Colonial Parade Sword? Toy? Bad Fake?

[Kaigunto230]

I went to an antique mall hoping to find some Nihonto/Gunto and sure enough ran into this. However, I’m not sure what I found. It was one of those establishments that hovers over you while you look and gives a stink eye at photos so I apologize for the poor image quality. I knew I wouldn’t be buying today and didn’t want to overstay my welcome. 
 

The construction was crude and felt like a toy. The blade felt misshapen, sori and kissaki especially, as compared to normal Type 19s. The grips looked like snake skin. I noted especially the double hanger and the crossed flags on the hilt, which look like Taiwan or Republic of China. When I got home, I didn’t find anything useful in Dawson. 
 

What’re your thoughts - fake, toy, a different colonial sword? 

[Conway S]

Michael,

 

It’s a Nationalist Chinese sword. I don’t have Jan Culbertson’s book handy to post the specific page at the moment. 
 

Conway 

[John C]

Michael:

I'll probably be corrected on this, however I believe the flower design on the back strap is plum flower, which would also indicate Chinese origin. 

 

John C.

[Ontario_Archaeology]

I believe I did some research on a similar sword a few months back. I believe that the the flag belongs to the Wuhan army, associated with national China (opposed to the communists).

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Chinese-army_Wuhan_flag_(1911-1928)_18_dots.svg

[lonely panet]

im going the complete opposite direction

 

it appears cheap,  nasty machine rolled backstrap thats been then shaped.  the rest is just poor.  blade has no threaded pommel or peg holding to togeather and the blade " if you call it that,  just a flat piece of bar " isnt evan fitting to the handle correctly so most likely just glued in.  its modern rubbish in my opinion.

 

theres sooooo much of this crap comming out in the last 15 years its not funny.

 

dont wast your money

[Kaigunto230]

8 minutes ago, lonely panet said:

im going the complete opposite direction

 

it appears cheap,  nasty machine rolled backstrap thats been then shaped.  the rest is just poor.  blade has no threaded pommel or peg holding to togeather and the blade " if you call it that,  just a flat piece of bar " isnt evan fitting to the handle correctly so most likely just glued in.  its modern rubbish in my opinion.

 

theres sooooo much of this crap comming out in the last 15 years its not funny.

 

dont wast your money

Feeling it in hand, I tend to agree with you. If nothing else, it was shockingly worse quality than typical type 19s, which as you all know aren’t exactly the pinnacle of Japanese craftsmanship 😂

 

It was certainly interesting to see, but I need to actually add a Type 19 first, so I don’t think I’ll be buying this one. I was just surprised to find it and have it be so different from the Type 19 expected at first glance.

[Ontario_Archaeology]

Here is the previous thread where I had seen a similar flag on a sword on buyee.

 

 

Obviously it is much better quality than the one shown above, however I do remember seeing several like one Micheal has posted.

 

A year or so ago, maybe 2. Sword memory is all a blur, I remember quite a few Chinese swords went to auction and were similar crap quality. I believe a few Dirks are still in eBay. 

 

[Kaigunto230]

6 hours ago, Ontario_Archaeology said:

Here is the previous thread where I had seen a similar flag on a sword on buyee.

 

 

Obviously it is much better quality than the one shown above, however I do remember seeing several like one Micheal has posted.

 

A year or so ago, maybe 2. Sword memory is all a blur, I remember quite a few Chinese swords went to auction and were similar crap quality. I believe a few Dirks are still in eBay. 

 

Thank you for digging that up. The fit and finish on that one look worlds different/better than this one. I’m pretty convinced this was a bad fake, but it’s very interesting to see they faked something relatively uncommon.

[Ontario_Archaeology]

2 hours ago, Kaigunto230 said:

Thank you for digging that up. The fit and finish on that one look worlds different/better than this one. I’m pretty convinced this was a bad fake, but it’s very interesting to see they faked something relatively uncommon.

It might be that they are just uncommon in western markets, lots might be stuck in China. 

[dwmc]

About the time you think you've seen it all...a Chinese fake of a Chinese saber, Geez!!!