sword is held. And from a completely novice eye id say the tang has not been cut. To my eye it appears proportional. The posted pics are from my phone so pardon them please. Before I ruin it for sure id take a risk and send it to be properly evaluated if you guys have an idea of who has the expertise to do that and the honesty to give it back.

I completely understand. Im an antique gun collector and understand how condition can greatly affect value. Im just amazed at how much that value can be affected by damage in this case. Given my understanding of marking metallic objects id say it is definately done by hand. And the deep grey color of the rust where the grip should be would indicate it is very old. So im of the opinion that it is genuine. However worthless it may be... I had considered having it polished but understand that that would cost several thousand dollars. Being an investor, lack of expertise on a subject plus large investment equal loss to me. So Ill probably not do that. Just seems a sin to call a 600ish year old piece of art valueless. But i guess that means that rarity is not an issue, which is a testament to the culture to care for their antiquities so well. Shame some ignorant person Came to possess it. Any ideas what the other side says? What should be done with it? Would It be terrible to have it made into pocket knives or something similar? I really do appreciate the insight, regardless of value I think its the best $50 ive spent. Just for the curiousity of the thing and the mystery of what it has done and who else has held it

Im not conradicting you at all. I just think its a shame that its not valuable. It really is very pretty, even in its awful condition. It feels like history in my hand. While I thought it was interesting and beautiful I never thought it would be super valuable, but I would have guessed more than a couple hundred dollars. I guess Im glad its not a mistreated materpiece though. That would have been a bigger shame. A supposed expert in Tampa told me it was from a given period and appx 500 years old. But he couldnt read the Japanese so I doubted his expertise. Any idea of its age? Any pieces of what the other side says? Im very curious about it. My wifes bosses wife is a Japanese native and she couldnt read it well either. She likened it to old english which I guess makes sense. Thanks for what Ive learned about it so far!

I dont speak Japanese. And am not a nihonto collector. So if you could restate that in english id appreciate it. How old is it, what does the inscription say? I figured if its not valuable at all I could have my brother who is an amateur knife maker cut it up and make a nice pocket knife out of it!

Funny story about this sword. Nobody at the gun show had any idea what it was. Several people said it was an old knife and worthless. But because I wrote a paper in a college art class about an art form I found interesting....these swords. I knew enough to know it was a Japanese sword. Ive never used my college education for anything else!

http://i1293.photobucket.com/albums/b59 ... b26fd2.jpg http://i1293.photobucket.com/albums/b59 ... 6db328.jpg http://i1293.photobucket.com/albums/b59 ... 0757eb.jpg Photobucket is being kind of weird. I have more pics but this about all I can get while its being weird

http://i1293.photobucket.com/albums/b59 ... 5bcde9.jpg Sorry for all the replies im having to use photobucket from my phone and its acting wonky. This is the only way I van make it work. Tried direct loading with no luck

Hey guys, I acquired a sword I believe to be real and hoped you guys might be able to tell me something about it. I bought the sword from a guy at a gun show who was just walking around with it asking people what it was. He said it was in his dads tool box for years, his dad had passed and he found his young children throwing it around the yard which brought it back to mind and had him curious about it. His dad was a WW II vet and the word corregidor is carved in the scabbard which made sense to me. He wanted $50 for it and I thought it was interesting as was its backstory so I rolled the dice. To be honest Im mostly interested in selling it, im not trying to do that here,im just doing some research to avoid getting rooked if it has any real value. If you guys could help me out Id appreciate it!