Identifying Gendaito

[md02geist]

Is there a "quick and dirty" approach to determining whether a WW2 sword is an actual WW2 Japanese blade or just a chinese or other manufacturer knock off? What should I be looking for in each?

[cabowen]

I think there are photos here in the FAQ of imitation Chinese blades. If not, just have a look at ebay. About 95% of them are Chinese.

[Lindus]

No, simple answere,there was a time when Yasukuni were cheap gunto,Mantetsu were railway lines and sold for $50 or so. Now we have the complication of Chinese fakes and will not go into that as the forums has miles of script on the subject, so, even a sword by a run of the mill smith can on occasions be considered Gendaito,I quote, roughly, on a splendid blade by Nagamura kiyonobu some while back by Chris...."Every smith has his day".

 

Obviously check out the signature & ask the question here.

Look for the work in the blade,EG, Hada,Utsuri{yes this is seen on Gendai} et al.

Sugata,this will or should have some elegance although that is subjective.

Nakago, this is a difficult one as some are rough but on the whole quality shines through.

 

Showato,dirty word? no they have a place for those interested in the militaria aspect of our collecting world and should not be dismissed.

 

Over the last twenty/thirty years we have moved from dismissing anything with a stamp to a long running debate on the subject......so..........in answere to your question, no, it is time,study and mistakes,there is nothing quite like a good financial mistake to improve your learning skills :lol:

I know this for a fact.

 

****Apologise.re read your header and then the question which is entirely different****

[Grey Doffin]

Hi Rob,

My ebay ME page is a side by side with photos of real & fake Japanese swords. Find it here:

 

http://members.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl ... d=greyguy0

 

Another thing you can do is go to ebay search, click on Advanced Search, search for Japanese Sword and towards the bottom of the page specify that items be located in China. Just did it and found 4,489 good examples of what Chinese fakes look like.

Grey

[Jacques]

Hi,

 

Beware, all fakes are not so obvious than those showed by Grey :

 

http://token.alldiscussion.net/t1868-gu ... ontrefacon

[Brian]

Cannot view that without registering and logging in.

 

Brian

[Jacques]

Hi,

 

Ooops Apologize, i forgot that.