Battle Damaged Wakizashi, Wondering What Age It Is

[Kmad]

Hello all

 

I recently purchased the attached Wakizashi, no story at all came with the item so I am hoping someone here could give me some information.

 

I know very little so I will probably give some of the terms for components and parts incorrect. Apologies for this.

 

Wakizashi In question is 22 inch long and is in a WWII military scabbard

What makes it perhaps interesting is the bullet hole through the scabbard which has dented and I also assume ruined the blade.

The scabbard also has been on fire with around 3 inches burned through.

 

Other than the obvious crack in the blade the sword is in otherwise ok condition. With not much damage where the fire occurred and no obvious to me, damage.

 

The hamon is just showing through in places but the blade does not look to be abused, it was covered in grime and grease when I got it which I cleaned off with ethanol soakings and otherwise have not touched it.

 

The nakago has 3 holes in it which I take to imply blade has some age to it. The handle has a nice Menuki

On it but some of the tape binding is missing.

There is no makings at all on the nakago just some file marks.

 

There was no tsuba on the sword and just leather washers in leather its place,these are on it from WWII I assume as the rust surrounding the washers is engrained into them.

I feel the leather washers might have been put on the sword to enhance its quick draw. Might this be correct?

The fuchi is quiet decorative but the Kashira is missing

If I might ask what age might this sword be and could anyone give me any information or point me in the right direction to find out more.

To a true nihono collector it probably holds no real interest but I like it for what it is

 

I am taking pictures on an I pad so sorry in advance for this and if further images might help ask away.

 

Regards and thanks

 

 

Ken

[PhoenixDude]

I know very little too, so Ill try to chime in with what I see..

 

  Quote

 

Other than the obvious crack in the blade the sword is in otherwise ok condition​.

 

Does it go through to the other side? It may not be a crack but a poor folding weld, which is not a serious problem. If it goes through to the other side or penetrates into the hardened edge, its a definite value killer.

 

  Quote

 

The nakago has 3 holes in it which I take to imply blade has some age to it.

​This implies to me, along with the shape of the base of the tang, that the blade has been remounted at least once, and possibly shortened from a longer katana/wak. Cannot tell without seeing the hamon at the neck of the tang though.

 

  Quote

 

I feel the leather washers might have been put on the sword to enhance its quick draw.

​Probably not. The tsuba is required to be in place on a sword to ensure everything fits together tightly, like a puzzle kind of. The tsuba was probably removed at some point for storage or who knows, and the leather 'washers' were probably made and put on just to keep everything in place with it off.

[PNSSHOGUN]

I don't see any significant damage from a bullet strike, there is a large forge opening which can be common on older swords.

 

If you can get some close up pictures of the damaged areas we can give you a better idea.

 

My guess is late muromachi to mid shinto, which is very vague but without a signature and the condition of the blade it's difficult to really pin it down.

[Carlo Giuseppe Tacchini]

Chances are that what burned the saya so badly had also ruined the hardening of the blade in that area. If so the sword is gone.

[Kmad]

Hi

Thanks for replies so far

Some more pictures of what I see as impact point

 

There is a v slight dent in its blade I am unable to photograph well

 

No damage at all to other side of sword

 

Thanks

 

Ken

Edited May 14, 2017 by Kmad

[PNSSHOGUN]

Keep it safe and oiled, proper WW2 artefacts like this are more important than the sword alone.

 

Shame there was no story, I imagine the one behind it would've been remarkable.

[Carlo Giuseppe Tacchini]

It follows the grain of the hada where it was hit. Might be the impact has separated a lier from the others ?

More important, do you see an hamon in the burnt part ?

[Kmad]

Hi

Hamon is visible where scabbard is burnt

I took some better pictures showing impact point

Hard to get with lack of Irish daylight ????

Hands in photo are my 8 year old sons so it is not a small saya????

Thanks

Ken

[PhoenixDude]

Pretty cool.

[Loyer]

Bullets, especially military jacketed bullets, have tremendous penetrating power.  I would have thought that there would be a huge deformation into the steel of the blade if a bullet hit it.  Enough power to crack the blade but not dent it seems odd, in my opinion

[PhoenixDude]

This needs real world testing. Anyone up to donating a SJS blade to get shot at?

[Kmad]

  On 5/14/2017 at 10:44 PM, Loyer said:

Bullets, especially military jacketed bullets, have tremendous penetrating power. I would have thought that there would be a huge deformation into the steel of the blade if a bullet hit it. Enough power to crack the blade but not dent it seems odd, in my opinion

All depends on angles, to me in hand it looks like a glancing strike.

Looking at the missing part of the sacabbard this would look like a glance strike as well

 

Do people concur with the mid shinto as the age period of the sword?

Thanks

 

Ken

[paulb]

The openning in the shinogi-ji suggests masame hada which suggests shinto or later. trying to tie it down beyond that without being able to see any detail and with only minimal information regarding dimensions is pure guesswork.

I have asked before but it is worth repeating when people put forward suggestions regarding age, period etc can they briefly say why they believe it to be from that time? that way others can learn from their thinking.

For what it is worth I have a feeling this is much later than Edo. The nakago has had a very hard life but the rust looks relatively recent. The polish also looks very hard and mirror like which to me always suggests later manufacture. If the blade is earlier it has undergone significant modification in recent (last 50-60 years) time.

Again this is opinion only based on little more than feeling.

[Geraint]

So the opening along the length of the sword looks like a forging flaw, I had wondered if the sword was drawn when the bullet struck the saya but in the later pictures I think I can see a dent above the forging flaw which suggest otherwise.  There is no way to know if the saya was burned at the same time or later by somebody's fireplace.  I think the mirror like polish has the look of something done post war to "clean it up", hard to tell from photos.

 

Looking at the image of the kissaki does anyone else see what looks like a hagire just back from the yokote or is it just a scratch?  I'd love to be wrong.

 

All the best

[Kmad]

  On 5/16/2017 at 12:02 PM, Geraint said:

 

 

Looking at the image of the kissaki does anyone else see what looks like a hagire just back from the yokote or is it just a scratch?  I'd love to be wrong.

 

hi 

Can you tell me what the above line means in English, sorry not being smart here it is just there are so many new words to learn in this research ?

Thanks 

Ken 

[paulb]

The yokote is the virtical line that forms the junction of the blade between the body and the start of the point.  An hagire literally translates as "edge cut" a cut or crack in the edge of the blade which runs from the edge up through the hardened part of the blade (hamon). This is regarded as a fatal flaw as it greatly weakens the blade.

In your own sword see if the line Geraint describes runs on both sides of the blade. If it does it suggests it is a crack which would be bad news if not it is more likely to be a scratch which is not.

 

Edit: BTW I cant see any evidence of hagire in the images 

[Kmad]

Thank you both for time taken to reply

The flaw is only on one side of the blade,

I will be adding the sword to my own collection as an interesting item to me either way but I am happy that the flaw does not seem to be fatal.

An amazingly complex hobby and a steep learning curve for beginners but I can definitely see the attraction of collecting Nihonto

Much appreciated from r sharing your knowledge

Regards

Ken

[Greg F]

Hello Ken, I agree with Geraint, looks like the bullet has hit between the opening and the mune and has caused the opening.

I also noticed the crack (hopefully scratch) close to the yakote. Is there anything on the opposite side that looks similar? Cheers.

 

Greg

[Ken-Hawaii]

Time for you to buy a few reference books & start reading, Ken. This link http://japaneseswordindex.com/kizu.htmwill help you identify blade flaws, so you can see that what your blade has is a fairly significant ware in the shinogi-ji. I think Paul has summarized the probable age as late-Shinto to perhaps Meiji, but I'm scratching my head as to why the mekugi-ana look chiseled, rather than drilled.

 

If you can post a few good images of the totally-bare blade, we can take a hard look at the sugata, as well as at the interface between the hamon & the nakago. This particular image is key in identifying any blade, by the way.

 

Ken

 

[EdWolf]

The burning damage of the saya can also be the result of a so-called tracer bullet. Sometimes the tracer ammunition is still burning after impact. The total damage of the blade by a bullet hit also depends on the angle and the distance.

[tokashikibob]

Here is one I own with the bullet going through the steel saya and the blade.

[Toryu2020]

to my eye this is a Shinto piece that has beeen reworked to fit a Gunto koshirae.

Can you get the habaki off? The condition of the machi might tell how recently this blade was cut down - if at all...

-t

[Kmad]

Hi

Thanks for interest

Here are pictures of the habaki off

Hopefully the tell more information

Regards

Ken

[johnnyi]

I know nothing about swords, and with that said, one scenerio might be that this was shrapnel damage (grenade maybe, followed by the flame thrower, which I believe was the practice when securing defence bunkers,  particularly the caves on the Island of Iwo Jima.    A really interesting piece of history.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Regards, Johnnyi