What is this? - Very bad amateur polish or just fake??

[Jorgensen]

Dear collectors,

 

Recently this wakizashi was showed to me and normally I have no doubt if its a fake blade or not, but this one I had a little difficult to figure out. At one side the hamon and other things screams fake at first look, but on the one hand the geometry of the blade and some other points is not that bad as seen on other fakes and the filemarks on top of nakago makes me wonder?? My thought is this maybe could be a overly cleaned/bad amatour polish (with acids involved perhaps) that makes kanji/horimoni/hamon looks worse/like this. Anyway - I turned the blade down, however this blade at some points got me doubtful. What do you folks say?

[Robert Janssen]

I'm definately no expert, but it looks as fake as they get to me. the munemachi looks aweful, and the difference in location of munemachi and hamachi is like 2 cm or something... I won't go into the rest...

 

I think your gut feeling was right, don't doubt it :lol: Also I see none of the filemarks that you mention

 

I would stay clear of this, good thing that you have too!

[Widowmaker]

I am 99% sure that it is fake. The hamon looks so artificial...

 

The guy who made this tried to impress people with all the engraving on the sword, but this just make it even more ridiculous

[Alex A]

Newbies are often asking how to spot fakes, maybe there should be a compilation of mugshots, a prize at the end of the year for best and worst fake :lol:

[Kai-Gunto]

I also have had it in hand. I said it was a fake to the seller.

The inscription on the blade , looks like it spells INDIA

[cabowen]

Both....

[Gabriel L]

Absolutely 100% fake, but quite atypical and with a surprising amount of effort put into it. Still completely off the mark in certain respects, but in other respects someone was clearly aiming at the real thing.

[1tallsword]

yes that sword is indeed as fake as a 3 dollar bill. you just need a sense of quality to see this one screams made in india.... or the like....

[Jason Williams]

Wow, it looks like the person who made this didn't even try---FAKE!

 

Jason

[Dr Fox]

It depends on what you take 'fake' to mean. Yes it is a sword so its not fake. Will it hurt you, you betcha so that also makes it real.

Does it pretend to be a wakizashi, no. Yes it does have some Japanese influence, but not many and not serious.

So is it only, when it is offered as a Japanese sword, it becomes a fake?

Or until then is it just a bad copy?

 

But it is fair to say, call it what you want, it is NOT nihonto!

[lonely panet]

here here Denis

 

some one put in some hours on this, somebody should be making knives with skills like that

 

regards H

ps still easy to spot, the acid etched hamon the big hint