Found something interesting.. not by metal detector!

[zerohypert]

Hi Guys.. kinda new to the forum but been browsing a lot lately and you guys are tempting me into buying a metal detector! Anyways! Let me show you guys what I found and tell you the story how i found out.

My fiancee found it by accident.. believe it or not.. she was cleaning out of this big closet and noticed that the carpet was a bit loose at the corner and she decided to see what kind of floor we have underneath the carpet ..just out of curiousity...and she saw something and she pulled it off more and noticed that there was a door that had an access under the floor. She came to me while I was trying to sort things out in the house that i inherited from my great aunt, and she said... you should check this out.. you wont believe what I just found. So I followed her into that room and saw it. I tried to open it and it did and I found 4 swords and one dagger from germany and a possible civil war era baycott (not sure) and one is unknown.. I couldnt ID it.

I was kinda surprised why my great uncle had to go through hard work to make something like that just to hide those swords.... but i'll explain later on why he did that.

This is my findings!

I have two of those.. Art Fab Todelo 1890 and 1906....dont know much about it..

Samauri Swords.. one is from 1945 and other is unknown.. it has japanese symbols on it but other one where you put sword in...is leather and other one is metal... again.. dont know much about it..

Possibily Civil War Era Baycott... it was a nice find though

Unknown.. i couldnt find any markings on it! I wish I could figure out on this one

nearly in mint condition... it looks really nice.. this Hirschfanger dagger from germany


You guys probably would be wondering why my great uncle had to work hard to make a nice hidden floor for those items... and I spoke with my mother about it....my mom was raised by her aunt/uncles.. which means they are my great aunt/uncle. Anyways the point is that he designed those floor to hide the gold bars as part of his investments. When he knew his life would be over soon and he decided to take those bars out and sold it and put it into some kidn of account (that's for me but i prefer to have a gold bar on my hand to feel it ha) Those floor werent the only one place he hidden.. I found other place where he hid those and I found out that he did kept some bars and silver dollars coins....A LOT of them.. he purchased thoses from store.. in bulk and kept it in secret place for like forever until he sold it again and put the money in account. So I believe that he left those swords behind and I just assumed that he knew they didnt have that much of values. You know.. silver dollars and gold bars.. woot.. if I were him.. I'd leave those swords behind but I dont know the value of those items that I just found.. but if its pretty high.. I wouldnt mind to sell those and buy myself a gold bar as an investment starter!


Sorry if this post is too long!

Travis

 

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[trish76642]

WOW zero! Thats cool!

 

[Bridge End Farm]

WOW WOW WOW,, awesome find and priceless memory

 

[FLNative]

It looks like your unidentified one is a kukri. Here's a link with more info....... Interesting finds!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kukri

 

[zerohypert]

It looks like your unidentified one is a kukri. Here's a link with more info....... Interesting finds!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kukri

Hey Thanks! I never knew the name was Kukri lol..at first i thought it was a machette. Thanks for the info

 

[RONC(OR)]

Do some research on the Japanese swords some are worth allot of money! allot were bought home from WW2 some have family names and Makers marks that drive the prices up. also are they Damascus steel ? Really check all of them out could be worth more then a gold bar Nice find HH RonC

 

[FLNative]

You welcome! One more thing....If you wouldn't mind taking a few more pics, I'd like to see a close up of the samurai blades. If they are damascus they could be worth a small fortune. HH

FLNative

 

[zerohypert]

What part of sword do you want me to take picture of?.. what area of sword? .. I am willing to do it for you guys if you are wondering.. my uncle was in WWII and i am sure that he brought it back.

 

[Fisher]

Take a pic of the side of the blade. Damascus steel looks like it has a bunch of lines in it. BTW...Nice finds!

 

[RONC(OR)]

I saw a show once and it had Steven Seagal in it. He collects these swords. In the show it talked about how some Japanese family's really wanted to get these swords back some were hundreds of years old. some swords had marks as to how many cadaver body parts they could cut though. Take a pic of the blade Damascus steel has lines in it. It is steel that is hammered and folded many times HH RonC

 

[Ken from Atlanta]

Your German dagger is a German National Hunting Association Knife. Also called a "Hirschfanger"A very nice find. Here's a link to more info: http://germandressdaggers.com/Hunting Association.htm

It could be worth around $1700.00 - $2000.00 here's another link to some for sale : http://www.johnsonreferencebooks.com/catalogue/weapons/daggers/huntforestrifle/

I would LOVE to find one of those under my floor!!!!!

One more thing, before you get too exited, have an expert look at it in person, there are some post war copys that are less valuable, and I haven't found one with hirschfanger on the blade. That doesn't mean it isn't real though, but you need to be sure.

 

[Wrekless]

Its been awhile since I've looked at Samurai swords, but if I remember correctly the folding methods used do not look anything like "Damascus" steel you are talking about. Modern "Damascus" steel doesn't look like true ancient Damascus steel either. It could be a several hundred year old folded blade and not look full of lines.

As far as real swords, they can be worth up in the seven figures, and several of those are rumored to be in US following the war. Or they could be factory made ceremonial officer swords. But it is worth checking out before you just get rid of them, and might require removing the handle to see the tang markings.

Here is an example of style/evaluating

http://www.samuraisword.com/eval/evalsht3.htm

Yours looks and sounds like the Army officer swords, but they could still have antique and valuable blades. As with anything these days though, who knows how 'war loot' is considered legally if it belonged to a specific family.

 

[Ken from Atlanta]

The war loot thing is an interesting question, My great uncle had several japanese swords and rifles that he got during the occupation. He told me a story about how when MacArthur banned all weapons on mainland Japan, the miltary rounded up all the guns and swords they could find, loaded them onto boats and dumped them in Tokyo bay. The ones he had were his "picks" from the pile on the dock before they were dumped. Unfortunately for me, his children didn't appreciate those things as much as I do, and they sold all of it when he passed, and probably for much less than it was worth.

You are not obliged to find out if there is a family that will want the sword, that's completely up to you. It would be a noble thing to do, and I would certainly try to find relatives of the soldier who carried it if there was any hope of doing it.

 

[Brendan M.]

The war loot thing is an interesting question, My great uncle had several japanese swords and rifles that he got during the occupation. He told me a story about how when MacArthur banned all weapons on mainland Japan, the miltary rounded up all the guns and swords they could find, loaded them onto boats and dumped them in Tokyo bay. The ones he had were his "picks" from the pile on the dock before they were dumped. Unfortunately for me, his children didn't appreciate those things as much as I do, and they sold all of it when he passed, and probably for much less than it was worth.

You are not obliged to find out if there is a family that will want the sword, that's completely up to you. It would be a noble thing to do, and I would certainly try to find relatives of the soldier who carried it if there was any hope of doing it.

I feel your pain. My grandfather brought back all kinds of weapons from WWII -- a samurai sword, M-1 carbine, bayonet, etc. -- and my grandmother made him sell them all on account of my mother being just a toddler at the time. That kills me!

Travis, as for your swords, they're both likely officer swords constructed during the WWII era. The second one (with the metal scabbard) most definitely is, as older non-Army swords generally never have metal scabbards, and the pattern of the sword guard (tsuba) is also pretty standard for that period. The first one is a bit trickier -- the leather wrap may be improvised, and it appears the guard is missing, so I'd need to have a closer look. What's really going to be the big factor for both is whether they're machine- or hand-made blades. If they're hand-made, the tang (the part that fits into the grip) will have the maker's name etched into the steel. If it's blank it's probably factory-made. You also want to take a close look at the steel just above the edge. You want to see a wavy tempering line (called a hamon). It's kind of like Damascene, but unique to Samurai swords. It's definitely important that the sword has that.

If these are factory blades, the swords are probably worth $300-$500 a piece on eBay; if they're older they could be worth a LOT more.

Congrats again!!!

Cheers,
Brendan

 

[zerohypert]

Your German dagger is a German National Hunting Association Knife. Also called a "Hirschfanger"A very nice find. Here's a link to more info: http://germandressdaggers.com/Hunting Association.htm

It's worth around $1700.00 - $2000.00 here's another link to some for sale : http://www.johnsonreferencebooks.com/catalogue/weapons/daggers/huntforestrifle/

I would LOVE to find one of those under my floor!!!!!

One more thing, before you get too exited, have an expert look at it in person, there are some post war copys that are less valuable, and I haven't found one with hirschfanger on the blade. That doesn't mean it isn't real though, but you need to be sure.

Impressive information source.... but i dont know if dagger is fake or what.. but it looks so clean though also there's another marking on it which says Rosch... i've tried to google it to narrow it down to find what kind or so. Haha.. It'd be really nice if it was under your floor.. but it just dont happen to everybody though. My great uncle was weird.. of course he's veteran.. but still...did he really have to have those floor for those swords.. beside those gold bar... but its too good to be true you know? Gonna try google for Rosch marking again... let me know if you find something

 

[zerohypert]

Btw thanks guys so much for this overwhelming information....I'll try find out if it was factory made or hand made. I plan to take all of them to a local and ask an expert to take a look at it.. and I'll keep you guys up dated!

 

[Ken from Atlanta]

What is the full mark on the back of the blade? The more I look the more I think it may not be a third reich dagger, the hunting association existed before the nazi era, and is still around today.

 

[zerohypert]

What is the full mark on the back of the blade? The more I look the more I think it may not be a third reich dagger, the hunting association existed before the nazi era, and is still around today.

there are few markings that i only can see... is Solingen, Germany and Hirschfanger and Rosch... um? let me know

 

[taropatch]

There are buyers from Japan that fly over periodically to purchase those samurai swords. Some are family heirlooms and surviving members will pay a pretty penny to get them returned. Nice looking kukri you got there -- love that handle.

If I were you I'd search every inch of that house

 

[ivan salis]

uh seems like uncle had good taste -- those items are worth a nice bit --- even if machine made the japanese swords are at least $500 each and if the are true hand made older swords of the folded into itself metal type design they could be very very valuible indeed-- the german "boar" hunting blade is very valuible also --- you really stumbled into a nice bit of luck --- look very , very carefully all over the place -- including inside the electrical switch plate boxes -- often a "dummy" electrical box with a face plate was used as a jewelery stash spot to thwart crooks -- there are many other tricks and tips to finding "hidden" spaces ---measure the distances -- if the outside room measurement is 11 ft long and the inside is 10 ft 6 in --theres a 6in dead space "hollow" in the wall ---that can be used as a hiding spot .