Upvote:9
The language is Chinese.
Here's a clearer image (taken from http://iantiqueonline.ning.com/group/whadjafind/forum/topics/japanese-kanji-katana-samurai-sword-i-d-help?)
The text is verbatim:
張武傑 (seal of a person called 張武傑). Maybe this is supposed to suggest that 張武傑, which sounds like a Chinese person's name, was involved in the manufacturing.
The name of a company called 联合 cutting tools. 联合 should not be translated into union here, but treated as a proper noun. It might be in imitation of an American company originally called Union Cutlery Co., now called Ka-Bar Knives., Inc; this company's Chinese name is frequently rendered as 联合刀具.
Special steel. According to baidu, this is a non-standardised grade of steel, so it doesn't really mean anything.
According to an iknife.org thread posted back in 2004, it is of a low-quality imitation manufacture of a Japanese-type blade. Unfortunately the full text was not archived, so here are some snippets:
说垃圾还是算对它客气了,420的钢,刀面很窄,拿着像根铁条,还很重,绝对超了1KG了(怀疑柄里面加了铅块)。 塑料的鞘,中国地摊 ... 刃纹是机磨出来的,还是特整齐的波浪状纹,什么横手切先统统没有,很圆滑的就收尖了(搞笑啊~)。 上面还有“联合刀具,特殊钢”的钢印~当卖菜刀啊?! ...
Calling it rubbish isn't even doing it justice. It is a steel of 420 [grade? length?], the surface is very rough; it feels like an iron bar when holding it in hand, and far exceeds 1 KG (I suspect lead blocks have been added to the inside). The sheath is made of plastic, Chinese street stall ... the patterns on the blade were produced by a machine process, and are in a perfect wave shape. There's no demarcation between yokote and kissaki (unique features of Japanese samurai blades; see image below)
and the tip rounds off extremely smoothly (LOL~). The steel also has the inscription 联合刀具 特殊鋼 ~ is this supposed to be for chopping vegetables?!