Bruce Pennington

Thanks Steve! So, Drew, a real Japanese sword, WWII fittings, with gimei signature. Are you familiar with the practice of gimei?

Here are some shots from Perry's link. Nicer fittings, but lost the field grade tassel!

Hi Perry, welcome! Yes, that finish is an upgrade to the standard contingency model (Type 3, etc). You'll almost always see a gendaito, and quite often RJT star-stamped blade in them. This one is made by an RJT smith Akihisa, Jan 1943, with the Matsu 607 serial number. I have that one on file already from Oct of 2024 sold by St. Croix blades. Interesting, though, someone has switched the fittings.

Hi Drew, welcome to NMB! I see no problem with the fittings. My guess is that someone tried to bring out the hamon with an acid wash. Doesn't mean it's a fake blade, though. Let's see what the translators say about that mei. @SteveM @Nobody

John, We don't know. All we could do is make a systematic survey of naval swords to see if there is a timeline difference in use. Not even sure if one could identify location differences as most of these are mumei.

That's a new one, thanks! I've written to the seller to see if he'll give us a full nakago shot. The belt is an unknown, as to whether the sword shop added it, or the G.I., or a post-war owner.

I think we have a couple photos showing NCOs with officer gunto. If anyone knows where they are, please add to the thread. But what I found today is an officer gunto with a wrapped surrender cloth of a Sergeant Major. Found on this Gunboards Thread. The cloth says: ""243rd Infantry Reg., 5th Co., Army Sgt Maj. Nishikawa Yataro" with the flip side reading "One Nihonto sword including leather scabbard cover and handle cover" - translation by Edokko, Gunboards. The blade is an undated, large Seki stamp, Kanemasa. I mention that because later in the war, the uniform regulations were amended to allow NCOs to carry civil swords. This one is in a leather covered wooden saya, but there's nothing about the blade nor fittings that says "civilian sword refitted for war." The company grade tassel could easily have been added by an owner over the past 80 years, but if original, would be another one of those mysteries. Was the Sgt Major being promoted to officer rank? Who knows. My Army son-in-law said "Sgt Majors are at the top of the food chain, like a General or Admiral. They do whatever the fxxx they want to do."

Yes, you can see on the zoom: It looks to me as if the habaki is just misaligned, shifted upward too much.

Excellent, Tom, thanks! Looks like the kabutogane also has the North China Railway emblem?

Wonder what the thinking or purpose would be for a country-wide attack? What are they trying to achieve?

Brian, Just wondering what happened yesterday afternoon (USA Mountain Time). Tried a couple times, "Server Not Found" message kept popping up.

I don't know the Chinese sword world, but the Chinese fakers love Damascus pattern steel. I have seen a few Japanese swords that had vibrant hada which might be what the Chinese are trying to emulate with the Damascus. Here is one I filed for just such discussions:

I hate to say, but I've not been following their prices lately. I'm thinking they run at the higher end of Type 98 market value, say around $1,900, but that's just a guess.

Haven't seen a kaigunto with canvas cover, so here we are: Found on this Ebay sale page.

Saw this one today. Saya signed by David Carradine, supposedly. How many swords have we seen for sale from the Kill Bill movie? Somebody needs to track these! Ha! Kill Bill's Bride's Rampage Sword - ebay

Interesting, thanks!

Thanks John, enjoyed reading about your investigation!

Thanks John, yes, back in July 2022. It's 1941 Spring Koa Isshin. Didn't record the source, at the time. Paul, is this yours? What you are showing is the serial number SO 231. Assuming they were made in sequence, it would put your blade around November'ish of 1941. Here's the photos I have:

That would make sense. The ricasso is properly shaped for a Type 19 blade. So, someone reshaped the cut or broken end and added the artillery saya.

I thought this might be a good place to ask this. I have noticed watching two different shows with Japanese named actors that they don’t say all the syllables. One was named Mitsubishi, but they pronounced it “Mits’ke”. The other is Yusuf, but they pronounce it as “Yus’ke.” Are these contractions?

This was posted by "Darto" on FB. Thought it interesting enough to post here. The saya is likely from an artillery sword, with the leather covering torn or cut off (you can see the remnants in the boars eye fittings). The blade? Type 19 tsuka legit. He only shows an angled views of the pommel, but it seems to have an original looking peened end. If this was a Bubba-job, he would have had to shape the nakago to fit, and peen the end. Well within the skills of guys who work with metal, but it's pretty well done, if so.

Thanks Nazar! This one is interesting because of the crack in the saya showing it was made with lacquer over cloth. I checked mine, and it was made of solid wood, then lacquer.

If you don’t get any help here, there are a couple of guys over at Warrelics that might be able to read this.

Marcin, I've gone over a 95 that has a good deal of black stains, including a permanent 4-finger print, and it's not doing as good a job as your results. I'll say the darkest black spots have become lighter black. But the vast majority is just slightly lighter. I wonder if I'm not doing it the same way as you are, or maybe the difference in steels might be behind the difference in our results. I'll try posting photos tomorrow.