Katana, possibly from the Philippines

[Evildedluv]

I have a sword my grandfather gave to me, I'm curious what it is. I don't know much about swords, so sorry if I'm not providing enough info. I measured it, the blade is just under 27 inches in length and the hilt is about 9 inches in length. It looks like a katana, but I could be mistaken. The blade seems thicker than other katanas I have seen. At the base of the blade it has "Philippines" etched in, which is what led me to believe it was from there. Hopefully the images fill in any blanks.

Thanks for your time

 

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[tamrock]

Did Granddad tell you anything on it, such as how he came to have it?

 

[Charlie P. (NY)]

Having the word "Phillipines" in English doesn't extend much hope that it is anything but a tourist item.

 

[allen_idaho]

This is unquestionably a tourist piece. They handcraft these usually out of mild steel and sell them cheap.
If you look at the blade, you will notice it is very rough with a lot of imperfections, rust pockets and grind marks. Meaning it was just a piece of mild steel that was cleaned up and shaped with power tools. Then they threw a handle on it and sold it.

I've seen hundreds of these during my trips through the Philippines. It was also fairly common for the Philippine Marines to bring along dozens of knives to try and trade while we were doing joint training with them.