Very old sword not sure what I have, new member please help

[coinopny]

Hi I am new to the board and no nothing about old swords. I have a old sword I think it is

Japanese it was acquired in 1945. I have no idea how old it is what it's history is or what era it is from. Here is some more info on it

 

Length of blade 26 1/8"

Width of the blade At handle 1 1/4"; 7/8" at tip

there is a holder for this Sword which is made of wood

The Handle is 10 1/4". Don't know how to take handle apart

to see if there are markings.

 

http://s13.photobucket.com/albums/a276/ ... d%20sword/

Click on each picture twice to make them large 10 pictures in all

 

I up loaded some pictures at the following link, if maybe you guys can take a look and tell

me how old this is what it is made of and some sort of history.

What kind of a value should I place on this Sword. Any help would be on this would be greatly

appreciated. I hope I have this message in the right section. If not please move it to the right one. Thanks in advance.

 

Mickey

[John A Stuart]

I can't comment on the blade from those pics, but, would like to see the nakago (tang). Romove the tsuka (hilt) by punching the peg (mekugi) and sliding the hilt off. The sword is in gunto mounts. John

[mdiddy]

Mickey,

 

From your pictures your sword looks to be in standard WWII Shin Gunto mountings. These were the mountings (scabbard, hilt, handguard, etc) that the Japanese Army fitted swords with before and during WWII. Most likely this sword was picked up somewhere in the Pacific Theater sometime during the war, 1945, etc. Here is a link that will tell you more about the mountings and some of these swords: http://www.h4.dion.ne.jp/~t-ohmura/gunto_002.htm

 

The next question would be who made your sword and when. A big help with in answering these questions would be to remove the handle so that you can see the unpolished steel where a swordsmith would likely chisel his name. If you look ~2inches below the brass handguard you should see a peg. Take that peg out and remove the handle. Here is a link to instructions to help with this process: http://www.samuraisword.com/eval/evalsht2.htm

 

If you choose to remove the handle then take some pictures of what you find on both sides of the unpolished area. Post them with the rest of the pictures and reply back here. That would help a lot in furthering your understanding of what you have.

 

Thanks and hope that helps and/or confuses!

 

Matt

[Brian]

Oh...and if you find a lot of rust on the tang when you remove the handle, under no circumstances clean or do anything at all to the tang. That rust is vital and should not be messed with, even if it obscures any possible signature.

 

Brian

[coinopny]

Thank you so much for the directions and information about removing the handle. Unfortunately, I don't see a name chiseled underneath, but I did take pictures and have uploaded those images to the following links below any idea what price range this sword is worth thanks for everyones help.

 

Mickey

 

http://s13.photobucket.com/albums/a276/ ... ent=22.jpg

 

http://s13.photobucket.com/albums/a276/ ... ent=23.jpg

 

http://s13.photobucket.com/albums/a276/ ... ent=24.jpg

 

 

you can see all the pictures at this link

http://s13.photobucket.com/albums/a276/ ... d%20sword/

[John A Stuart]

Hi Mickey, I suspect, from all the pics provided, that the blade is a rather non-descript machine-made blade of later WW II manufacture. The lack of signature and the rough yasuri make it collectable in the lower range of shin-gunto. I will not hazard a value, hating money matters, but, you can find relative values via net searches. john

[coinopny]

Just so you know it is not my sword it is a family members and they just want to know the approx value because they want to settle an estate matter and I am just trying to help them out. So I am hoping some one can give me an approx price range

Thanks,

Mickey

[Grey Doffin]

Hi Mickey,

Can't be sure from the pictures but maybe between $500 and $750 would be a likely final value on ebay or at a gun/militaria show. Anyone agree or not?

Grey

[Brian]

Sounds about right to me.

 

Brian

[coinopny]

I want to thank everyone for helping me out.

 

mickey