Need help identifying ivory blades

[tiarnol]

Hello again! I am an anthropology student who is doing a museum display case full of Japanese swords and i am needing some assistance in identifying some ivory swords. All of these swords are from our university museum. I have been doing some research and i gathered that these ivory swords may be called "kitchen" knives? (which means they're pretty much useless?) I'm not even sure if these are indeed carved out of ivory (that's what i've been told, but is there any way to tell for sure?) How do i go about figuring out what time period i'm dealing with or if these are even real? They're ornately carved and the blades are very worn. There are a set of three of them all in varying sizes. I would appreciate any help i can get! Thank you so much! Also, any suggestions you might have are very welcome!

~Tiffany

[Grey Doffin]

Tiffany,

The 1st pictured blade, THC 871, appears to have pretty decent carving on the mounts. The other one isn't so nice. These things were put together in Meiji period and later, to sell to western tourists. Sometimes the material is ivory (possibly on your 1st piece) but usually bone was used. The blades almost without exception are just pieces of steel, not true Nihonto. This appears to be the case here.

Grey

[jason_mazzy]

3rd picture down looks like it has a shinogi, and a temper line.