Matt300ZXT

Well i did my best. I asked him who appraised it and he said a few guys he knows that sell at gun shows. I told him he may want to have a sword dealer look at it for him as multiple sword enthusiasts and people that deal with antique Japanese swords all said it was a chinese replica. He thanked me for my opinion but said he trusted the 3 guys who told him so. I just hope he doesnt sucker someone into paying $400 for it thinking its the real deal and actually worth more. Its been on there a while so maybe hell have to keep it himself.

Alright, thanks for the heads up guys

How can you tell just out of curiosity? If he had it appraised and they didn't catch it, I may need to make him aware of it.

There's a somewhat local guy on a firearms site that has this up for sale or trade for firearms. I was curious if this looked like a genuine gunto to you guys. Here is what he has posted: Pre 43 "hand forged" shin-gunto wwii "jr. Officer" sword, wood in handle and wrap have been replaced but rest is original ww2 issue. I had it up before but took it down due to wanting to have it professionally checked out, I was told it was made in late 41 to early 42 and valued it at $750 to $800.now I know a bit more about it I know a fair price range to be in, swords in this condition 100% original sell for $1200 to $1500 daily!

Maybe that's how many ninja it killed in medieval Japan when on its original sword? Thanks guys, everyone on here in both of my threads have been very helpful.

So.....26 as in there's no real reason for 26 to be there and it's not worth anything? lol

Awesome, you guys have been more than helpful. Noted, I will decline the cleaning and stuff. The group participation with my sword will have to be strictly looking at it and people getting to hold it and see how it feels. Any body caught swinging it around like they're in battle will be immediately escorted through the wall

There's another pic. The guy I bought the sword from said he tried to find casting marks in the tsuba but he couldn't find any. Maybe you guys can find something we couldn't.

I measured it the other day for one of the SBG forum guys, from the mune-machi to kissaki, it's dead on 27". From the end of the nakago, it's dead on 35 1/16th". I like the slightly shorter length on the business end. I also have a cheaper Hanwei Raptor I bought a couple years ago that is pretty much the correct length for my height of 5'11.5", but it just doesn't feel smooth when I draw it. I probably just suck at drawing, but the shorter length on this one is much more comfortable to me. PS does it look like it needs the cleaning kit with the powder from the pom pom and oil and all that? My martial arts teacher (we don't train in kenjutsu or iaijutsu or anything) has one that came with his Paul Chen sword and wants to do it, but I think he just wants to because mine is old and stuff. I'm kinda leaning towards I don't him doing it just for the sake of because it's old, unless you guys think it could use a good maintenance procedure.

The only thing I can gather is the 2nd character is roku, 6. I tried a draw-translate page and that first one doesn't really come out as anything that makes sense, the translator says it means "push open" but who knows if it's translating what I'm putting in, or something similar.

Yeah I don't like all the holes from mountings myself and I did read about the rust being cleaned off being really bad in the antique sword community but maybe in several hundred more years it'll grow back Wish I had several thousand dollars to buy some of the really nice ones but I'll have to make do with buying the ones that cost $1500 or so, though this one ran me $500. Anyways, I snapped some more pictures in natural light, and tried my best to get the whole sugata in there for Ken. Standing up high enough on something to get the whole sword in there is tricky. There are just too many decorative trees and landscaping around the yard in the way of the 1 or 2 good places to lay down a sword and photograph it so I did the best I could w/o using flash. I did shoot a video too but it doesn't really show anything that the pictures don't. If anyone needs any measurements I can also get those and pass them along.

I was told by some guys on another forum to check with you guys. I made a thread on pictures of the sword, but since this forum deals with translations I thought I'd put this picture here. This is on a tsuba that came with a sword I purchased (it has a Fred Lohman tsuba on the sword) and thought someone might be able to tell me what this is: This doesn't fit the sword at all, and won't w/o some modification, but the other guys said check with you guys before I even touch this thing to see what I've got, whether it's special or not.

Alright, will get right on that signature.

I have a friend I used to train with who was in need of some money and knew I was looking for another sword. After a while he decided to offer me his 500ish year old Koto katana. After a little research of my own, plus him showing me signs leading to it being authentic, I decided to buy it from him since I wanted a real sword and wanted to help out a friend who needed money. He did, however, offer a buy back policy in case I found it to be a really good forgery instead of being authentic. I had this posted on Sword Buyers Guide's forum and got some pretty good info there, but they recommended I show it to you guys as well. From what he told me about the filing pattern on the nakago (bear with me on some of these terms, I'm still learning all this new stuff) and some other things he was showing me, and what the guys on the other forum said, I've learned quite a bit of new info thus far. I've learned it's a suriage, or o'suriage but there is no signature on the nakago. It's probably just a run of the mill tachi cut down due to the government regulations of the time. The saya looks nice enough for my tastes but I don't care much for the tsuka or the tsuba. It's a Fred Lohman piece that doesn't quite fit right and is pretty wiggly. There were a couple habaki, a seppa, and another tsuba tossed in with the deal, though neither of the habaki fit it and are just silver foil wrapped around copper. However, the other tsuba has some kanji stamped into it, and they said you guys might be able to read it and know what it means. Anyways, here are the pics: There are all the pictures of the blade. Sorry if it's a lot to look at. I know it has a few open grain spots and that doesn't bother me. Would be cool if it was a museum quality piece, but I'm happy with a blade that has a little character. If there is anything else you guys need a picture of to get a better idea as to what I've got, I'll be more than happy to snap any pic you want.

Hey guys, just heard about this site tonight from some guys over on Sword Buyers Guide. I just purchased my first nihonto (or what everyone suspects is) and posted on there to get some insight about it and learned a good bit, then they told me about this site so I'm likely spending all night here reading all kinds of new information.