reeder

Either way, Type 3/Type 44/NLF is what collectors have identified the fittings as and what have stuck with it being an official name/designation or not. It is a variation made during the war and known as the above, correct or not. Fuller and Gregory Reference the same article and note that they have seen blades dated from 1942 to 1945 in these mounts. I personally have only seen 44 and 45 dated blades in these mounts, but my sample size is much smaller than most of you long time collectors. Some others have noted seeing blades dated as early as 43 in these mounts. In regards to these mounts being the "poor man's sword", I'm with Daniel, I do not know that I buy that general statement as he has noted that we have seen many good blades by good smiths in these mounts. Given the amount of 42-45 dated blades I have seen out in the wild, both in type 98 and type 3 mounts, the drastic shortage does not seem consistent with my personal observations. I rarely see blades dated pre-1940. Maybe the increased production reflects the increased demand and shortage?

NIce, I'm a Nagamitsu fan as well.

It happens to all of us. I recently bought a bunch of stuff I'm going to lose money on if I resell. It's part of the game. You win some, you lose some. Hopefully the wins outweigh the losses and ties. If it has a handle I think you'll easily get your money back. If not, going to have to sell for parts, or buy a handle to complete it. Either way, I don't think you'll lose money, if so, not much. Just don't be in a rush to dump it.

No, I purchased it from a guy off another forum. I guess he could have got it from Komonjo at some point and mounted it in original Type 98 fittings? Came with the typical vet purchase story, which I know is to be taken with a grain of salt. As with most swords I come across and purchase, I was not provided pictures of the nakago on this one (most people don't know or want to mess with removing the tsuka, sometimes it works out great, other times not so much). Like I said, nakago pictures put aside, the blade itself and the fittings all look original WWII. Blade fits nicely in saya & tsuka. Tsuba has a slight wiggle. Seppa, tsuba & tsuka all have matching numbers...

Here's a couple of pictures of the blade and fittings.

I think it's Katsunaga and ? Tadaten(?) saku kore. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I could not find this smith in my references or with mei searches online. I did find one Katsunaga from -1848 on JSSUS but could not find oshigata to compare to. Nakago almost looks like some of the better fakes coming out of China but the blade itself and the fittings look ok.

Ah, I see. If you were in the states would just ship you a few to see if one fit then send the others back with $20 for the one you kept. Have you tried Doug at guntoartswords.com?

Where are you located?

You're safe to call this one Nihonto. he probably meant the Russo-Japanese War from the early 1900s?

Pierced tsubas are usually earlier. These are Type 98 fittings.

Nice, Hamfish. Rich, you're not the only emura/Nagamitsu lover. .

As a younger collector I've spent some time thinking about the future of sword collecting in general. My thoughts are that Nihonto & Shinsakuto will continue to fall in terms of market prices. I think gunto swords are the future of Japanese sword collecting. The availability of information in English, the availability of the swords, a well established market that is easy to look up market prices, relative affordability, and the history associated with WW2 are the contributing factors. I don't think that gunto or WW2 blade prices will rise, but I hope they do, but I do not think they will fall either. I imagine them remaining relatively constant with short term fluctuations. For example, look at Mantetsu blades. I recall 2 years ago you could buy a mint one at auction anytime and expect to pay about $1500, couple months ago if mint you were looking at around $3000, now they've seemed to fall to mid $2000s unless just mint and something out of the ordinary. The same thing can be observed with WW2 bayonets. Couple of years ago German K98s were hot and Japanese bayonets were slow, now it's the complete opposite. Japanese bayonet prices have increased and K98 bayonet prices have nearly fallen to half of what they were fetching not that long ago. As always, there are exceptions to the rule. These are just my general observations. I've seen numerous discussions regarding the "fall of Nihonto" and agree with most of the points consistently brought up. 1) cost as a barrier to enter, 2) knowledge and information, 3) lack of a well established market to determine market values, etc etc. I don't think I need to reiterate what has been preached so many times before. I think guys will always have a general interest in samurai swords but when they step in and hear the prices they'll laugh and the only interest will be to score that huge lottery blade and retire. Problem is, who will buy it? I personally have little to no interest in shinsakuto. If it's post war, I do not care, well I suppose if yasukuni I would be interested, but other than that if someone isn't basically giving me the blade I move on looking for the next one. Just my $.02. Agree/disagree, that's fine. I've gotten to where I don't even want to mess with Nihonto. Too hard to move and always money losers. Plus, I can never find any that are in original condition that I want to keep. Every one I've owned has been boogered with in some form or fashion and I can't ever justify the cost of restoration. That and if they happened to be signed, everyone always cries "Gimei." With gunto, they move quick and even if I pay more than I think I should it seems like it's much easier to get most if not all of my money back and in some instances make a little to put towards the next sword. Losing money on Nihonto after Nihonto, attempting to sell month after month is not sustainable in the long-term and Nihonto ties up too much cash. Now, if I win the $600 million powerball one day, I'll buy Japanese swords indescriminately.

Your sword is probably made in 1942-1943. If it's signed on the other side that will be the date. Being seki stamped, as previously stated, it is not traditionally made. In regards to Peter's comment, a seki stamped blade is a seki stamped blade. In general, they're all about the same regardless of who made them, and are of little interest to most of the members on this board.

In that condition $700 is a decent deal. You should be able to make a little money if you decide to resell it for any reason. You shouldn't lose any money at least. It was also a fair price for the seller as well. It has the seki stamp as previously mentioned so it will not be traditionally made but that does not necessarily mean it was not hand forged or semi-hand forged. The mei reads Noshu Ju ?? Masa? Saku. I'll have to look up the rest in the books or online. Or you can try to finish it out here (assuming that smith is listed there) by trying to match up the characters. Just look at the signatures that begin with "masa". http://www.japaneseswordindex.com/oshigata/index.htm

Thanks, Stephen. Carlos, I'm not sure about shipping to Chile. I personally would avoid it as a seller as I haven't done it before and doesn't seem like much stuff goes in and out of South America in regards to collectable edged weapons. I guess it depends who you ask on whether the sword is a weapon or not. It was originally created as a weapon, swords are technically weapons, but it is also just a collectable antique.

It's a great blade and deal, and the person's ad you posted it on should snap it up. It's a hair over what they want to spend but well worth going over budget for.

In addition to the blades linked above I have a number of swords for sale/on consignment. Feel free to contact me with any questions and/or offers. If they're my blades I'll consider trades. I collect gendaito type 98/type 3 swords that are all matching and in excellent condition. I am happy to pass on the savings from eBay fees on to the buyer if purchased directly. You can search my eBay username btreed3 or click the above links and then click "seller's other items"

1st time I've seen this as well, but I have not been playing with swords nearly long as you.

More pictures. Been trying to work on my sword photography skills. More practice is in order.

I listed 2 Wakizashi blades on eBay this evening. 1. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Antique-Japanese-Samurai-Sword-Wakizashi-Nihonto-Pre-WW2-Katana-Tanto-/261951875381?ssPageName=STRK:MESE:IT 2. http://www.ebay.com/itm/-/261951961094?ssPageName=STRK:MESE:IT The attached pictures are of the 2nd blade listed. I am happy to provide additional pictures and answer questions to the best of my knowledge. I'm more of a WW2 Gendaito collector so my knowledge on these is quite limited. Feel free to discuss the blades. I would also consider trading the blades for/towards Type 98/Type 3 gendaito/older blades that are in excellent, matching condition. I'm currently looking for Nagamitsu, Emura, Yasukuni-to, Minamoto Yoshichika (1st or 2nd gen), etc.

Srayback post some pics, we'd be happy to assist.

more

Additional pictures. I took more but they came out blurry. I am happy to take more if anyone would like additional pictures.

Thanks, Barry. I will post some better pictures on this thread tomorrow evening.