Anyone know anything about samurai swords?

[djm of PA]

Made a heck of a discovery in a friend's shed yesterday and even better is the fact that he told me "I don't want weapons here, please get them out of here!" This cache was noticed while working high in the rafters...we could see what looked like a gun barrel behind a wall. Turned out to be two guns, and 3 blades! Hidden in a little 1'X2' square. This house dates back to the 1700's and has yielded a few decent finds for me already with the metal detector, but I never would have imagined this!

I ended up with 2 samurai swords, a bayonet, a remington model 760 30-06 and a Savage .22lr over .410! As you can see, the bayonet is in great shape, but the rest of the items are rough and/or rusty.
Guns are my thing, so I already know all i need to about those and how to make them pretty again!
The bayonet is a WWII Japanese made piece.
Samurai swords I don't know so any info/pricing would be greatly appreciated! Both handles are either gone or broken, but blades are nice and sound!

 

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[djm of PA]

rest of pics

 

[DevilDog812]

beautiful stuff
you are very lucky. how could your friend not want them?

anyways, im pretty sure your stuff was at least hidden shortly after WWII.
the 2 swords were probably souvenirs from japan after WWII and the bayonet looks to be an Arisaka bayonet (also WWII), but im having trouble finding that makers mark, so im not sure yet

EDIT: i found the makers mark!
its from the Nagoya Arsenal, which confirms its a WWII Arisaka Type-30 Bayonet

 

[DevilDog812]

as for the swords, are there any markings on the blade near the handle? there should be, but sometimes not.
and could you get a closer picture of the gold painted mark in the 3rd picture? i think those will be the key to identifying the maker and ultimately the time period of its creation

 

[djm of PA]

thanks DevilDog! I'll get better pics of those marks shortly.
as for my friend, he didn't grow up around guns/hunting/weapons anything like that and it made him nervous knowing they were there around his kids. I told him that I will give him shooting lessons, but he said he has no reason to know how to shoot
I live for items that go boom.....i'm just glad he thought enough of me to gift them rather than sell them!

 

[DevilDog812]

thanks DevilDog! I'll get better pics of those marks shortly.
as for my friend, he didn't grow up around guns/hunting/weapons anything like that and it made him nervous knowing they were there around his kids. I told him that I will give him shooting lessons, but he said he has no reason to know how to shoot
I live for items that go boom.....i'm just glad he thought enough of me to gift them rather than sell them!

no problem
i know how you feel. ive been around guns my entire life. im from an outdoorsman family. ive been hunting, fishing, kayaking, camping since i can remember. heck, i only just turned 17 but i know im more competent with guns and survival than a lot of other people. in my opinion guns are only dangerous if you dont know how to handle them (or if someone is out to getcha obviously )

 

[djm of PA]

no other markings on the swords

here are better pics of the marks.

 

[djm of PA]

one more

 

[DevilDog812]

lol texastee
i live in PA too, so it would be much easier to send it to me

my bad djm, i thought the markings were exposed, but it looks like they are actually on the metal inside the handle. to access it, you need to disassemble the handle. its your call if you want to or not on a good condition sword, its easy, but since your handles are rotted and broken, it could mess it up even more
the instructions on how to do that are here: http://www.quanonline.com/military/military_reference/japanese/basics.php

 

[NOLA_Ken]

Talk to the guys on the Imperial Japanese board at the Wehrmacht awards forum. Your swords look good and old to me, and there's a good chance they could be vet bring backs from the Pacific. Having the Arisaka bayonet with them just makes me think that even more they are likely to be war trophys.

Is that a .410 .22 mag combo rifle? I had one of those years ago a Savage Arms I think, great squirrel gun!

 

[ivan salis]

the one looks to be a WW2 era japanese NCO officers (sgt) grade sword * the brown wrapped one.

 

[Digger54]

Don't do anything to your swords until you have them looked at. The experts will remove the handles to look for markings on the "Tangs" If they are authentic which they appear, they could be extremely valuable depending on their markings and origin. Attempting to clean them could devalue them. Cleaning/sharpeneing should also be left up to the experts as there are specific procedures for that.

Congratulations on the finds.

 

[djm of PA]

Digger, where exactly does one go to find an expert in Samurai swords

Like I said, things that go bang are my area of expertise. Swords I know nothing about and it seems no one in my area does either

 

[Iron Patch]

Digger, where exactly does one go to find an expert in Samurai swords

EASY!


Spend a few dollars and put it on Ebay with a huge reserve and let them come to you.

Several years back I know someone who was selling World War era stuff and it included a Samurai sword that was brought back to the U.S. during that era. I think he started it like $50 not really knowing much about it, and it sold for about $15,000.

 

[djm of PA]

Thanks Honestly, I was thinking of doing just that......now that someone else said, i think I just might!

 

[Iron Patch]

Thanks Honestly, I was thinking of doing just that......now that someone else said, i think I just might!

You have nothing to lose but a small listing fee. Just put in the description you would like some help on it and someone might reply.

PS... The one that sold for 15k was something else. I believe it was hundreds of years old, and looked incredible. I'm sure there's 1,000 $100 ones for every $10,000 one.

 

[NOLA_Ken]

Post them here, you'll have to join the forum to post and put the pics on a photobucket account or link to them here, but these guys know their stuff. I use this forum to authenticate and occasionally sell WW2 relics.


http://www.wehrmacht-awards.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?s=79393bd54dd63ea1a5660da30ebb9604&f=59

 

[Digger54]

Sorry I don't have any links but if you web word search I'll bet you will find a source on the internet.

I had a friend who was heavily into Japanese edged weapons who had helped identify a more modern Tanto I found scuba diving off Okinawa and showed me how it was disassembled. He explained at great length the history and some of the rituals of maintenance of the swords. Pretty interesting stuff.

Food for thought. Although the swords were likely WW2 souvenirs, That does not date them as such. There is a chance that they could be much older in age as it was not uncommon for family heirlooms to be carried into combat.

 

[NOLA_Ken]

Food for thought. Although the swords were likely WW2 souvenirs, That does not date them as such. There is a chance that they could be much older in age as it was not uncommon for family heirlooms to be carried into combat.

Absolutely right. Many officers carried swords that had been in their families for generations, some hundreds of years old. The only thing changed was that they replaced the handle (not always) with the current military style.

 

[djm of PA]

signed up for an account on the wermacht site yesterday, still waiting for them to enable my account. as soon as I get more info on them, i'll be sure to update my post here!!! Thanks all!