In Need Of Translation Assistance With A Wwii Era Sword. Thanks!

[hatparadox]

Hello! I require some help translating the characters on the tang of this sword.. believed to be a WWII era sword, not entirely sure. Tang is not terribly rusted, but has a nice light brown rust. Copper habaki, Chu tip I believe, Yahazu hamon, either a Haagari or Liyamagata tang tip. File pattern is diagonal left-to-right, with horizontal file markings, perhaps a Sujikai pattern? The thing that throws me off about the Sujikai is that it has horizontal, straight file marks too.

 

Please feel free to check out the set of pictures I took, around twenty pictures. I figured out that the cleaned up marking says "Model Twenty-Six", though I'm not entirely sure... feels very nice in the hands. However I cannot be guaranteed that this is anything special, as I can barely see a grain in the blade.. thank you all for your time!

 

http://imgur.com/a/48wAy

Austin M.

[SteveM]

秀俊　Hidetoshi 

 

Reverse side says 昭和十七年　Shōwa 17

 

Seki arsenal stamp on the tang. Ignore the painted on numbers. They say "1726", but they are of no importance to determining the sword's value. 

 

You ought to get those fingerprints off the sword asap. Hopefully they are not rusted on to the blade. 

[hatparadox]

秀俊　Hidetoshi 

 

Reverse side says 昭和十七年　Shōwa 17

 

Seki arsenal stamp on the tang. Ignore the painted on numbers. They say "1726", but they are of no importance to determining the sword's value. 

 

You ought to get those fingerprints off the sword asap. Hopefully they are not rusted on to the blade. 

Very well. Thank you! I'm assuming Hidetoshi is the maker, and Showa 17 is the date? (I put it into Google Translate, says 1942). Those fingerprints are mine, I need to wipe them off anyways for photographic presentation on the listing.. thank you very much! If any of you are interested I will be listing this up on eBay in a few days as per work, it's missing the tsuba and several pieces of the seppa (only one).

 

I realize this will probably deteriorate the value of the sword by a large margin, since it is incomplete, however it seems to be a decent piece made during the war.

 

Still fairly sharp, not razor sharp as expected, but it nicked me once while handling it. A few small nicks in the edge, however it could be sharpened off. Came with a wooden black lacquered sheath that is starting to split apart (not splitting in half, more like it needs to be reattached together).. still trying to decipher what the menuki is, will leave an update sooner or later.

 

It did have a few small superficial rust spots along the blade at first, but I looked online and I was told steel wool and oil is probably going to be my best bet. I have lightly and gently tried to scrub the rust spots off and clean up the blade a little, and if that's not a good idea, I don't intend on cleaning it again (whether or not if it's good or bad for the blade).

 

Thank you for your help!

 

Austin M.

[SteveM]

Yes - Hidetoshi is the smith, and Showa 17 (1942) is the date of manufacture. With these WW2 blades you have to understand that the smith may not have actually hand-forged the sword. He may have just overseen the machine production of it. I think the presence of the Seki arsenal stamp virtually guarantees this one is a mass-produced sword. Still, it is an interesting artifact and I would refrain from scratching it up with a piece of steel wool. There are a lot of threads here that discuss the dos and donts of blade cleaning. Search a few threads to see what the guys here say.

[hatparadox]

Yes - Hidetoshi is the smith, and Showa 17 (1942) is the date of manufacture. With these WW2 blades you have to understand that the smith may not have actually hand-forged the sword. He may have just overseen the machine production of it. I think the presence of the Seki arsenal stamp virtually guarantees this one is a mass-produced sword. Still, it is an interesting artifact and I would refrain from scratching it up with a piece of steel wool. There are a lot of threads here that discuss the dos and donts of blade cleaning. Search a few threads to see what the guys here say.

Very well. I had thought that steel wool wouldn't be fine enough, so the only time I did it was to lightly try to clean a bit of some rust spots off. Other than that, I lightly oiled the blade so that it wouldn't rust. I will be putting the listing up today, and will probably be scheduled for tonight at 2000, if anyone is interested. Details will be in the description of the listing. It may count as advertising and I'm not entirely sure about the whole regulations on that, so I might just go over and post the link in the for sale section.

 

Thanks again, Steve!