Japanese NCO Sword Japanese non-commissioned officer swords are a specific type of blade awarded to certain members of the Imperial Army. Depending on the era in which they were produced, they may have different handle materials and markings. What categories of Japanese swords are there? Military swords from this region fall into one of four primary categories:.
Sabers for non-commissioned officers. Weapons for naval officers. Sabers for new service members. Older variations that preserve the 'shin-gunto' style What types of Japanese non-commissioned swords can you buy? You can purchase several types of Imperial Arsenal swords. While some of these may be similar to one another in appearance, they can differ in coloration, in edge or scabbard markings, and in the materials used in their construction.
Examples of some common Japanese edged weapons include:. A late WWII-era Japanese army sword may also include a matching scabbard to complete the set. The scabbard will match the coloring and design of the handle wrappings or have markings similar to those you'll find on the handle. Some items will have handles made of metal. Other grips are crafted from wood. Most will be wrapped in decorative cloth as is customary for edged weapons of this region. Most edges and sheaths will have matching finishes on them.
This finish serves to keep the pieces looking uniform. Because the army needed to keep track of the equipment it produced, many of these pieces will have unique serial number identifiers. What are the features of the late-war gunto? The World War II gunto from Japan has the following features:. A stainless steel blade in the original finish with no coating. A blade 27.5 inches in overall length.
One scabbard made of steel, painted a dark brown color, and 29.25 inches long. A wooden handle with a distinct pineapple carving pattern etched into it that includes a latch to connect it with the sheath. Its own serial number printed on one side of the blade What parts do sabers from Japan have? Edged weapons from this region have the following main parts:. A handle, known regionally as a tsuka. Each saber is housed in a compartment known as a saya when not in use.
Wwii Japanese Sword Identification
The sharp edges have several names depending on the part of saber in question. A tsuba is the guard placed between the handle and the base of the sharp edge.
For most of us who get the chance to handle a finely crafted nihonto 日本刀 ( にほんと ) Japanese sword, we couldn't do much more than hold it cross-eyed and bleat out 'nice sword.' Why some consider a on par with a da Vinci eludes us. Japanese swords are works of art, but to the untrained eye one isn't much different from another. While being able to properly appraise a sword can take a lifetime, fortunately, you can see what makes a sword unique just by knowing what to look for. Nihonto or Gunto?
Source: Gunto 軍刀 ( ぐんと ) (meaning either 'saber' or 'service sword') were the swords of Japanese WWII officers. Although some gunto were either handcrafted or partially handcrafted, most were assembled in factories from standard bar stock. Telling a gunto from a high quality blade is usually easy. If you can read Japanese and know how to open the grip, the signature on the tang (the part of the blade inside the handle) will tell you exactly what it is. If you can't do these things, it's still not very difficult. If the sword is in Japan it is definitely a nihonto.
Since the mass-produced gunto have no artistic value, the Japanese government classifies them as weapons. Owning one is illegal in Japan. There have been cases of American gunto owners wanting to reunite a Japanese soldier's sword with his family, but unfortunately the law makes that almost impossible. If you try to bring a gunto into the country, it will be confiscated and you will be deported as if you tried bringing in an AK-47. If you're not in Japan, though, one way to tell is the scabbard. Gunto are actually not based on katana, but an older kind of sword called a tachi.
Tachi look pretty similar to katana, but were worn horizontally, edge-down behind a samurai's back. Japanese WWII soldiers hung their swords at their hips, but edge-down from loops on the scabbard. So if the scabbard has hangers, it is probably a gunto. The cheapest gunto also have serial numbers on the blade, which immediately tells you they were mass produced. Still, some WWII swords were family swords modified for military fittings. You would normally be able to tell them apart from the steel's grain or the temper line, but unfortunately, most swords that made their way abroad are in such poor condition the metal's features have faded. The only way to tell is the signature, which most people can't read.
It's really too bad, because somewhere out there is a Japanese national treasure called the Honjo Masamune, which was taken by a G.I. And never recovered. The Basics of Shape Source: Now that you know if it's a nihonto or gunto, next is viewing the blade's personality. Japanese swords have a lot of details that are hard to catch without proper lighting, so you need a good, strong light source. It's traditional to bow to a sword before a viewing, though if the occasion is informal it'll probably look strange. First, hold it edge-up and push the hilt away from the scabbard with your thumb. Do not touch the metal.
The acid in your fingerprint will cause rust. Slide the sword out along its back to make sure the scabbard doesn't scratch the blade. Once out, hold the sword upright at arm's length and notice the curvature. For ancient blades, the placement of the curve affected its cutting power and how quickly it could be drawn. The point determined its piercing power, and could vary from long and curved to short and angular. The smith would also choose which kind of back to forge, from flat to three-sided. Appraisers would use all these features to tell which period and school of swordsmithing the sword came from, but if you're just viewing a blade, it's enough just to know these features exist.
The Basics of Steel Source: Nihonto are usually made from a high-carbon steel called ' tamahagane 玉鋼 ( たまはがね ).' Carbon makes steel hard, but it also makes it brittle. Tamahagane has so much carbon that a sword made from the untreated metal would shatter the first time it was used. There's a common belief that a Japanese sword's strength comes from folding it, but folding actually makes tamahagane softer, not harder. Each fold brings down the carbon content about.2 percent until it's soft enough to withstand being used. Below is a great example of the steel folding process.
The common image of a katana being folded thousands of times depends on what you consider a fold. If you count the actual amount of times the smith folds the steel, folding it a thousand times would drop the carbon content to zero, making the steel unfit for a sword. If you count the number of layers actually created in the metal, though, the number of 'folds' grows exponentially. Either way, layering forms a distinctive pattern that appears after polishing. Waves, knots, and even wood-like patterns can be created depending on how the smith folds the billet. To view the grain, place a light above and behind you, then hold the blade horizontally. Although tamahagane is crucial for making Japanese swords, it was almost lost to modern science.
The steel is made in a smelter called a tatara, all of which ceased operations in 1945. Fortunately, in 1975 a society formed to preserve interest in nihonto and managed to revive tatara operations in Shimane prefecture. Smiths occasionally make their own metal, but most of Japan's tamahagane is still being made by that very same tatara. The Basics of the Temper Line Source: In the picture above you can clearly see the wavy line where the side of the steel near the edge is lighter than towards the rear. It's called the hamon 刃文 ( はもん )or temper line, and it's a Japanese sword's most distinct feature. In manufactured swords it's nothing more than a decoration, but the hamon of crafted swords is part of why katana are some of the best swords in the world.
Japanese swords are forged from at least two steels. The rear of the sword is soft steel that acts as a shock absorber, while the edge is made of harder steel for cutting. Before quenching (when the red hot blade is suddenly submerged in water) smiths coat it with a clay mixture to cool the edge slightly faster than the back. The difference is only a few thousandths of a second, but it turns the edge into an even harder kind of steel called martensite.
It also creates the hamon. In ancient times, its main function was to create a powerful blade. Today, it's an opportunity for the smith to express himself artistically. Examine the hamon by pointing the sword just below your light source with the edge up. Moving it continuously should reveal a thin white line along the boundary between the steels. If the sword was well-made, you'll also see any number of hataraki 働 ( はたら )き or special features within it, like cloudy patterns or 'feet' that extend towards the edge.
A lot of swords on the internet sport fake hamons, which, like gunto, probably won't have any hataraki or patterns within the grain. Smiths sometimes gamble with the hamon. At times they don't use clay, but heat the edge and rear of the blade at different rates to create a natural pattern. A smith using this method has no control over the hamon's appearance, but the natural quenching could create distinctive and beautiful patterns impossible with clay. While this can create stunning hamon, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
Many nihonto admirers prefer to appreciate the smith's hand in creating a distinctive hamon rather than one at random. Appearance is important, but hard work and effort is appreciated even more. A beautiful hamon made without clay is merely a matter of luck, after all, and not skill. Bells and Whistles Source: Making a blade takes months, but a sword takes even longer. The smith does a rough grinding and polishing after he finishes a blade, but then it's sent to a professional sword polisher.
The polisher uses a series of increasingly finer stones to bring out the steel's details. Without a skilled polisher, the blade would just look like a featureless piece of metal. Many collectors only care about the blade itself, so many new swords are only sheathed in a shirasa, a simple wooden scabbard. However, if the smith wants all the bells and whistles, he will send his creation to a scabbard maker. He might then himself make the tsuba 鐔 ( つば )(guard), habiki はばき ( ) (the small metal piece that fits the sword into the scabbard), and any engraving, or he can send it to individual specialists for each. Whether by the smith or another craftsman, each part of a Japanese sword has a lot of effort put into it, so take a moment to examine them in turn before you finish your viewing. Viewing a Japanese Sword Source: Even if you can't tell a Bizen from a Soshu blade, you can still look at a Japanese sword and understand what you're seeing.
It's a lot like admiring the brushwork of a Van Gogh. Before you realize it's there, you can only see the picture. But once you do, you can see the master's hand at work.
Right after the 2nd World War, thousands of Japanese military swords, or gunto, were surrendered to the Allied Forces. These were distributed to Allied Army officers who brought them back to America.
It is widely believed that in the 1950’s there are more than a million Japanese swords in the US. Some have been sold to collectors, some became heirlooms, and some might be tucked away in the attic or basement. All of these swords have one thing in common; they’re highly valued in the sword collecting market. How do you determine the value of an old Japanese military sword? Finding out the value of an old Japanese military is like an academic pursuit. It follows a series of steps that includes identification, checking of quality, historical research and pricing, an arduous task to someone untrained in swords appraisals. Having the sword appraised by a professional is the most convenient way to finding out the sword’s worth.
But you have to consider the appraiser’s fee. If you’re convinced that the sword is of great value, it’s best to have it checked by a Japanese sword appraiser. However, if you’re uncertain of the potential worth of your Japanese military sword, an alternative approach is to perform an initial assessment of its value. If the result suggests that the selling price of the sword is enough to cover the appraisal expenses, then you can safely send it with minimal risk of loss. A preliminary assessment simply looks at pertinent features that have effects on the price of the item. In the case of your old gunto sword, we’re only going to consider two main aspects of the sword – its type and its condition. What type of Japanese military sword is it?
There are generally four types of swords that were given to the Imperial Japanese Army and Navy officers. These are the kyu-gunto (old military sword), the kai-gunto (naval officer sword), shin-gunto (new military sword) and NCO shin-gunto (new military sword for non-commissioned officers). Each type of gunto has its own worth in the market as each has a corresponding value on the collecting market. Kyu-Gunto swords are easily identified by their resemblance to the Western military swords. These old swords have chrome-plated scabbards and wrap-around hand guards. Kyu-guntos come in both hand-forged and machine-made varieties. The presence of a wooden peg (mekugi) on the hilt of the sword means that it’s hand-forged and will be valued no less than USD 1,000.
Machine-made kyu-gunto, on the other hand, is priced, at least, USD 500 depending on its quality. Kai-gunto swords were used by Japanese Naval officers. The scabbards and hilts of these swords were made of ray skin. These are relatively rarer than the other Japanese military swords making them more valuable.
The selling price of machine-made kai-guntos can range from USD 500 to 2,000 depending on its condition. Hand-forged varieties are more expensive with values not lower than USD 1000. Shin-gunto swords were given to officers of the Imperial Japanese Army from 1935 to 1945. Most of these swords are machine-made but some are hand-forged. A hand-forged shing-gunto is recognized by its swordsmith’s mark engraved on the tang (nakago).
Much like the kyu-gunto and the kai-gunto, hand-forged pieces in good condition are worth no less than USD 1,000 while machine-made will be worth at least USD 300. NCO Shin-guntos are machine-made swords that were provided to non-commissioned officers of the Imperial Japanese Army. These swords feature a prominent serial number stamped on its blade, scabbard, saya and tsuba. A shin-gunto with matching serial numbers on its blade, tsuba, saya and all other Japanese sword parts is usually priced no less than USD 750. The usual price marked for an NCO shin-gunto with mismatched serial number is between USD 300 to 1,000 depending on the quality. Condition of your old gunto sword Once you have established the type of military sword that you have, it’s time to check its condition. Sword collectors don’t expect military swords to be without flaws.
However, there’s a line between “acceptable” damages and devaluing ones. Any form of damages (cracks, dents and chips) on the sharp edge (ha) of the blade will lower the sword’s selling price; but such imperfections will not be devaluing if they’re on the back of the blade (mune). Chips and cracks that measure more than 1 cm will automatically devalue the gunto by half. Scratches and slight rusting on the blade are considered normal and have no effect on its worth. A gunto covered with rust is valued as scrap and will not be considered by collectors.
Authentic Japanese Swords Wwii
By now, you should an idea of how much your vintage gunto will sell in the collector’s market. Title song black crowes. With cost in mind, you can choose to either have it appraised by a professional or not. Finally, you have to understand that the appraised value of your antique Japanese military sword is just an opinion of its value. It’s real worth is the amount that the buyer is willing to pay.
Just bought this and wanting some feedback on it's authenticity. I think it is OK. Has too much wear and patina (in my opinion) for it to be a fake. The number on the scabbard matches the number on the blade and I think it's a pretty low number too. From the research I have done, I think this is an 'Initial Type' NCO sword with alumium handle and brass guard. The blade is so-so, but it is what it is! I paid $450 for it, so I hope I didn't overpay too much.
These things seem to keep going UP UP UP in price! I tried to get the handle off to show the tang, but I couldn't budge it and I did not want to risk breaking it.