AVOID CHINESE MADE FAKE JAPANESE SWORD AT ALL COST

 

 

The simplest motivation for not getting caught in the trade of "Chinese-made fake Japanese swords" is to understand the simple fact that Japanese swordsmen would only use a Japanese sword that was made by qualified Japanese swordsmiths who have been through over 7 years of hard training.  Why would one want to own a "Japanese" sword that a Japanese swordsman wouldn't even use? 

Japanese swords made by qualified Japanese swordsmiths always have a certain visual quality to them.  Chinese crooks could never be able to achieve such visual quality, and knowing what to look for and what to avoid would easily guide anyone out of this Chinese made fake junk trap. 

There are 3 visual qualities that anyone could detect easily as long as the blade in question is not rusted or too badly scratched: the fundamental metalwork of the blade, the shape of the blade, and the quality of the polish on the blade.

An experienced Japanese sword collector can separate a Japanese sword of quality from fake ones very easily, everyone else should also be able to do so quite easily after viewing a few good examples of good quality Japanese blades. If you are new to Japanese sword collecting, or don't know what characteristics that you should be looking for, please see the photos below. I will cut out all the terminology mumbo jumbo, and use simple visual tools to help train your eyes and your mind.

 

 

 

 

CHINESE JUNK BLADE

 

 

The saying of "you will know it is a good sword when you see the work on it" is no longer entirely true. The Chinese junk swordmakers are getting good at what they do by including grain pattern on their blades, which makes their blade even more difficult for some collectors to detect. The following visual tool will help you better understand exactly what to look for.

 

 

Example (1A).

This is a "good fake" as grain pattern (hada) is clearly visible, but there are differences as this was not made by a qualified Japanese swordsmith. The metal layers are too thick and too visible all over area B and C, very much like Damascus steel. Grain pattern is not visible in the area A (hamon / temper edge). This kind of grain pattern almost gives the impression that the metalwork itself is too rough and "TOO LOUD".

 

 

Example (1B).

This is a closer look at the grain pattern of the the same Chinese fake. Also, the quality of the polish clearly shows very little contrast between area A, B and C. This is simply because the polisher of this blade lacks the skill of a qualified Japanese sword polisher. The area A should reflect white light in contrast to the area B. Area C should have a highly reflective surface like a mirror in contrast to area B with a rather non-reflective quality to the surface. It would take a well trained Japanese sword polisher with over 7 years of hard training to accomplish the correct contrast and proper effect. 

 

 

Example (2).

This is the tip of a "good fake". The polish is still of poor quality. Areas X, Y were not polished separately by different methods and hence the two areas are separated by a line that is barely visible. Area Z should be different from areas X and Y because it should carry a highly reflective mirror surface and that is clearly missing. The overall outline of area X is far too tapered on the left side. The tip of a blade is always the most difficult part to polish, it is also where the fake sword polishers making a huge mess out of their junk blades, and this is a very badly polished tip.

 

 

Example (3).

This Chinese made junk does not have a real hamon / temper edge to protect the blade from chipping upon impact, which means the area was never hardened by extreme heat. The hamon only looks white because there are either artifical fine scratches on the metal in the area, or acid treatment in that area, or a combination of both. You can see the lines that make a right angle to the edge on the entire blade that are not supposed to be there at all.

 

 

Example (4).

Carving works on Chinese made junk are always shallow and bold in nature, unlike those found on authentic Japanese swords that are always deep, rounded off in the deepest part, and have a reflective mirror like quality to it. This carving was likely made by some other technique such as stamping, or made with the help of certain electrical tool.

 

 

Example (5).

This blade was shown with a set of authentic military fittings, it even comes with a good looking signature on the tang unlike the bad fakes. However, as soon as I look at the hamon / temper edge, it is all too clear that this is just another piece of junk. This only means one of the 2 possibilities: (1) either the blade has been switched, or (2) the quality of the sword mounting and the blade signature of the fakes have been greatly improved. Hamon / temper edge with strong immediate contrast and sharp pointy white peaks is a good indication that the look is entirely cosmetic. There is no real metal work or crystaline structure beyond the surface of the blade, hence it is a fake. The best way to avoid blades such as this is to educate your eyes and your mind to detect the shape and the feel of the hamon / temper edge.

 

 

 

 

 

AUTHENTIC JAPANESE SWORD

 

 

Example (1).

This is an authentic Japanese sword under magnification. As you can clearly see, the grain pattern is much finer and more pleasing to the eye.  You could also observe some grain pattern in the hamon / temper edge area if you look closely with a good light source.

 

 

Example (2).

This is another authentic Japanese sword under magnification. The sword has a large grain pattern and is more visible than the above example, but still is in no way as "loud" as the "good fake".

 

 

Example (3).

This is another authentic Japanese sword with lots of activity in the underlying metal work, but it is still very graceful and there is nothing "loud" about it.

 

 

Example (4).

The tip of an authentic Japanese sword should be perfectly shaped as shown. The arc should be pleasing and not forceful. The areas X, Y and Z should be polished differently with different techniques: area X should have a whiter tone (reflect more white light) than area Y, area Z should have a highly reflective mirror like surface (in this case, due to the dark backdrop, the reflection of the backdrop is also dark and hence the area Z in the photo looks black), and areas X, Y and Z should exist as sepatate surfaces joining each other perfectly.

 

 

 

 

 

MEET YOUR ENEMIES

 

 

These sellers were once thought to be from Hong Kong or China only, but this is no longer true. This is because there are individuals out there who are agressively seeking buyers to take over their previous purchasing mistakes. There are also individuals who have no clue as to what they had purchased in the past and unknowingly sell their Chinese junk as authentic Japanese sword. Here is a partial list of sellers who are selling fake Chinese junk as of 11-21-2006.

 

last-warrior-2010   (Canada)

samuraishop   (Hong Kong)

yingsword   (Hong Kong)

badtrack   (China / Hong Kong)

eldoradotradecenter   (Austria)

treasure-chinese   (China)

findkatana   (Hong Kong)

99yaa   (Australia)

999samurai   (Japan)

sawsword   (Hong Kong)

3g8   (Seattle USA)

flashlightining   (Charlotte USA)

luck-hk   (China / Hong Kong)

katana1980   (Hong Kong)

topicool   (Los Angeles USA)

luckyer66886   (China)

sage-77   (S. California USA)

heart_of_swords   (Kyoto Japan / Sydney Australia)

kosirae68   (Queensland / Australia)

gbrand88   (Shanghai / China)

qing-zang-ge   (Shanghai / China)

impartiality369   (Shanghai / China)

chinatown-antiquer   (China / China)

sunzuswd   (Shanghai / China)

asia_culture   (China)

chenghuangmiaogongyipin   (Shanghai / China)

jianhua_collection   (nanyang henan / China)

chinese_artware   (China / China)

handmadesword   (USA)

goldhouse181   (Shanghai / China)

feiteng369*shop   (Baijing / China)

imperialweapon   (Hong Kong / Hong Kong)

razorsharpkatana  (USA)

comedyshop  (USA / GBP / UK)

 

 

 

 

These sellers were spotted for their limited engagement of selling fake Japanese sword, and they are not to be considered as a regular junk seller.

 

doryoronin   (France)

seedal   (Poulsbo WA USA)

 

 

 

 

 

KNOW YOUR ENEMIES

 

 

(A). Some of the Characteristics of these sellers are:

 

1. Passing off a lie.

2. Clueless with swords.

3. Registered as a private seller.

4. Never describe the age of the blade.

5. Low BIN price to capture impulsive buyers.

6. Picture hosting that does not allow you to copy or save.

7. Auction title contains "mystery number" or "nonsense code".

8. Make their auctions private so that the bidders could not be warned.

9. Writes lengthy general sword history but never describes the sword in question.

 

 

(B). Some of the terms that these sellers often use in their auction titles are:

 

1. SanMai

2. Real Japanese Steel

3. Traditional

4. Handforged & Hand Forged

5. Spring Steel

6. Cut5BamboosEdge

7. Cut4BamboosEdge

8. Cheness

9. Ninji

10. Damascus

11. Canvas Saya

12. Skin

13. Folded

14. Sharp

15. Layers

16. RawBlade

17. Functional

18. Practical

19. Handmade

20. Cowskin

21. Fulltang & Full Tang

22. Battle Ready

23. Miyamoto Musashi

24. Cold Iron Folded

25. with sign

26  ChopIronEdge

27. SharpEdge

28. CutTreeEdge

29. Can Chop Iron

30. Consummate

31. Furubushido & Furubushidoo

32. Tri-Polished

33. IMMEMORIAL

34. Archaic

35. Valuable

36. Miraculous

37. cuprum

38. Clay Temper or Clay Tempered

39. Smoke

40. Tempered&Quenchened

41. True Hamon

42. Cloud

43. ZhiSword

44. Tameshigiri

45. SGC Sword & SGC Katana

46. Cut3BamboosEdge

47. Loyalty

48. Empire Wheel

49. 10 Fold

50. Oda Nobunaga

51. Spirit

52. Uesugi

53. Rayskin

54. Honor

55. Razor Sharp

56. Courtesy

57. Hiro Nakamura

58. Heroes

59. Takezo Kensei

60. Ryumon

 

 

 

 

 

These terms were NEVER used by experienced collectors as search words, yet they could be found in hundreds of sword auction titles. These terms are placed in auction titles solely for the purpose of attracting individuals who are completely new in this field of collecting, remembering these nonsense terms by heart would allow you to zip pass these Chinese fake junk listings fast.

 

 

 

 

EXPRESS LANE TO BYPASS CHINESE JUNK

 

 

Here is my method to bypass most of the Chinese junk on eBay:

 

1. Use search words "Japanese Sword" at the eBay search engine.

2. Rearrange search result with the highest price item first.

3. Skip auctions with those common terms described above.

4. Skip multiple auction listings with the same repeating stock pictures.

5. Skip auctions with mystery number / code that does nothing to improve the search result. 

6. Stop browsing through search result when you begin to feel that you are entirely surrounded by junk.

 

Here is the eBay Search Link that I always use.

 

The logic behind this useful method, is that most sellers know what they have, and as long as they have a genuine article for sale, they would never waste time by sinking the item into an ocean of fakes and replicas so that they could never be found. You are only required to view approximately 5 pages of search results instead of going through 80 pages worth of junk. Also, if junk blade sellers list their item at a high starting price, they are extremely likely to end up wasting their high listing fee with zero return. Therefore, you will always find more authentic Japanese swords in the higher price range, and you will always find more fakes and replica in the lower price range. If you are one of the many treasure hunters around, the lower price range is where you should look , but the probability that you would be able to locate a steal is very slim, especially when the title includes the search word "Yasukuni", for example.

 

 

 

 

Generally, if you could train your eyes and your mind to seek these qualities in a Japanese sword, it should be relatively easy and effortless to avoid the "good fakes". Help me to help you, so just ask as there is no stupid question in this field of collecting. Please don't forget to drop me a good VOTE as it would motivate me to update this guide with more information in the future. I will add more to this guide as soon as I can find time.

 

 

After dropping us a good vote, please visit my related guide on

AUTHENTIC JAPANESE SWORD WITH FAKE SIGNATURE OR PAPER.