Max Stein

Hi, I was on a trip to Viet Nam recently, where I stumbled upon a strange sword. It looked old, decently made as far as I could tell (I dabble in blacksmithing and some general metal working, so I know a little bit about steel), and so I bought it, thinking that if it was an antique worth somthing, that would be cool, and that if it was a crappy peice of junk worth nothing, then I could have some fun with a sort of restoration project without the chance of possibly destroying a valueble peice of history - win win for me either way. so after bargaining it down from 220$ to 120$, I bought it and came back home to the states. because of the metal handle, I initialy assumed that it was a NCO katana, but upon further examination, i found a few things that put some holes in the theory. the tsuba is not a design found on such blades, the scabbard dosn't match at all (it seems to be made from wood encaced in decorative brass) , and the stamps on the base of the blade hold no recognisible arsenal signitures. on the other hand, the metal handle matches the design of such a WWII nco katana perfectaly, and the blade has a stamped serial number on it. I am aware that sometimes NCO handles were put on to older (or newer) blades, but the serial number seems to contradict that. So, I came to the nearest message bord to seek help - do you all on the interweb think that this is an Nihonto, or just a peice of junk. for those of you with bad eyes, the serial number is 40127, no serial number on the scabbard. the hilt - in poor condition, but seems match an NCO swordDesign on the guard is a long necked bird, possibly a craneThe sword and scabbard. The sword in the scabbard. also, any tips on how to clean/things to avoid while doing so? Thanks