Antique Samurai Sword REAL

Step one... buy a decent camera.

Step two... learn how to use it.

if you cant help, dont try, thanks.

Try this site: http://www.nihontoantiques.com/sell_or_appraise_your_sword.htm

Your feet are filthy, and you've got dried snot or food substance on your table.

Plus, you've got garbage all over your floor.

Well, what did you think I meant when I said you could eat off the floors? I never said you might want to.

no sir, that snot is not dry

thanks rosborne you were way more helpful then the other guys

roger's not a sir, she's a girl.

The pictures are bad and I admit I'm not an expert in this particular area, but I know antiques in general. I don't think it's as old as you think. The details are sparse and not very well done. Japanese swords that old tend to have incredible detail, even when issued for lower ranking soldiers. I would say it's probably mid-19thc and not very valuable, especially due to condition. Are there any Japanese characters on the blade?

Yup. That means we can shower together, huh?

Yeah, Rosborne's link is good. Can you take a picture of the oriental letters on the blade and post it here? You'll have to clean it up first, then photograph it on a black background. I know something of samurai swords and from the looks of that one suspect the characters actually say "Made in Hong Kong".

As long as you don't hog the soap.

It roughly translates to "Stolen from Yoshida Minoru".

I can share.

Ill post better photos asap of the characters thanks for the help

you need to take photos where the details can be seen. It is absolutely impossible to tell anything about it with out that.

Get yoru camera and prop it on to something before taking your photo. Attempt to take the photo as hands free as possible. Put it next to a lamp and remove the shade so that the detail of the metal can be seen.

the photos are not the result of the camera.
a good camera does not make 'good' photos and is not the point of the thread.

About that lamp without the shade, yes. When doing precise work like checkering wood or working to a scribed line, a single point is the best by far, and florescent lighting is about the worst.

Take your time - daylight is also good for reading inscriptions on metal. If you want to match the inscription yourself start with this site on samurai swords >
http://home.earthlink.net/~steinrl/nihonto.htm
> the links are very reliable. There's also a good section on how to spot fakes before wasting too much time - you probably want to start with that one.

http://home.earthlink.net/~steinrl/repro.htm
Keep in mind that your grandfather brought it home as a souvenir, not as a museum piece (the few taken out of Japan from the Imperial collection and various shrines were returned long ago), now it has come down to you and you should be glad to have it even if it's a mass-produced copy. Good luck.