Bruce Pennington

You might want to send a PM to DaveR. He has some experience at refitting blades. I've heard some success stories, but I personally found it hard to do. Each blade has it's own curvature and size. Your best hope is to to get a complete set of Koshirae, as all the small parts are custom fitted to each other, and it's difficult to get individual pieces from here & there to all come together. My mantetsu has a locking latch that is missing the spring. I bought 3 lactches to replace it, and NONE of them fit!

Here's the one from Dawson:

I’ve never found anything that will get the black spots off of the blade. For the seppa, I use a rag, pour a small amount of baking soda on the rag and squirt Lemmon juice into the baking soda. As it fizzes, rub the rust. It works slowly and takes some rubbing. I’ve never had to clean a tsuba and wouldn’t try the mix on it as it will probably take off the original coloration.

Sorry David, I was talking out of my butt! I've seen pictures of these but never seen one presented and broken down. The pictures show a naval saya and an army tsuka - clearly not a Rinji or one of the controversial post-war navy/army mixed ones.

Steve, The discussion you're thinking of was about a Rinji model because of the mekugi screw. This is new to me, too! But I've never owned one with the tsuka unwrapped, so I've never run into it. Very interesting!

Brian, The collecting world has made some strides in the last 70 years in updating our understanding of WWII gunto. There is an extensive discussion of this style Army sword here: http://www.warrelics.eu/forum/Japanese-militaria/deflating-another-myth-type-3-army-officer-s-sword-expanded-version-584796/ But the short version is they were originally designed as a simpler, cheaper, and more hardy version of the Army officer gunto. It seems like they developed a fan-base, as several have valuable blades in them, and the fittings on some were clearly expensive upgrades. The Japanese of WWII didn't have a "marines" as we know it, but did have some Navy personnel who worked alongside the army on several of the islands. When they carried a non-standard gunto, in pictures that we have, they are the standard navy scabbard with an army handle on a naval blade.

That's a good price. High end for an officer gunto of today's market, but I believe the market is lower than it should be. But for an ealy war, gendaito, I think that's a really good price.

CG: 150 USD seems to be the standard price FG: Bottom end 235, for something with a lot of wear/damage/fading; up to 500 USD for a pristine one GG: Don't see many for sale, but the one's I've seen run 1,000 USD

Yes, you have an excellent gunto for your first one! The Contengency style almost always come with good looking blades. I'm guessing the plasticized note is the translation of the surrender tag? If not, there are guys who can translate that for you. Are the fuchi (end cap of handle) and retention peg & screw missing?

No feathers ruffled, Jason. Just a "good conversation!"

You can do a quick scan on fleabay and get a feel for pricing. 800 USD seems to be on the lower end of current officer gunto. I'd say 800-1,200 is the current range. So with a good re-wrap, you should be able to re-sell and make a small proffit, denpending upon how much you had to pay for the re-wrap.

Ha, here we go, just like I said - stamps almost always lead to lengthy (and already held on other threads) debates! So a Seki stamp on EVERY (caps simply because I don't know how to underline on this format) blade means showato? I personally own, and have seen other guys' blades that are Star stamped, yet have a seki stamp on the nakago mune. So Showato? If so, what good is the Star stamp?

Jason, Stamps on nakago have created multiple discussions on multiple threads. The "general" fact is they were intended to identify blades made in non-traditional ways, including non-tamahagane gendaito. but there have been enough confusing blades found, clearly gendai, even STAR stamped, with stamps that have caused confusion. The Seki stamp is one of the most confusing, because it was originally designed by a swordsmith guild to mark their work. It was commandeered around 1942ish by the Nagoya Arsenal inspectors. George Trotter, a very knowledgable collector, says it was a guild mark and not a sign of showato: "from about 1941 the Seki swordmakers factories banded together in an association and insisted that they put on their own mark, "Seki". This was done...it is technically not an acceptance mark, but an ID mark for showato/gunto quality produced by the Seki Association." But even here, Trotter is saying the mark is for showato. I have also read (and could kick myself for not copying the discussion into my records) a discussion of the difference between "large" Seki stamps and "small" ones. His claim was that the large, like the one on this blade, was a guild mark, vs the small stamps that is a Nagoya inspector stamp on showato. This seems to fit this blade, if you ask me. However, this blade still COULD be "non-tamahagane gendai".

Well, there's certainly a story that goes with this gunto. Without more info from your grandfather, all we have is speculation. All the parts are legit WWII Japanese, so no problems there. The arrangement is just odd. But gunto coming in from occupied lands are often non-standard. I don't know the history of Japan's troops in Burma, but in general, troops occupying islands and foriegn locations often had little to no logistical support. So repairs and parts often relied on locals. That's what I'm thinking when I see this. The majority of it looks to be a standard Type 98 with metal saya (scabbard). The tsuba (handguard) and ashi (belt hanger loop) fit this style. The fuchi (handguard collar) and leather retention strap look added, as does the leather cover. Gunto with leather covers over a metal saya usually rely on the metal spring-clip styled locking device, so one speculation is that the spring clip on this gunto broke, and the officer had a leather strap put on to replace it; but there would be a metal snap on the saya leather cover for it to attach to. So, that sort-of doesn't make sense. Another option is that there was a huge cottage industry at the end of the war, around the globe, putting gunto together from parts available to sell to G.I.s looking for souvenirs. This one has that look. Many swords were found on the battlefield without their scabbards. G.I.s and souvenir hunters picking one up, would simply match it to a scabbard the best they could find, to bring home (or in the case of the souvenir industry, replace missing parts like the leather strap, with what was on hand). It's a real piece of the war, and as such should be preserved and cherished.

Matthew, could I see a pic of the sword and scabbard on the other side - the side with the leather strap coming off the hand guard? Is there a snap on the leather scabbard cover by the leather strap?

Wow, I didn’t realize that was a leather cover! Knowing that - I’m surprised it is painted at all!!! Very peculiar! It’s not normal, as far as I know, to have the metal fittings like that on a leather cover. A knowledgeable expert on another forum uses a deer antler to scrape active rust off. He says it won’t harm the rest of the patina and tang. I’ll be never tried it. My wife gets antlers at the pet store for our dogs to chew.

Matthew, It's a Japanese Type 98 Officer sword. "Katana" is a term that describes a sword style/length. WWII swords are commonly refered to as "gunto" and "shingunto" meaning "army sword" and "new army sword". The blade is in great shape considering the condition of the handle and tang! I'd take some time to clean the orange rust off that tang, if it were mine. Orange is active rust and will continue to cause damage. If you try it, try not to go past the orange and into the darker blackish coloration under it. That is valued by collectors as it helps, sometimes in dating a blade. You may find writing under that ugly rust that will reveal a swordsmith name, but it's not always there. Do you know whether someone after the war repainted that scabbard? The green and red don't look original to me, but the corroded black toward the end make it look like the black was original. If you are interested in learning more about these, there is a fantastic, FREE, website about the WWII swords here: http://ohmura-study.net/900.html

Thanks Neil, that firms it up for me then! Just never noticed the style before.

Noah, It is a WWII era Japanese officer sword. It is the second one I have seen recently with this mix of Type 3 handle on a blade with all the rest of the fittings Type 98. You can see the differences here: http://ohmura-study.net/902.html It was common to see blades without signatures during the war. Swordsmiths were given huge quotas to fill and signatures took time. I'm not entirely sure which scratch marks you are seeing, but nakagos normally were made with file marks.

They are factory assembly numbers "3 8" put on pieces to keep them together. Every piece is custom fitted to each blade. Getting them jumbled around with other blades' fittings would be a pain, so they put numbers on them to keep them together. Price is normal, and like all collecting - if you like the item and feel good about what you paid, then it's a good price.

Chris, From the Ohmura website, they are both Kokura insp 　"Army Arsenal Kokura Factory - Kokura Army Arsenal inspection mark: "Ko". 　"Ko" stamp is not discovered except for the following example. It seems that the inspection mark 　used the "To" commonly since most Tokyo Factories relocated to Kokura Factory. 　 　"Army Arsenal Kokura First Factory inspection mark: "Ho"."

Vlad, Thanks for that update! I think you're right - it was a Tokyo Arsenal (Kokura in early years) inspector. I was about to argue about the Kanenori as a Seki smith, but remembered Seki was under Kokura prior to 1942. I'm still puzzled by the Matesu blades with it, but your proposal may explain it.

Beautiful, Neil!!! I've always loved those seppa arraingments.

Neil, WHat a beauty! So, it's actually silver? Looks like it because it's oxidized, right?

wow Peter, that handle looks bad! I might lean towards Stephen's view on this one! The saya looks mostly good, weak detail on the ashi, but the look is right. That tsuka though - sheeeesh! Menugi in wrong place, some sort of plastic wrap over a clearly fake same'. Bad ito wrapping job. At best, if the blade and tsuba are legit, someone has done a ametuer job rebuilding the tsuka.