WWII NCO katana?

[Max Stein]

Hi, 

 

I was on a trip to Viet Nam recently, where I stumbled upon a strange sword. It looked old, decently made as far as I could tell (I dabble in blacksmithing and some general metal working, so I know a little bit about steel), and so I bought it, thinking that if it was an antique worth somthing, that would be cool, and that if it was a crappy peice of junk worth nothing, then I could have some fun with a sort of restoration project without the chance of possibly destroying a valueble peice of history - win win for me either way. so after bargaining it down from 220$ to 120$, I bought it and came back home to the states. because of the metal handle, I initialy assumed that it was a NCO katana, but upon further examination, i found a few things that put some holes in the theory. the tsuba is not a design found on such blades, the scabbard dosn't match at all (it seems to be made from wood encaced in decorative brass) , and the stamps on the base of the blade hold no recognisible arsenal signitures. on the other hand, the metal handle matches the design of such a WWII nco katana perfectaly, and the blade has a stamped serial number on it. I am aware that sometimes NCO handles were put on to older (or newer) blades, but the serial number seems to contradict that. So, I came to the nearest message bord to seek help - do you all on the interweb think that this is an Nihonto, or just a peice of junk.  for those of you with bad eyes, the serial number is 40127, no serial number on the scabbard.  the hilt - in poor condition, but seems match an NCO swordDesign on the guard is a long necked bird, possibly a craneThe sword and scabbard. The sword in the scabbard. 

 

also, any tips on how to clean/things to avoid while doing so? 

Thanks 

 

[Brian]

It's a repro, sorry. Usually Chinese made.

[Bruce Pennington]

32 minutes ago, Max Stein said:

if it was a crappy peice of junk worth nothing, then I could have some fun with a sort of restoration project

Time to have fun, Max!  Good thing you got them down in price.  $120 is the going price for fakes, which this is.  A known design from a productive fake operation.  Take a look at the Ohmura site for legit NCO swords:

 

Non-commissioned officers Gunto 1935 (Type 95 Guntō)/title> (ohmura-study.net)

 

How was the trip to V.N.?