lestweforget65

Gabriel, Thanks so much for the in depth and informative info from everyone here. My wife thinks I like the curves way to much and in fact that was one of the main reasons I bought the trunk..lol I collect alot of WWII pin up stuff. My wife and I will have to find someone around here that can physcially look at it and knows about swords or find a club somewhere. We have discussed possibly finding out the family that possibly this came from in Japan or where it is from and return it to that family if that is even possible. No matter what it is a interesting piece of history and the collection we have on display to honor the memory of the Marine it belonged to and it sits in my "man room" along with all my and my sons USMC stuff from my time in service. and his currently..sorry I was not in during WWII...lol I am an Iraq veteran myself. Sorry I posted the one pictures the wrong direction....lol Tom Merci mille fois, Jean. Tom, such intriguing images! Such nice curves! How classic! ...Oh, and I suppose the sword is of interest too. :lol: The blurring of the shinogi (ridge) near the nakago strongly suggest someone once took a wire brush or other polishing device to it. Luckily it doesn't seem like the damage is irreparable, but that could only really be determined by a qualified professional looking at it in person. I think a polisher might elect to leave a substantial portion of that chip rather than lose so much material to eliminate it, but that's just my humble two cents. As to whether it's worth restoring (i.e. if the blade is of better than average quality under all that surface damage), well, there's no good way to tell any more about it from online photos. Possibly a "window" could be polished into it to reveal the quality of the forging. Otherwise getting it polished would be a very expensive gamble. You could always take it to a sword club to have knowledgeable people take a look at it—they might be able to tell you a little more about it. Otherwise there's just not much else we can do online, except maybe give more opinions on the authenticity of the mei (see here, here, etc.). Congrats on the find! Cheers, —GLL

Opps forgot to post this other picture: http://i1029.photobucket.com/albums/y35 ... rd5002.jpg

Ok below are some new pictures of both the WWII trunk it was stored in for the last 60 years...the Marines name is on the front of the box. The pictures are /were hard to take due to not the "best camera and lighting" and the shine is most likely from me trying to enhance the really dark photo's to make the kanji easier to see, the top kanji character is hard to read due to rusting or a build up of deposits. I did use a bit of water right before taking the picture to bring out the lettering then wiped it off with a soft dry cloth. (probably a no no) There is a small chip on the blade right below where the handle would be placed on a short sword and the length is about 25" as you can see in the newest pictures. I took it outside to try and get a better light on it. Included are photo's of the box it came in which initially smelled very musty though it does not appear to have been wet at all, just stored in a basement for so long. The Marine that owned this died in the 1950's and it was in his girlfiends possesion since then. Some of the photo's that were in the box were so brittle they fell apart...I do not think this is a fake at all, and eveything in the trunk is all original USMC WWII items, leahterneck magazines, his original rank, photo's, stamps, etc.......those items I am familuar with just not Japanese Swords blades, this is the first one I have ever seen up close or owned. Kind of neat to learn about:) http://i1029.photobucket.com/albums/y35 ... rd5011.jpg http://i1029.photobucket.com/albums/y35 ... rd5010.jpg http://i1029.photobucket.com/albums/y35 ... rd5009.jpg http://i1029.photobucket.com/albums/y35 ... rd5008.jpg http://i1029.photobucket.com/albums/y35 ... rd5007.jpg http://i1029.photobucket.com/albums/y35 ... rd5003.jpg http://i1029.photobucket.com/albums/y35 ... rd5005.jpg http://i1029.photobucket.com/albums/y35 ... rd5006.jpg

Hello, I am hoping someone might be able to assist me a bit in identifying this WWII Japanese Blade. This was inside a WWII Footlocker along with other items that I purchased from the estate of a WWII US Marine. This is not an item I want to sell or anything of that sort, so value is not why I am on here. I would love to put some information with it if it is possible to find anything out based on the Kanji. The Marines other articles in the foot locker do not give me any real starting point being it there is very little information to base it on besides some notations by him in his Marine Corps training book with active duty dates of 1943-1946....he could have gotten it from someone else no way to really know As you can see it is NOT in good condition and consists only of the blade. Any help or thoughts would be appreciated! Tom The links to the photos are below: http://i1029.photobucket.com/albums/y35 ... ord010.jpg http://i1029.photobucket.com/albums/y35 ... ord011.jpg http://i1029.photobucket.com/albums/y35 ... rd2001.jpg http://i1029.photobucket.com/albums/y35 ... rd2004.jpg http://i1029.photobucket.com/albums/y35 ... ord003.jpg http://i1029.photobucket.com/albums/y35 ... ord006.jpg