Why do you need Sword Certificate?
If you want to buy a sword and you have started your search then of course you want to buy a good quality sword at a nice price. Most people often don't know very much about steel and swords and then get a lot of information about the different swords. Maybe you are even a tad unsure if you are going to make a good purchase. Many webshops and forges cleverly jump on this by offering all kinds of certificates with the swords. You have them in all colors and sizes, in Chinese and Japanese, with all kinds of exotic characters and texts.
I even see webshops selling only decorative swords, which are really not suitable for functional use, but they advertise them with certificates.
How much sense do these sword certificates really make for cheaper swords?
Am I going to be honest about this? I think so, that lasts the longest in my opinion and I would also like to save people from unsafe situations if they bought a cheap sword with a certificate. Perhaps you want to be able to train or practice tameshigiri with this. That's not a good idea and you certainly shouldn't go there.
But back to the question: no, a sword certificate makes no sense at all unless it comes from the NBTHK.
This is a foundation from Japan to appraise and preserve Japanese swords.
The NBTHK has the monopoly of appraising and certifying Japanese Katana which is controlled by the government. The appraisers who are all Japanese Sword experts. So these are all authentically forged katanas made in Japan. These are usually antique swords that are thus attributed to a school or blacksmith. These are often expensive antique Japanese swords.
And what about the cheaper swords?
These often have a certificate or usually a piece of paper stating the specifications or type of steel. These are often just made or issued by the sword forge or their marketing department. These certificates are useless and often add nothing to what a professional seller can provide in terms of specifications. Chinese sword certificates are made by someone who is often not even directly involved in the manufacturing process.
From my own expertise I know that many manufacturers offer that they want to include a katana certificate of authenticity and you may specify what you want in this. So is this really all reliable. I think not, better make sure you buy something from someone who knows his stuff and can judge for himself whether a sword is of good quality.
Below a random paper of certificate by chinese sword forge
