Battara
24th March 2018, 05:03 AM
Greetings folks,
I got this aikuchi recently. I am puzzled because I think it is a reproduction, but I have looked at repos out there and they don't match this one. On the other hand, some aspects of this aikuchi make me think it might be a kaiken from WWII, or less likely but still possible, a kamikaze dagger.
In the pictures you will notice that there is an engraved dragon and hints of a hamon. The spine is around 3mm-4mm wide, with a very sharp edge, and the blade from tip to habaki is 4.5 inches.
Unfortunately I cannot get the hilt off (may be glued by a previous owner to keep together the broken/split hilt). Also the white fittings are plastic, which makes me wonder again about a repo, except according to Richard Fuller and Ron Gregory ("Military Swords of Japan: 1868-1945") there are variants of the kamikaze dagger that had celluloid fittings.
I am also aware that the quality of kamikaze knives varied considerably.
BTW - I tried the nihonto forum but after several days, no one has answered.
So is this a repo or vintage? :shrug:
I got this aikuchi recently. I am puzzled because I think it is a reproduction, but I have looked at repos out there and they don't match this one. On the other hand, some aspects of this aikuchi make me think it might be a kaiken from WWII, or less likely but still possible, a kamikaze dagger.
In the pictures you will notice that there is an engraved dragon and hints of a hamon. The spine is around 3mm-4mm wide, with a very sharp edge, and the blade from tip to habaki is 4.5 inches.
Unfortunately I cannot get the hilt off (may be glued by a previous owner to keep together the broken/split hilt). Also the white fittings are plastic, which makes me wonder again about a repo, except according to Richard Fuller and Ron Gregory ("Military Swords of Japan: 1868-1945") there are variants of the kamikaze dagger that had celluloid fittings.
I am also aware that the quality of kamikaze knives varied considerably.
BTW - I tried the nihonto forum but after several days, no one has answered.
So is this a repo or vintage? :shrug: