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[Joshua P]

My great uncle picked this up at the battle of biak. It doesn’t have any markings or serial numbers. It’s mumei and has a faint hamon on it. Trying to figure out age of sword and type. 

[Joshua P]

[Bruce Pennington]

Hello Jpoe.  Is that what you go by?  We like to have a real first name, or a nickname you go by, for our conversations.

 

We'll need some better photos of the blade to judge it properly.  Full length, bare naked blade; full length of the bare tang (nakago) with the brass habaki (collar) removed; a couple of close-ups of the temper line and blade tip.

 

With the limited photos at hand, it mostly looks like a WWII era blade in Japanese officer gunto fittings.  It should have a wooden scabbard (saya) with leather cover, but the cover is often missing.  You can see photos of complete ones here: 九八式軍刀略式外装 Informality mounting (ohmura-study.net)

[John C]

I found it interesting that the same' is black, as in a kai-gunto.

 

John C.

[Joshua P]

[Joshua P]

[Bruce Pennington]

Well, so far, it still appears to be a late war Japanese-made sword.  The tsuba (handguard), seppa (spacers), dark same' (rayskin) and small mekugi ana (hole in tang) are all signs of swords made in the last year of the war.  

 

Do you not have a scabbard (saya)?