Lemme clear some of this up for you…they’re my pics. I was asked for a photo of the blade from directly above. I was at work and this is outside my car. I would think a weather tech mat and a microfiber would be enough to protect the blade…you have to understand that we thought this was a karate prop. My brother broke the pin in the handle like 25 years ago…as for the weird (looks like drill marks) and the marks that look like a vice pattern on the blade, I have no idea about those. my dad asked if he could take this blade when it was going to be shipped off to be destroyed out of the evidence room in the 80’s…it has been in a Florida closet for 35 years or more…I was going to restore it for him (thinking it was an old karate prop)…after taking a look at it, I realized that the handle was made with some sort of animal skin (sting ray imo)…so I didn’t touch it further. The signed name on it is Mitsunaga and the general consensus is that it’s from ~1350 and was probably a longer weapon that was cut down to make this katana sized blade. The only things I have done to it were remove the silk wrapping so I could get to the signature…silk was all dry rotted and falling apart…the blade is still razor sharp. I would like to get it restored, but my dad is like “I would much rather you be up a grand or 2 than put 4k into a sword that you’ll just have or display somewhere. So I am currently trying to get it appraised correctly. I know the things that were done to it have hurt the value. All I am trying to do from this point on is preserve it correctly. So forgive me for thinking that my dads old karate prop that’s been hidden in the closet my whole life was a karate prop like the other karate props and not 1000 year old Japanese Nihonto. I didn’t mean to disrespect the blade or anyone in any way…it’s just, really? There’s going to be an ancient samurai sword in our closet and not a cheap karate prop? In south Florida? The chances of it being real were slim to none. That thought didn’t even cross my mind. And as someone who uses Japanese chef knives for a living, I don’t know why it didn’t til I saw the ray skin…
