Pitt1999

I must admit, I am a bit of a layman when it comes to Japanese arms. I've always loved them for their exquisite quality and how revered they are. I can mostly feel my way around when purchasing the bladed weapons, I know what the Chinese fakes look like and any of those carved bone hilted objects from the WW2 era don't fool me. I am mostly a collector of general Ethnographic arms from all over the world and I have found that lessons learned from looking for other varieties of Ethnographic weapons have served me well when it comes to Japanese bladed weapons. My confidence wanes when looking to purchase an example of one of the various Japanese percussive weapons mentioned in the title, and after reading this thread below I'm not quite sure I would ever want to risk buying one. They seem far more common than they should be and far cheaper than they should be, especially on ebay. Is there a good way for a layman like me to know what to look for when purchasing one of these weapons? Is the presence of a casting seam a sign that it is a fake? These weapons don't seem to be documented very well and I have trouble finding information about their manufacture. Were they made of cast iron or were they forged? I have seen some information that some hachiwari were made of cast iron, but most information about these various weapons just says they were made of iron (presumably forged). I suppose the only surefire way is to learn up and read some stuff. I've made this opening post far too long already so I'll sum it up like this. TL;DR, help out a bozo looking for an old, authentic Japanese iron stick

They reminded me more of bolo knives from Southeast Asia than any style of Japanese blade. The closest thing to these from mainland Japan would be the nata and even they have a different construction than these Okinawan knives.

I found some pictures on my phone of some older looking examples and some newly made examples. There seems to be a good amount of variation both in blade shape and handle shape. I'll link the relevant sites to give credit where I can... https://kaniman.ti-da.net/e9439672.html https://kaniman.ti-da.net/a5412816.html https://okinawaclip.com/en/detail/1055 https://vadaantiques.com/沖縄手造りナイフ-入荷いたしました。/

With there having been 30 to 40 people producing knives like these at one point in time, it seems strange that old/antique/vintage knives of this type aren't really available on the collector's market.

I've seen some sites selling the newly made ones around, but older examples seem to be hard to find. I guess that's because these knives probably got used until they either broke or worn down too much from sharpening.

I posted a thread on there about this knife a little while ago and it didn't get any attention.

Handle...

Blade...

Close up of the stamp...

I've seen some non-nihonto content on this forum before get some attention and I'm hoping this piece will receive some of your comments. What I believe I have here is an Okinawan/Ryukyuan work knife (yamanaji/yamagatana). It was sold as a WW2 bring back but this design of knife apparently still persists in that region to this day, making precise dating difficult. The leather sheath probably isn't original to the knife, possibly a replacement made by a serviceman. There is a stamp on the blade but seems to be too faded or worn to be identifiable. Your comments and opinions are appreciated, and I look forward to seeing if any of you have similar examples.

Those swords sound quite interesting. I would quite like to see some of those!

Yes this was purchased from komonojo! I didn't know he was so well known here. I've always preferred collecting the misfits and the problem children so his sales are perfect for me. I like to think that I know just enough to not get burned on some of his items but my knowledge of nihonto is a fraction of the knowledge you guys have.

I thought about this being a dha but these mounts do not look like any type of dha I have seen from the regions in which dha were in common use.

More photos...

Hello, New to this forum, I was thinking of posting this to the Ethnographic Arms and Armor forum but figured more information could be found here. I just won this tanto in an eBay auction today and wanted to get some opinions on it. The blade doesn't seem to be of much significance, but it's mountings are what I found to be unusual to my amateur eyes. The lack of tsuba is not very strange, but the lack of a habaki I did find rather odd. The belt clip on the saya is another thing that I have not seen on many examples online. The metal used for these fittings looks like it might be a type of silver alloy from these photos (these are the seller's photos, I will post some when I get the object in hand). The thing I found odd about the blade is that the tang seems to have been modified or reshaped to work for these mounts. This is an odd piece for me, it probably won't be for people more knowledgable in this field collecting. Your comments and opinions are appreciated. Thanks