Japanese swords

[OLDE CUTLER]

A friend of mine recently bought these two Japanese (Officers?) swords and left them with me to clean up and research. Just wondering if those of you that may collect these would have some info on them. Are they original, repros? I cannot find any stamps or markings on them. They are not identical, one is 39 inches overall and the other 40 inches.

[Beavertail]

I can't help with determining the age,but I found a website that might help.
http://www.japaneseswordindex.com/realold.htm

[Gunsil]

Japanese swords have their marks on the tang under the handle. The whole handle assembly slides off when you remove the pin in the handle. You can see the pin in your photo, about two inches behind the guard. The pin should push out with hand pressure and then the whole handle just slides off and the marks will be seen. Some WW2 Japanese swords actually used ancient samurai swords with new fittings so I would not do any "cleaning" until the marks have been noted and origin of blade determined. You will need an expert in the marks but you do not want to mess with the bade if it's an antique one.

[zzyzzogeton]

What Gunsil said!!!!!! DO NOT DO ANY POLISHING OR "CLEANING UP" of the blade. If the swords have any real historic background/history, polishing by a unqualified/untrained person Japanese sword polisher will destroy any value the swords have.

Not saying they have any super value, but they might and you don't want to accidently damage their value, if they have any.

I don't know if you are a member of Bladeforums, but over in the SWORD forum there, there are a couple of people who know a lot about Japanese swords and can read any Japanese characters you find under the tsuka (handle).

[OLDE CUTLER]

My "cleaning up" consisted of wiping the blades with an oily cloth to remove the loose crud. I removed the handle on one of them and there are no markings on the tang, but on the front face of the handle there are some markings. Fortunately I know some one who can interpret Japanese if that is what they are.

[Gunsil]

Where the marks are is the tang, we are not dealing with pocket knives here. On swords and fixed blade knives the metal in the handle is the tang.