WWII Japanese Katana Identification Help

[Get Paid Pawn]

I have had 2 what I believe to be Japanese Military Katanas dropped off at the shop. Having a little difficulty identifying and establishing a value on both of them.  Any help would be greatly appreciated.  

 

 

[Bruce Pennington]

Hi JJ!

Got some good news and some bad news.

Bad news is that the Type 95 NCO sword (metal handle) is a reproduction.  Don't know if it's Chinese, Polish, or Indian, but it's fake.

 

Good news, maybe, is the officer Type 94 could be what we call a Java sword.  There were swords made in Sumatra, Java, and can be identified by the writing on the nakago (tang).  I say "could be" because I've never seen one with a single line of writing (usually 2) and whoever wrote it was a bad speller.  The 2 strokes on the top kana are in the wrong direction, and the kana on the bottom is the wrong one.  Now, I give it benefit of the doubt because maybe they used a new guy in Sumatra that didn't exactly know how to spell in Japanese very well.  Also, I can't imagine the standard Faker Industry trying to fake a Java sword.

 

Let's see what @BANGBANGSAN and @Kiipu think about this one.

 

While we wait for them, I'll post yours next to one we know is legit for comparison:

[Bruce Pennington]

Ah, I see this was a duplicate post, and Thomas commented on the other already.

[Get Paid Pawn]

Would guys mind giving me some pointers as to what makes the fakes?  The obvious and not so obvious?

 

[Kiipu]

Below are links to two threads about reproduction Type 95s.

NMB: Fake Type 95 Nco Swords

GBF: Another FAKE Type 95 NCO sword sold to an unsuspecting buyer

[paul griff]

Hello,

         Both fakes I’m afraid….The type 95 has poor detail to the hilt most noticeable in the small dots that copy a ray skin effect , arsenal stamps on the fuchi poorly stamped  distorting the metal ,the saya ( scabbard ) looks recently made and the number on the blade should not start with a zero..

The type 94 Officers sword again has poor definition when compared to an original type 94 which really do have quality fittings…Tsuba is the wrong type of metal and is poorly cast,washers ( septa’s ) are again the wrong material and poorly finished with too many numbers of the wrong font , hilt binding is a rough material , the menuki looks wrong and the sarute ( sword knot ) loop is the wrong design….The blade nakago ( tang ) is lacking file marks and the kanji ( letters / characters ) look like they are have been done with a dremel type tool..Saya looks too new…

Regards,

Paul

[Bruce Pennington]

Another point on the NCO sword is that the numbers being upside down are only seen that way on Nagoya blades. This sword is trying to be a Tokyo blade. Tokyo blades have the numbers to be read with the cutting edge down.

[BANGBANGSAN]

@Bruce Pennington

 

I'm with Paul. Both the NCO and Java swords are reproductions. The forger simply copied the mei directly from Fuller's book, which incorrectly wrote "シヤワカ" instead of "ジャワ刀."

 

 

[Bruce Pennington]

49 minutes ago, BANGBANGSAN said:

The forger simply copied the mei directly from Fuller's book, which incorrectly wrote "シヤワカ" instead of "ジャワ刀."

Wow, what a sleuth you are, Trystan!  Good one.

 

Another 'tell' was the 5 digit number stamped on one of the seppa.  Standard Chinese practice, but never seen one on the seppa like that before.

[Abaris]

Chinese could make perfect replicas. My question is, why do they make those mistakes? What for?

[John C]

53 minutes ago, Abaris said:

why do they make those mistakes? What for?

A couple of theories:

* The books and examples they are working from have those mistakes;

* Making it perfect would take as much effort as a real one, which impacts the bottom line;

* Their assumption is that buyers, mainly in the US, won't know the difference anyway;

* In some cases, a type of "marking" to differentiate which factory it came from;

* And just like everyone else, they simply don't know every detail of what a real one looks like.

 

John C.
 

[Bruce Pennington]

My vote is for John's #2 and #3 points.  When you see a replica marketed on ebay by the Chinese, and labeled as a replica, they are often asking only $150.  That means it cost them less than that to make it.  Like John said, more accuracy will increase time and labor - cost - to produce.

 

But just speculating, as I've never asked them myself!

 

Paul Chen of Hanwei, a Chinese company, has sold some pristine copies, but they were over $1,000.

[Abaris]

But I belive the cost of making a stamp with 4 numbers instead of 5 would be the same, yet they make that kind of mistake 

 

Unless there are some legit 5 digit stamps out there.

 

Anyway, I'm sorry for the derail, I'm just trying to learn.