Rough 1945 battlefield-pickup sword - thoughts

[Nelson]

 

Hey all, I’m new here; thank you for allowing me to ask a question. I would greatly appreciate any assistance with my recent acquisition. 

 

I’m a collector of military items, primarily from WW1-2, and recently got this beat-up sword from the estate of an Australian soldier who saw heavy combat in the dense jungles off the coast of Indonesia in mid-1945. His family told me that this sword was brought home by him. 

 

I know very little about these swords, but my own research has left me with a few questions. I have been unable to remove the brass mekugi thus far, and so I haven’t been able to inspect the tang. I have seen the brass mekugi feature twice before on others online, but understand it to be unusual. Additionally, the brass fuchi is quite large and has no designs, with the only marking being an ‘X’. There are no seppa. 

 

The nagasa measures about 23 inches. A hamon is quite visible. I understand that this is quite short.

 

The leather-on-wood saya has some kanji on the inside near the opening; I am unsure of the meaning of these, but have taken a photo of them for parousal.

 

Otherwise, I’ll let the pictures do the talking; it’s had quite a life. 

 

So, what are your thoughts on this? Is it a “last-ditch”-type sword? Machine-made blade vs other? given it’s length and style, how would one classify this?

 

Thanks so much in advance.

 

[mecox]

Nelson, need to take handle off to see the nakago (tang) to get a better idea of sword.  You should be able to remove the wooden pin, then see if you can hold blade (carefully) with thick towel and tap down on tsuba (not menuki) with piece of wood. (do it over a bench).  See if it gets loose.  The "fuchi" is a post war addition...does not look to be pinned.   Based on shape of blade, visible hamon and the habaki this could be an old blade.

[Shamsy]

Could be wrong, but the mekugi looks a lot like a screw that has had the head filed flat. If that is the case, that may explain why it is hard to remove if the threads remain. In the photo it just looks as though there is the remnants of the line where the slotted screw head would have been. Or I'm just waaaaay over tired, which is an accurate assessment. 

[mecox]

yeah its not definite from pic. Scratch it and see.   I also note that the close up of the saya lacquer shows it is thick plus has a pattern....not cheap war work, also has kurikata slot.

[Kiipu]

One more thing, the hole in the tang can sometimes be tapered.  This means the mekugi can only go in & out in one direction.

[Stegel]

Looks like a hand carved bit of chop stick to me, will be interesting to see what Nelson reports back once he disassembles the handle.

The handle appears to be the regular 'Katana' size, repurposed to fit this wakizashi blade, maybe the reason for the unique fuchi, so the mekugi holes line up. Field replacement? any other thoughts. ( i don't think it's a post war replacement, personally)

I'm with Mal, it looks to be an older blade, the scabbard is also non type 98 , so possibly a Civilian sword converted to military use  when blade shortages were trying to be overcome.  Just my 2 cents.

[Nelson]

Thanks for all of the comments everyone. I’m still trying to get the brass pin out; it’s proven quite difficult thus far. I will be sure to post an update once I manage to get that far. 

[Baka Gaijin]

Hi Nelson, recently I had a similar problem with a metal mekugi.

 

Here's what I discovered:

 

 

[Bruce Pennington]

Yes, I remember this one!

 

you might try some pliers on each end and unscrew them