Sword Experts? Need help identifying.

I give you this picture:



My brother gave it to me, saying it is writing on the side of the sword, and he'd like to know the manufacturer, to identify the type of steel used.

I did a brief google image search, but came up blank.

Anyone fluent in sword making, oriental script, or otherwise familiar with determining the sword's stamping? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thought I'd toss this out to ATS to see what you come up with.

Thanks.

reply to post by Druid42


you should

post a pic of the whole sword as well

I'm hopeless (less than) with Kanji, but I did study sword-making (in my own time) when I was studying engineering.

Usually the easiest way to tell if the sword is genuine or not(even if the etch motif is there it could be faked) is to look at the cutting edge.

There should be two or more uneven waves that follow the cutting edge.

reply to post by DocHolidaze


That was all I got, and had to crop it down to fit it in the 500kb upload limit.

I will, however, check to see if I can get a bigger pic.

Originally posted by Druid42
reply to post by DocHolidaze

 

That was all I got, and had to crop it down to fit it in the 500kb upload limit.

I will, however, check to see if I can get a bigger pic.

That's ok.

Checkout this video .....The hardening process begins at about 8:00

your sword is the type youd buy in a comic book shop. 'kinobo-highcarbon steel' or something like that.
it's not worth anything.

Can,t tell by the pic what kind of sword it is.But if it is a real samurai sword the maker's mark is on the butt of the sword inside the hilt.If the mark is anywhere else it is most likely a replica.

reply to post by Druid42

In katanas and other swords the maker of the sword leaves there signature on the hilt of the sword, to see it you would have to disassemble the handle. Most real and functional sword blades are kind of plain and have no writing or symbols or any ingrained designs other then the hamon or other such designs which was part of the forging process. There are some that have designs or writing on the blade itself, but most don't and those that do were done by hand and not stamped in by a machine you can usually tell if you look close, if it looks really precise and really clean it probably was stamped in a factory somewhere.
Blade design carving
Naked blade

And from the look of that picture it looks like the writing was stamped on the blade, so its probably a show sword, ie for looks only, the kind you find in novelty shops. Its likely a mass produced sword that was made in a factory somewhere. Some of those are still alright quality and functional, most ww2 swords they made for the Japanese soldiers during that time were pretty good swords that were mass produced. But ultimately most if not all are just something you would hang on your wall, or something that they would sell to tourists or people who don't know anything about swords but would buy it because it looks cool, but would break or fall to pieces if you actually test it on something.

Really you need a translator to translate what it says. For all you know it probably says :"made in Bangladesh" or "sword master bobs sword emporium" or who know what, a translator would help you more then a sword expert because you cant tell much of anything from that pic other then what I said above.

It could be one of those things were people who visit foreign countries and they get a tattoo while visiting because they think it looks cool. You seen them around people who have kanji tattoos, or tattoos with writing in foreign languages which when they got it at the time the guy told them it means "dragon" or "white lotus" or "bad ass" but when they get home and get it translated they find out it means "property of kindo" or "I like beans, so keep a fair distance from my bad ass" Just saying you know.

reply to post by Druid42


The katakana says "high carbon black"

reply to post by Druid42


so if i may ask,, why a thorn through,,a cresent moon?

seem's unusual.??

reply to post by Strongfoot20


Thanks for the translation!

Any idea about the cresent moon and thorn?