Blade bought in Borneo

[Knowlton]

So I was looking for some T-shirts at a tourist shop in Indonesian Borneo and this katana caught my eye. I don't know anything about swords and have never owned one before, but it seemed sad to leave it hanging on the wall to rust. What kind of blade is this?

[cabowen]

copy/fake.....

[Brian]

Afraid so.

Those few collectors living in Indonesia and around there will confirm that the chances of finding a real Japanse sword are very, very slim. Lots of fakes and copies, but real ones have long since been dug up or spirited away.

 

Brian

[Kai-Gunto]

Its locally made. Very poor made fake.

[Knowlton]

That makes sense. Thanks for the input. I guess I'll see how well it opens coconuts now without worrying about destroying a war relic.

What gives away that it is a copy? So you think it is Indonesian made? Or Chinese maybe?

 

They had other swords with the blades rusted almost all the way through, some advertised as native and others they said were Japanese.

[takakage]

Ugly ( Betty)

[Knowlton]

Ha Ha, ok, my sword is ugly. Maybe some day I will hold a real sword.

 

This thing still feels pretty legit to me though. It seems to fit nicely into the scabbard. How do you know it isn't a late war model? Didn't the standards fall late in the war? Maybe this is just the budget version for a low ranking army officer....?

That dragon is pretty legit. right? anyone??

forget it, I am going to go cut up some coconuts.

[Geraint]

Hi Knowlton.

 

You ask what gives it away as fake and the list is quite large. In the final analysis a long time looking carefully at the real thing trains the eye to spot inconsistencies at a glance. The tsuba and saya fittings are all very poorly cast and don't match genuine shingunto fittings at all, best seen in the crude shaping of the scabbard mouth and the casting faults on the hanger. The habaki is poorly shaped and the front edge is strange. The characters on the tang are wrong as is the way they are cut into the metal, the surface of the tang does not carry the finish you would see on a genuine sword, the carving on the blade is not good and most importantly fills the whole width of the blade, including what should be the very hard steel at the cutting edge, genuine carvings are done in the softer steel of the main part of the blade and not in the hamon. The overall shape of the blade is poor and the kissaki is badly formed.

 

As you can see that is quite a number of features, other fakes are much more subtle and once you get into the realms of spurious signatures on Japanese made swords then it gets even harder.

 

Something about this attracted you, why not have a trawl through the genuine swords displayed on the dealer websites listed at the top of the message board? You will see some beautiful works of art so you are in for a treat, and I am sure you will easily see what separates them from your copy. They are fascinating and I should issue a health warning here, once you start to explore you may find yourself well and truly bitten by the bug.

 

Welcome and have fun!

 

PS Enjoy cutting the coconuts but when you own a real Nihonto please resist that urge.

 

All the best.

[Grey Doffin]

You should resist the urge to cut coconuts (or anything else) with this sword also. A poorly made sword can shatter with a blow and the loose pieces become shrapnel. Happened to a friend; took over a year to heal.

Grey

[truelotus]

Hi Knowlton

 

I am Indonesian native, and also a lover of Japanese sword - though a complete newbie in this field

 

As previously stated, most Indonesians did not know about REAL Japanese sword - most of them believed that junk belt sword is actually a gunto left by IJA during its occupation

 

that did not say that you couldn't find real deal in Indonesia, as I have found several. But mostly are in poor condition because the owner did not know how to maintain a Japanese sword

 

your sword is definitely a copy - general rule, read and read more - simple rule is : a gunto is a military tool, therefore it is standardised (well, most of it)

 

from heaps of junks offered daily here, you may just be lucky to find a gem in cheap price ... or a rusty junk with amazing price, like NCO gunto I was offered couple weeks ago

[Jean]

How long have you been studying Nihonto and how many real swords have you seen, Knowlton?