Hello,
I have an ad in our local paper and got a call today, picked up this sword, need alittle help on value. The tang is not signed but I do believe it to be a hand made blade, real nice condition and the blade needs a little polishing, the temper line is nice and strong, has the original knot and there is a white cloth atttached to the scabbard ring with a japanese symbol on it, overall length is 33". Any help would be apprieciated. Thanks

Fritziii

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Here is a picture of the handle

And here is one of the white cloth

fritziii,

Since it's mumei (unsigned) and there's no arsenal stamp, it's a good chance you have the traditionally handmade, water quenched sword.
Hamon is nice but I'd like to see some close-up photo of hada.
Most probably the hada pattern is not visible because of old polish or could be very tight grain.
Hand inspection would tell much more.
BTW - If you are going to polish this blade, don't do it yourself - you can only make it worse.
Experienced polisher would tell you more about this sword and determine if it's worth the pretty expensive polish job.

Hi Walter would You be so kind and tell me some about this word .I bought it on estand and Im novice in Japan swords.It will be nice to hear Your opinion.Ted

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blade looks very sharpened without temper line

Ted,
In my opinion it's a typical machine-made Shin-Gunto.
I'm not good in reading the kanji so I asked more knowledgeable guys on other forum for the translation.
Just from what I can see, there's a (most probably) Seki arsenal stamp above the mekugi-ana (tang hole) on the first photo.
Let's hope the mei (signature) is really in Japanese characters - lot of Chinese fakes around nowadays (even with arsenal stamps and Japanese-like signatures)... It happened to me to own one...
Will let you know soon.

OK - so far the guys deciphered the mei (signature) of smith.
It's Hiromitsu - listed Showa smith.
They'll try to make out what says inscription on the other side of the tang.

many thanks Walter unfortunatelly Ive overpaid for this sword i will post more pics.I was looking nice sword but this one is heavy worn.I wished to have one in nicer condition.I have navy sword bought from member here and i like it but this army is not to compare .I will post pics soon Ted

The other side says "Showa lucky year 1943".
I agree - the blade is much worn.
Depends how much have you paid for this sword.
In real nihonto the blade is everything and the rest are just ads.
Please, post some more pics of this sword.

Pozdrawiam...

THE SWORD SIGNATURE APPEARS TO BE "HIROMITSU." THE PHOTOS ARE DARK AND NOT THE EASIEST TO READ. THIS IS DEFINITLEY NOT A CHINESE FAKE.
BOB

Thanks Guys You are really helpfull.I gave my sword to my friend to reapir leather cover for scabbard.I will post pics ina few days.Ted
Walter Pozdrawiam i dzi?kuj? za pomoc to mile znale?? tylu fajnych ludzi ,szkoda ?e tylko w cyberprzestrzeni

unsigned mumei ubu katana with knot is worth estimate of $1000.00 to $1800.00. Max

First off, I don't think it's very helpful to take complete guesses at a sword's worth and stating it as fact.

I would recommend to get in touch and arrange for established collector to look at this sword in person. As everyone knows it is very hard to judge a sword through pictures. I feel there's a good possibility this sword could be very good. They'll give you an approximate value, and probably agree that this is something to submit for shinsa without a doubt.

As for zet's sword... Unfortunately it has been very aggressively buffed with inappropriate materials .