We recently sold a WWII Japanese Samurai Sword for a long time customer.

When he brought it it, he didn’t know much about it, other than the fact that it was brought back from the war by an uncle. There were no maker’s marks evident on the piece and without marks they were selling for around $400.

With his expectations lined up, we agreed to sell the sword for him. After extensive research, learning about the parts of a sword like this and what brings it’s value, we discovered that many swords were marked by their swordsmith on the tang. (That’s the part hidden under the grip). Well, if it’s hidden under the grip, the only way to find that is to take apart the sword. We learned how to carefully and appropriately disassemble the sword and were pleased to find the signature.

Why is this important? Signed swords bring more money than unsigned swords.

We could have left it alone and not risked disassembling the sword. He was OK with not knowing if it was signed or not. We could have done a real minimal amount of research. Fortunately, we’re not content with going halfway.

Here’s what happened!

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