At a yard sale I came across two Japanese Samurai swords that I bought for a good price. These swords are not your typical Samurai swords. They maybe court swords. At this point I am in the research mode. The blades are 2 shaku 3 sun 5 bu long (28").I have not yet popped the bamboo revits on the hilts to see if they were signed and/or dated on the tang.
At this point I am about two levels below having enough knowledge to be dangerous. That being said there is a great amount of knowledge on this board. Does anyone collect these swords or can give me information on who I can talk to about these swords.
Nice find!
My only suggestion would be to find someone who deals in antique armory. If you think they may be of WWII era, they probably are officers swords.
Are they the same size? Did they come as a set with the stand? IF I had the money I might REAL interested... but alas. Last time I had the chance to buy swords like that was at a gun show. I came home with an assault weapon instead.
Samurai Swords, I Doubt It
Good Samurai swords start at about $250,000.00.
Paul in PA
Yes the they are the same blade length. No they are not a set and did not come with a stand.
"I came home with an assault weapon instead."
I swear to God, Eric, I'll love you forever, but if we ever get to have a drink together, we're going to have an interesting conversation.
A conversation with a lot of laughing, I'm sure.:-)
I tend to laugh a lot.
Don
Samurai Swords, I Doubt It
Paul,
Please provide me with where you got $250,000 from. From my small an amount of research there are 350,000 Samurai swords in the US. I am not saying these swords are of great value I am just trying to find more information about them.
Samurai Swords, I Doubt It
One of my sons collects knives and is interested in the real Samurai swords. While he was in graduate school, his girlfriend was a U.S. citizen, full-blooded Chinese, and she was fluent in Chinese, Japanese, and Spanish in addition to her native language, American English.
They went to a knife & gun show in Houston years ago, and found a fellow displaying one of the genuine Samurai swords at his table. The fellow had a small card under the sword with a purported translation of what was engraved on the blade.
While my son was talking to the fellow who was bragging about what he had obtained in Japan after WWII, my son's girlfriend examined the engraving on the knife ..
Cindy said, "That's not what the engraving says ..." Anyway, the sword owner was embarrassed and admitted that his translation was just a guess. Presumably, the card was later edited to reflect exactly what Cindy said was engraved on the blade.
True story, but I wasn't there at the time.
Samurai Swords, Some Info
I worked with an engineer at Bethlehem Steel who was a Marine Captain on the invading force to Japan on day one. He was OD when they occupied a Japanese Naval Base. The walls of the Base Gymnasium where covered with the officer's swords. He liberated a set. Years later he returned it to the officers family with no compensation. Japanese families were paying in excess of $1million to get some swords back. Officers swords were far more numerous than true Samurai swords.
Take that information as you will.
Paul in PA
Samurai Swords, Some Info
Thank you.
Be careful and have an "expert" look at them
as there are convincing replicas being made in China.
ebay is chock full.
Some are antiqued/aged to look like WWII military.
Even have the makers marks on the tang (under the grip), wavy tempering lines along edge, etc.
I have an NCO sword that was a period copy, so to speak, for field use.
The handle is cast aluminum and painted to look like typical cloth wrapped with sharkskin and the three "mums".
Has deep gouges in blade. Have had it for 40 years.
Dad also had one that he picked up at Yard Sale.
Sold it years ago. (I'm still mad about that)
I for one would like to see pictures of yours.
Somewhere around here I have a book.
I'll try to find it.
Bob, thank you for your reply. Yes I am looking for an expert. This weekend I got to look at the tangs of the two swords. One was signed and the other was not. Both had large amount of patina on the tangs. I have a load of pictures. My email in my profile is good. Sent me a quick email and I will send you the pictures. Then we can come up with the best pictures to post here.
