Sword identification (and possible repair)

[Mjsh]

Hi

First time poster so apologies for any mistakes.

I would be grateful for any assistance in identifying this sword. It has been in our family for 50 years.

From the little research I have done I know that important information can be found on the hilt. Sadly the Rayskin and bindings have slipped/shrunk and removal of the pins in the hilt would probrbaly cause a lot of damage.

Would also be grateful for any advice on moving the bindings back into position (if it is advisable) so that we view the tang.

Happy to take more pics etc as required.

Kind regards

[Mjsh]

[Mjsh]

[Mjsh]

[rbminis]

Hello and welcome to the forum!
Please be patient, someone that will be able to assist you will be along to do so.
I believe you have an original older sword but apart from that, I can be of no more help.
Ralph.

[BOB COLEMAN]

What you have is a true samurai sword with traditional hand forged blade. As the steel has oxidized and turned black, it is impossible to tell you more about the blade without seeing the nakago or tang. It has nice nice horimono or carvings of Buddist symbols including a vagra ken(older form of sword), gomma bashi(sacred chop sticks) and bonji(sandscript character). If you do remove the handle, please read the following: When Posting Japanese Sword Tangs For Translation With the horimono, the blade is very likely signed and hopefulkly agenuine signature.

[Mjsh]

Wow. That's incredibly exciting. My family had always assumed it was at best mass produced for ww2. It was only some idle chat and googling over the last few days that made us think otherwise.

More keen than ever to remove the handle. However the Rayskin covers the wooden (bamboo?) pins. This can be seen in one of the last photos above. There is some movement in the handle so I will see if it can be gentley encouraged back in place. I would be desperately sad if I damaged it though... Will carefully check and report back.

[BOB COLEMAN]

I take it the scabbard is missing which would account for the blackening of the blade. The same can be repaired or patched if some comes loose.

[Alan M]

Nice to see this blade , we do not normally see blades with horimono . I look forward to seeing the tang if you manage to get the tsuka off .

[Mjsh]

Thanks!

Sadly the scabbard was lost before it came into my family.

From my reading the handle would be periodically rebound. The blade and some of the other metal items are perhaps truly old?

Can anyone venture an opinion on the age of the handle?