$ value of Japanese sword?

[Bushido Devil Dog]

My Grandfather was a Colonel in WWII in the Philippines when the war ended and brought back two officers swords. Mine is in aged but new condition. Any ideas out there?

I live in Japan, train in Iaido and have some good contacts with very knowledgeable people here. If you can post or PM me pics I may be able to get a ballpark value for you...

 

[drbarnes]

The story went that US Officers were taken to a warehouse where the confiscated swords were hanging in rows. Each US Officer was given one but my Grandfather said he had two son's and they let him have two. One of them has a small scroll in the handle hollow with Japanese print on it supposedly naming the Officer and his family name. These are supposedly very valuable to the original Japanese family.

If you can post a pic of the symbol I can ask one of the japanese guys at work if he can read it...

 

[tradertator]

I agree with Bushido, this thread is seriously lacking pics.

 

[hammer24]

PICTURES! PICTURES! PICTURES! where is my pitchfork...and where is that torch?

 

[7.62-5.56Plinker]

PAWN STARS "ive got a friend who deals with these types of things... Why dont we have him check it out? Ill offer you 15 dollars!"

 

[24Carat]

Getting pics of mine involves a 40 mile round trip that is not feasible right now. I will see if my cousin can take pics of his and see if I can get them posted.

 

[M67]

If you can post a pic of the symbol I can ask one of the japanese guys at work if he can read it...

Getting pics of mine involves a 40 mile round trip that is not feasible right now. I will see if my cousin can take pics of his and see if I can get them posted.

Try to get pics somehow, David (and his co workers) were a big help with identifying and dating one of my WWII Officer's Sword

 

[Sylvain]

Still no pic?

 

[Bushido Devil Dog]

The story went that US Officers were taken to a warehouse where the confiscated swords were hanging in rows. Each US Officer was given one but my Grandfather said he had two son's and they let him have two. One of them has a small scroll in the handle hollow with Japanese print on it supposedly naming the Officer and his family name. These are supposedly very valuable to the original Japanese family.

If this is correct and the paper lists the owner's name, then The Right Thing To Do is to try to return it to the family, like this gentleman did: Sword returned to family after 65 years

...Especially if it is a family heirloom as the one is the article (300+ years old) seems to be. The first step is to find out if it is a traditionally made blade, not all Gunto (= military blades) were. Some were mass produced out of Chinese railroad ties for lower ranked officers and NCO's. Looking forward to the pics!

 

[CandRFan]

Yeah, I'm thinking so. It's just when one gets in a bind it does cross one's mind. But the farther it gets from WWII the better! Now what to do with the Nambu's??

Nambus? I'm always interested in acquiring another Nambu!

 

[whocares]

I mean come on already, Ingo Faq has wonderfull information on how to post pics. I swear I spent 10 hrs trying to load pics with no luck. Finally I read the instructions and post more pics than a pics poster should!

 

[mammynun]

Pics? Here's the one my Dad brought back. He also brought back the Arisaka (great shooter, btw) and bayonet. While I don't believe its a 700 year old sword, I'm never going to sell it.