reeder

Very nice. Extremely jealous!

Cool, neat one!

I recently picked one up and saw this thread. Was going to list for sale/trade if I ever got a chance to get more detailed photos. It’s a little more difficult these days to find the time to play with swords with the kids.

Showato. I believe there’s a thread out there about him possibly making Mantetsu-to given the w stamp but not sure whatever happened to that theory.

Those are my pics from one I used to own. It was a wakizashi. from the lock mounts I’ve seen, the blades tend to be Imai Sadashige. Is that what others have observed as well?

These are two of my favorite blades. Not exactly high class gunto mounts, but top notch smiths and both with a nagasa of at least 27”. Top - Imai Sadashige. Bottom - Tomita Sukehiro.

Fake.

Many thanks, I only had the masa down.

Thanks in advance.

Did you get it? It was posted on eBay last day or two.

John, I think I sent you all of the ones I had a while back but will check again, and can identify what they’re one.

Some of this is off of memory as I've moved on from most of them and not sure I got all of the Type 3 I've owned actually recorded as being in Type 3 mounts vs just being a sword I owned. Saya type is specified in parentheses. Wood saya blades were all gendai, steel with the exception of the Kanenori were all showato. Akihisa (wood) - 26" Hidehiro (wood) - 25"-26" Hiromasa (wood) - 25 3/4" Kanemune (steel) - 26"? Katsumasa (steel) - 25"-26" Mumei (wood) - 25"-26" Nagamitsu x7 (wood) - 25"-27 1/4" Don't remember smith (steel) - 25"-26" Chikamitsu (wood) - 26"-27" Emura (wood) - 26 5/16" Kanenori (steel, star stamped) - 26" Kawano Sadashige (wood) - 24 7/8" Masahisa (wood saya that was 30") - 26"-27" For Type 3s, I assume the mantetsu-to were also 26 1/4". The 100 or so Type 98s I've gone through were 25"-27" with most being about 26". The Naval Kyu-guntos were all under 26" w/ blades that were Koto and shinto. The Kai-guntos were 25"-27" with most being mid 25"s, have had a mix of showato, stainless, & gendai. The army Kyu-guntos I've owned or seen were all over the board from 24" to 28" with a mix of traditionally made blades and arsenal blades. I think the largest wartime blade I've seen and another I've heard of had a 30" nagasa. It was signed Masayuki, which I believe was Iijima Masayuki iirc.

I’ve had a few but mine looked like they were scratched in.

Glad it turned up safely. 50 hours dealing with USPS is some real dedication.

This eBay seller is a junk blade seller. Nothing he’s posted in the last decade I’ve seen at least had been worth pursuing.

You are in the military swords section so you’re going to mostly get folks telling you to keep it together. It’s viewed here like someone sporterizing a nice matching wwii k98. i personally like to keep them together and know other military collectors do as well. At the end of the day it’s your sword and you can do whatever you please with it.

Yup, I have a more desired brass guard that's matching, has more paint remaining than this example for less than $1000 and no bites or offers so far. Pre-COVID it would have been sold for my list price the night I listed it. I thought I saw the grouping from the OP on eBay or GB or something for a pretty high price. I've had mint iron guards when NCOs were hot and they never brought more than $700-$800. The NCO collectors want the early brass guards. I had an iron guard NCO that was a bring back from one of the first recipients of the Navy cross and it took 6 months to sell for $800 a year or two ago. It was 95%+ condition...

Gassan Sadakatsu x2 Imai Sadashige - couldn’t find nakago pics Kawano Sadashige

Oops, mixed up Akihiro with akihide. Akihide ran the NTD, where most of the smiths’ names started with “Aki”. Akihiro and Shigetsugu were BDS.

Akihide was top gendai Smith. Taught all of the Aki smiths in the “black dragon society”. Iirc a lot of the other top gendai smiths studied under him as well.

I just got one that the OAL was 41”. Nagasa was 25”. ????????????

He’s had this garbage posted forever. Even has a very nice YouTube video on it.

It happens from time to time when you buy groups of swords. The saya and tsuka don’t look good either.

Still looking. Also looking for koto & shinshinto blades. Prefer stuff that’s stateside with all that’s going on for now.

Sound like some friend...