Island made sword

[scratch]

Thank you Spiral, Thank you Bill for putting me out of my misery. This is the first item I bought about a year ago and its been niggling me since. I then rediscovered kukris, thank goodness!
Johnathon, I must respectfully oppose your designation as a $1 shanghai ebay sword. Clumbsy yes, illformed yes, ugly yes. modern chinese construction, not from where I stand.
Structurally I feel this is a very strong piece of steel, It can absorb a great deal of stress and return true. Thank you for difinitively telling what it is not. I still feel it has some redeeming qualities. I wonder If bored Australian engineers made this at the end of WWII for sale to the better paid American soldiers.Perhaps they copied from a genuine piece, which could explain its crude but robust nature. I was hoping it was of a more tribal nature. Thanks again for ending my confusion The next items I'm about to post are of chinese origin I believe, more bad news on the way I expect

Kind regards to All

Daniel

[Bill M]

Originally Posted by scratch

Thank you Spiral, Thank you Bill for putting me out of my misery. This is the first item I bought about a year ago and its been niggling me since. I then rediscovered kukris, thank goodness!
Johnathon, I must respectfully oppose your designation as a $1 shanghai ebay sword. Clumbsy yes, illformed yes, ugly yes. modern chinese construction, not from where I stand.
Structurally I feel this is a very strong piece of steel, It can absorb a great deal of stress and return true. Thank you for difinitively telling what it is not. I still feel it has some redeeming qualities. I wonder If bored Australian engineers made this at the end of WWII for sale to the better paid American soldiers.Perhaps they copied from a genuine piece, which could explain its crude but robust nature. I was hoping it was of a more tribal nature. Thanks again for ending my confusion The next items I'm about to post are of chinese origin I believe, more bad news on the way I expect

Kind regards to All

Daniel

Dan,

We all have made mistakes in our collecting! We still do, sometimes. You should see some of the Chinese "Emperor General Ming Dynasty" swords I bought a few years ago.

Just keep on reading the posts here. Get to know some people who collect in the areas you like. Send them private messages.

Buy and read books.

Get to know the prices weapons bring. For instance, it is unlikely you will find a good Chinese or Japanese sword for under a thousand dollars. If you do, it will be because you have studied and recognize the rare "sleeper."

There are a lot of clever sellers on eBay. People with hugely inflated shipping charges. People who list items wrong intentionally so that they appear to be "sleepers," hoping to start a bidding frenzy from the sleeper hunters!

My strong suggestion is to read posts here. Use the "Search" Function to find information and people in areas you like. Buy books and READ them!

Books Can be expensive, but much less than mistakes you may otherwise make.

There are some very knowledgeable people on this forum, however we all make mistakes. Don't necessarily take what you read here as absolute truth. We are ALL learning.

There are some world-class experts here. For instance, I consider Jonathon (Spiral) to be one of the top people in Khukuris. You mentioned that you like them. He has an outstanding collection and a powerful understanding of these marvelous weapon/tools. Do understand that when you ask him a question, you will get a blunt and accurate opinion.

Welcome to the Forum. Hope that you have a good time here. I certainly do!

[spiral]

Originally Posted by scratch

Johnathon, I must respectfully oppose your designation as a $1 shanghai ebay sword. Clumbsy yes, illformed yes, ugly yes. modern chinese construction, not from where I stand.
Structurally I feel this is a very strong piece of steel, It can absorb a great deal of stress and return true. Thank you for difinitively telling what it is not.

Well its in your hands Dan, I am just looking at the photos, so you can see who it feels in the hand etc. that I cant. I wasnt suggesting it was from Shanghai via ebay just that as a Japanese" sword its genuiness was at the same level. As you say its a stronger piece.

1mm distal taper is not far from no distal taper im my book.

I dont have any idea who made it, a lost tribe or OZi bored soldiers.

The Japanese sword represented more than a weapon, its primary use in the WW2 Army was as a emblem of rank, honour & spirit.

Hi Bill, mmm yes guess I am blunt sometimes, most days I am ansewaring email questians about kukri etc so over time, I guess , I have reached the stage where I do just say my reactions to a piece.

Perhaps I shouldnt do that on forums, Ill think about that one...

Dan does know me already though.


Spiral

[scratch]

Hello all,
Sorry for resurrecting this dreadful creature, however after a vinegar etch this was the result. I am interested in learning what construction method was used to make this, laminated? I have no idea and would be appreciative of any help received

Kind regards,

Dan

[RSWORD]

It would appear that this blade is laminated. I have seen similar "patterns" on barong blades from the Philippines. The real open pattern, I believe, is from minimal folding of the blade.

[josh stout]

This is far from my area of knowledge, but is there a chance this could be a Korean piece? My minimal understanding of Japanese blades is that the tang is tilted at an angle to the blade, while Korean pieces will have a tang that follows the blade contour. Also, the tip is a much more common shape in Korean swords than in Japanese swords which usually show separate faceting. I would suggest a close look at the Korean stuff in "History of Steel" for more similarities.

Vietnamese sabers also copied the Japanese look, and had crude Japanese style guards like the one shown, but the hilt would be completely different, so I will stick with my Korean guess.
Josh

[Ferguson]

Originally Posted by RSWORD

It would appear that this blade is laminated. I have seen similar "patterns" on barong blades from the Philippines. The real open pattern, I believe, is from minimal folding of the blade.

Rick, you're the man when it comes to wootz and pattern welded steel. Let me throw out another possibility. My first time etching a blade looked like that. I didn't degrease it properly and the vinegar beaded up. Could that be what we're seeing? I found that cleaning the blade with acetone or alcohol prior to etching, and adding a drop of dishwashing liquid to the vinegar caused the vinegar to wet the blade better.

I could be way off though, and that could be the actual pattern in the steel.

Steve

[kai]

Hello Dan,

I'm with Steve here and also believe that this pattern might be a staining artifact...

Degreasing is paramount and being generous with the etchant (or submersing the whole blade) also helps to reveal real patterns.

Regards,
Kai

[TVV]

I have seen this effect as well, and interestingly enough, it was on a barong blade. I etched the blade a few times, and each time a got a pattern that looked like this, but always in a different way, which was enough to convince that I was not etching properly. My initial reaction when I saw the pictures was the same as Steve's, but I just wanted to see what other members had to say.
Regards,
Teodor