Cheer's mate i will get it out and take some close up images of both sides of tang,and yes the blade appears to be in good shape,its straight,fairly light in wieght,has some very minor pitting around top 2-3cm of blade on both sides of the tip area,but apart from that and 1 tiny nick to edge its in pretty good shape,still very sharp,no stains has a few minor scratch's but for any blade that has seen war you would expect that,thanks guy's for the info on both these swords,
i may have another one in a few weeks,i have seen the same sword in gregory's sword book, a type 98 with ray skin wrapped scabbard,like the skin off the ray's back,so it has un-usual pattern like white & green skin,it looks to be the exact sword in the book too,exactly same pattern in skin which would be very very hard to do twice i would imagine,its a high end type 98,signed and surrendered i was told that is was surrendered by a high ranking officer its very hard to try and get him to part with it,but im trying as always it comes down too the $$$,this guy is where all my high end stuff comes from in his private collection here in Australia i drive and collect them as he lives 2 hours away,but has so many high end rare swords im amazed at the effort he went to to hunt them out over the years,he has been collecting for over 40 years,he got many direct from Vet's as he is retired now and down sizing a bit,so each sword has its own intersting story,where it came from,by who and what not,thanks guy's