A long time ago when I was about 8 years old (45 years ago), I was with my mom when she was visiting a friend. The woman's husband showed me a Japanese sword he had brought back from WWII. I thought it was the coolest thing and have always wanted one in the back of mind.
Well, last year my son and I were in an antique store in Louisville that has a lot of old military items. He was poking around and saw the tip of a sword sticking out from under a bunch of other stuff in the bottom of a display case in the corner. Turns out it was a bare Japanese blade, no handle and a plain wood sheath that didn't quite fit and was cracked. The blade was fairly dark with old rust patina but still had an edge. The tang had characters carved in it, signature by the smith that forged it along with a tag with a translation.
We went to the Ohio Valley Military Society show in Louisville a few weeks ago and took the blade along to see if we could find a sheath and handle for it. A Japanese man stopped us on the way in and translated the signature on the tang, confirming what we had on the tag. He commented that it was a hand forged blade, not the machine made mass produced ones during the war, pointing out the characteristics that he saw. You can faintly see the temper line on the edge and a little bit of grain, the hand carved signature and punched hole in the tang instead of drilled. Another collector at the show looked up the smiths name in a big reference book. He was a fourth level smith in a competition during the '30's, not the highest but a lot didn't even make a level so he was decent at least. They and several others I spoke with determined that in their opinion (several different people at different tables said the same thing) that the blade was most likely forged in the 1930's.
Anyway, after spending most of the day there, we did not find a single person with a box of misc old WWII sword parts, several said they had some but did not bring them. So, I looked on eBay and after seeing bids run up too high or getting out bid at the last second, I found a set of fittings, basically a sword without a blade. Leather wrapped sheath (saya) and officers style handle (tsuka). Won the auction because it ended at 1:00 on a Thursday afternoon. The parts came in yesterday and they were in better condition than the seller's pictures indicated. Today I fitted the handle to the blade. It fit almost perfectly. The leather wrapping on the old military sheath is worn and distressed due to it being around 80 years or so old. The seam is tight, leather is not torn or rotted. This will make a great display in my basement and I have finally gotten a WWII sword that I have thought about since I was a kid.
Well, last year my son and I were in an antique store in Louisville that has a lot of old military items. He was poking around and saw the tip of a sword sticking out from under a bunch of other stuff in the bottom of a display case in the corner. Turns out it was a bare Japanese blade, no handle and a plain wood sheath that didn't quite fit and was cracked. The blade was fairly dark with old rust patina but still had an edge. The tang had characters carved in it, signature by the smith that forged it along with a tag with a translation.
We went to the Ohio Valley Military Society show in Louisville a few weeks ago and took the blade along to see if we could find a sheath and handle for it. A Japanese man stopped us on the way in and translated the signature on the tang, confirming what we had on the tag. He commented that it was a hand forged blade, not the machine made mass produced ones during the war, pointing out the characteristics that he saw. You can faintly see the temper line on the edge and a little bit of grain, the hand carved signature and punched hole in the tang instead of drilled. Another collector at the show looked up the smiths name in a big reference book. He was a fourth level smith in a competition during the '30's, not the highest but a lot didn't even make a level so he was decent at least. They and several others I spoke with determined that in their opinion (several different people at different tables said the same thing) that the blade was most likely forged in the 1930's.
Anyway, after spending most of the day there, we did not find a single person with a box of misc old WWII sword parts, several said they had some but did not bring them. So, I looked on eBay and after seeing bids run up too high or getting out bid at the last second, I found a set of fittings, basically a sword without a blade. Leather wrapped sheath (saya) and officers style handle (tsuka). Won the auction because it ended at 1:00 on a Thursday afternoon. The parts came in yesterday and they were in better condition than the seller's pictures indicated. Today I fitted the handle to the blade. It fit almost perfectly. The leather wrapping on the old military sheath is worn and distressed due to it being around 80 years or so old. The seam is tight, leather is not torn or rotted. This will make a great display in my basement and I have finally gotten a WWII sword that I have thought about since I was a kid.