Late war sword , auction

Pippo · October 3, 2021

What are peoples thoughts on this late war sword? Japanese or island/ indonesian levee made? In invaluable auction coming up.

https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot/ww2-Japanese-late-war-wakizashi-sword-pacific-the-601-c-d9b45fa937

PNSSHOGUN · October 3, 2021

This sort of stuff is really the dregs of what could be barely considered Gunto. Best to save your money unless these island/late war/desperation pieces are your collecting niche.

Pippo · October 4, 2021

Think its worth knowing if these pieces are ww2 or not whether we purchase or just increase our knowledge. Calling what could be the last ditch efforts of an empire dross ? What i was looking for was a serious opinion of whether these were ww2 Japanese military or not, historically still fits into this forum about Japanese military blades or just some island copy. If anyone actually knows itd be appreciated.

Pippo · October 4, 2021

PNSSHOGUN · October 4, 2021

The issue is they are so crude very few people are going to bother taking the time to investigate if these are original. The sword in the bottom photo is genuine and worth a closer look. The wakizashi is pretty hard to pin down, without being able to see the Nakago it's pretty hard to tell if genuine, island or chinese.

Ian B3HR2UH · October 4, 2021

Pippo , even if you bought this off a man who bought it back from the islands ( thus knowing it was around in 1945 ) you still have no real way of knowing if it was

A) A piece made by the Japanese whilst stationed in the SW Pacific.

B ) Something made locally for collaborating local forces

C) A " jeep spring " made by Australian or other allies with the intention of selling it to a sucker as the real thing.

I have had a number of similar dogs over the years but you just can't tell into which category they fit . The workmanship is so poor that you would assume B) or C)

Ian Brooks

Pippo · October 4, 2021

Thanks gents, it was more of a forum discussion piece as i know very little of these pieces that do turn up but find it of interest as the empire ran low on resources and thought it might be an area that had been explored. Sure we all remember that it wasn't that long ago that having type 95s ( yes i know they were a authorised pattern but have had wooden hatched patterns with awful Aweful blades) were also considered dogs, i certainly had alot of harsh comments on why waste $100-$200 on machine made blades when i caught that bug and that turned out pretty well.

Bruce Pennington · October 4, 2021

I appreciate the effort. I find these items interesting as well. There is a larger thread about these, if I get a chance I will link it here. Nick Komiya, Warrelics, Posted a translation of a document in the last year of the war which showed that Allied bombing had essentially destroyed sword making on the mainland in that final year. They change the military specifications orders to allow anything that “shoots for stabs” to be produced regardless of Quality. He also showed a navy regulation downgrading the requirements for the metal fittings to allow one belt hanger black and fittings and essentially lower quality everything.