Military sword? Not sure.

[Sansei]

Not sure it belongs in this section. A fellow I know is selling this. He says his mother gave it to him 50 years ago. She came from Japan. Can someone identify what this is and approximate date it was made?

 

 

 

 

[PNSSHOGUN]

It's a traditional sword quickly adapted for military use via hanger and leather cover. Unfortunately by cleaning the blade and Nakago the owner has removed significant value from the sword. 

[mecox]

Ray  smiths name probably Norimitsu    則光  its a few 100 years old, but quite a few with that name.  But as John notes cleaning of tang has ruined blade value.  Also it may have been shortened on the tip end (hard to see). 

and yes repurposed for military use , maybe employed civilian.

 

[Sansei]

Thank you, John and Mal. I had suspected a traditional sword repurposed for military use. The owner does not know a lot about these things and is trying to sell it for $1000. All things considered, clearly not worth the price.

[Bruce Pennington]

10 minutes ago, Sansei said:

Thank you, John and Mal. I had suspected a traditional sword repurposed for military use. The owner does not know a lot about these things and is trying to sell it for $1000. All things considered, clearly not worth the price.

This may be true for nihoto collectors, but there are many who would appreciate that sword and likely would pay something in that price range for it.  

 

It seems shorter.  Is it a waki (cutting edge less than 24")?

[Sansei]

3 minutes ago, Bruce Pennington said:

This may be true for nihoto collectors, but there are many who would appreciate that sword and likely would pay something in that price range for it.  

 

It seems shorter.  Is it a waki (cutting edge less than 24")?

It appears to be shortened but I will ask him to measure the blade length to see. I wouldn't pay that much for it but you're probably right that someone else could.

[Brian]

With the nagako cleaned, this isn't worth anywhere near $1K.
probably less than $500. They wiped out many hundreds of $'s value when they did that.

[Michaelr]

I agree with Brian. I am a small time collector and fron what I can see I probably wouldn’t even be interested. Maybe if to were on a table at a show and I could see it in person and it was priced at around $200.00 I MIGHT consider it. It’s a shame the way it was treated, it may have been an interesting piece at one time. Just my opinion but I am only one person. As my wife always says “ there is a lid for every pot”

    MikeR