Bruce Pennington

Ah, yes, I never recognize the stylized "tada", but you're right. I have another of his blades with that same mei. Here's your guy, Duncan: "KANETADA (兼忠), Shōwa (昭和, 1926-1989), Gifu – “Kanetada” (兼忠), real name Ishihara Keiichi (石原銈一), born October 10th 1920, he worked as a guntō smith" Don't know how much you know about your sword, so forgive the over-information, if your already up to speed: Ohmura's pages on the WWII gunto: Military Swords of Imperial Japan - Ohmura Care and cleaning: Japanese Sword Care The Showa stamp was used by the civilian Seki Cutlery Manufacturers Association on approved blades between 1935 and 1942, with most dated blades found made in 1940-41. They are usually nice quality showato. I'd appreciate a photo or 2 of the full rig for my files.

What does the rest of the Dirk look like? The wire wrap around the handle does not look standard. this is how a standard Japanese Navy Dirk would look.

But what is that? Anyone?

Oh, I see the difference. Different cord, different tassel top. Don't know what that is.

Tony, I wish I could remember where I read it, but I recall reading that near the end of the war, they dropped the production step of crimping the ends, to speed up the process. This may be what you have.

The tassel is really bizarre! I've never seen one that short before. Does it look like it was made that way? Or was it cut/broken and one end reinserted? Pull the slider up to see if the straps go directly into the tassel heads. Can you see a stitch holding one end to the other? The reference books all the all-brown army tassel a "late war" tassel, however due to a recent Uniform regulation discovery, we now know it was used by the civil branch of the military call Gunzoku. They wore similar looking uniforms and performed jobs like maintenance, administration, teaching, etc. @PNSSHOGUN - John, one for the record books!

Been fast as greased lightning today 6 - 8 Pacific, which is odd, since that is the same time frame as Mark.

This one could be a Type 32 NCO sword, missing the wooden grip. Could we get a better shot of it, maybe without all the other stuff?

Yes, Joseph called it on sword 5: Read up on the Type 32 here: NCO 1889 Type 32. Made between 1889 - 1935, but still carried by some through the end of WWII.

7pm, U.S. Pacific Coast time - really, really slow.

I've been getting email notifications.

OOPS! Sorry, I've been in Kalifornia for over a year now, and I still say "Mountain time" out of habit!!!

Lots of photos of fakes here: NMB Gallery: Fakes And several threads of fakes here: https://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/forum/142-fake-Japanese-swords/

The writing inside the saya are usually just production instructions, type of wood, sometimes a worker's name, so other than pure curiosity, there's no need to work that out. There are plenty of in-depth discussions about photography, but the essence is - dark/black background; dark room with single, bright light above or behind you; take shot so the glare of the light is just off the side of the spot you want to show.

Just back on the site, 2pm Mountain, and everything is fast as lightning! It seems random when it happens, but for me, it's always in the early morning 6 or 7 Mountain time.

Tony, You are right that 1943 was the height of the use of the NA stamp, but it was still seen in 1944, overlapping the use of the small Seki. 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 No Date Na 1 3 17 96 30 1 4 Na & Gi 3 Seki, small, 3mm 12 29 20 2 Gifu Total 2 40 73 4 Gifu 2 21 50 4 Se & Gi 16 17

VERY slow page loading, photo loading & uploading; slow to Save new posts. 7am- 8am US Mountain time.

That display is quite beautiful, my compliments!!! Care and cleaning: Japanese Sword Care I don't see the smith in Sesko's list, but here is what Slough has on him:

John, That's a unique one! Can you post closer, clear shots of the belt hanger, and one of the koiguchi (metal cap at opening of the saya)?

I think you're right on both points, Thomas! Can't imagine why Yamamoto would take another shop's tsuba and over stamp it, but it looks like that is what we see here. Supporting the idea is that when I went through all the Yamamoto on file, they all had the same style 'scoop' marks at the top and bottom, yet this one has a different style more like the scoops on Suya tsuba. Yamamoto tsuba are all like the left one Suya are the style on the right

The translation guys will have to help you with that writing. It's usually assembly instructions, or sometimes the name of the wood worker.

I'd like to get some more eyes on this, and maybe figure out what I've got. A shop stamp that roughly looks like the Yamamoto Co. logo. I'm not sure it's the exact same "writing" of the logo. Posted by learje at this Gunboards Thread. Lear's (both sides) The normal Yamamoto logo looks like this: Going through the other 7 I have on file, I did find one that seems the same as Lear's. So, I don't know if we have two different shops, or if we are seeing two variations of the Yamamoto stamp.

Plan vs Actual - yes, always different Just looking at Jinsen + Nagoya, the plan was for 15,000 vs you actual of 17,500 -- so, believable! Also, I don't know how many of your numbers were strictly '45. Could they have been spread over '44 & '45? If so, you actual for just '45 would be less. As for Tokyo, I think their plan for 9,000 swords got interfered with by the Allies.

Thanks for posting, Dale, most excellent!

An update from Edokko at Gunboards: "When I did a quick check through era arsenal documents on the fiscal year production plan for 1945, the monthly Type 95 sword planned numbers from April to August (beyond September is meaningless so I did not tally it up) were as follows and significantly lower than the numbers from your reference source, moreover these are production plan numbers which were obviously impacted by the bombing campaign with actual production numbers being much lower than the planned numbers. Suya / Apr : 50, May : 200, Jun : 200, Jul : 300, Aug : 350 Kobe / Apr : 400, May : 400, Jun : 500, Jul : 600, Aug : 600 Iijma / Apr : 0, May : 0, Jun : 50, Jul : 100, Aug : 250 Jinsen / Apr : 100, May : 400, Jun : 1,000, Jul : 1,500, Aug : 1,500 Nagoya contract / Apr : 1,500, May : 2,000, Jun : 2,000, Jul : 2,500, Aug : 2,500 Total production plan / Apr : 2,050, May : 3,000, Jun : 3,750, Jul : 5,000, Aug : 5,200 "