Bruce Pennington

That's a new one on me Frederick! Can you tell if the fittings were placed over the lacquer/paint? Or is the paint done around the fittings? I can't imagine anyone in their right mind doing that, whether Japanese or post-war, unless the same' was so terribly damaged that they decided to recover the saya with lacquer/paint.

Update: Picked up a sarute and Field grade tassel. Now it REALLY looks like the one in Dawson's book!

Looks like the end of Type 95 NCO gunto! Like Allen said, if the gunto was really damaged, maybe he "made lemonade out of a lemon!" I hope he didn't just butcher a good gunto though!

Nice find Erwin! I think that would be a safe guess. Late '44 to early '45. If I understand the saya history, the all metal saya came first, followed by the metal/wood combos. So your all metal saya would put this earlier in the timeline of the wooden-handled versions.

Dave, haven't seen THAT before! Whoever did it, put a concerted effort into this. There are a LOT of these out there and have less variation that standard IJA and IJN gunto. Maybe that fact alone hints at post-war.

No, I can see it quite well. In fact you should invest in some high quality leather cream as the retainer strap is already cracking. You should try to preserve it! I agree with Mr "Death-Ace" Hudson and have seen several Waki blades in larger than expected fittings. Heck into the smith for history of the blade, but otherwise you've got quite a beautiful piece there!

Looks like Stephen got the smith - KuniShige. I don't know smiths, but this looks like an old blade. I don't see why it couldn't have been refitted in the WWII koshirae, though, Steve. Admittedly the saya is immaculate, but I have a couple of Type 95's that must have been carried by an admin clerk or finance Sgt during the war, because they are immaculate too. Bob, is the saya laquered wood with a leather tip?!?! If so, that would be very peculiar. Also, I would like to see what an original IJA leather snap looked like to see if this one is a replacement. UPDATE: I just perused Ohmura's examples and it looks like there were as many variations of retention snap/buckle as you might imagine.

Thanks Steve! With only 400 numbers between Chris' and my guntos, then mine was mid to late 1943 and his late '43 to early '44. I like!

Soooooo ...... I'm hearing you say "It's complicated."! Dang Seriously, thanks for (I was going to say "clearing that up for me") the info Steve. This one of mine, came from the Seki Token Co., who might have been given, say 2,000 numbers, and it might have taken them 4 years or so to put those on the street?

I have a Nagoya side-latch, aluminum handled Type 95, numbered Seki 202446. I also have a wooden handled "late war" 95, numbered 211894 seki. I have understood that the arsenals were given serial number blocks, and that the Nagoya arsenal had the 200,000 range. So my aluminum gunto, being 202,xxx, must have been made "early" in the production series. I've always assumed the assignment of these number blocks came early in the war, like right after the copper-handled NCOs, so 1938/1939. But these factories were cranking out around 8,000 blades per year EACH, so with the wooden-handled blade at 211,xxx, that would only take barely over a year to move from the aluminum tsuka to the wooden one. This seems to indicate that the block assignment of numbers came, maybe AFTER Kokura Arsenal divided the 95 production to Nagoya and Tokyo 1st? Which puts the start of the production of the 200,000 series no earlier that 1940/1941? That would STILL put the wooden tsukas in production by 1942 vs the standard '44 and '45 timeframes we talk about. Any help Stegel & Shamsy???

That's beautiful Ed, and I like the price!!! Do you know what the "flakiness" is in the hamon, especially near the kissaki? When I had mime polished, Dave commented that he had heard that the Meantetsu blade was quite possible water quenched.

I actually heard the opposite. The Koa Issin were made in Manchuria with the others made in a Tokyo plant. I haven't seen actual documentation though. I know for a fact, though that the primary factory was the Dalian plant in Manchuria.

Yes. Sure sign it was surrendered by the officer would carried it!

Ed, that's a real beauty! You probably already know, but they often defaced the mon when surrendering them to avoid family shame for the surrender.

Good idea! You'll love the result!

The liner is dry and smooth. I live in dry Colorado, and I keep the blade oiled. So, all said and done - very little risk.

John, I wish I had better pictures of my dad's Mantetsu, Koa Issin, before I had it polished. It's dated Spring 1941 and had scratches and stains fairly all over the blade. Only 2 small nicks in the cutting edge. I felt it was from use during the war. I'll post what I have:

Not yet, Bruno. Still saving up my fun money, but it's something I need to do.

Thanks for all the positive comments, guys! It was just exciting to have it completed and I wanted to share it all.

Here's some of the key pictures:

Three years ago, my dad passed away and I got his WWII Japanese officer sword. It was missing parts, so I've spent the last 3 years fixing it up, and have just had it polished. If you'll indulge me, I'd like to tell the story, as much as I have. It was made in Spring 1941, by the Mantetsu factory in Manchuria, and carrries the "Koa Issin" slogan. Don't know anything about it's path in the war, but by the look of the blade it did some duty in the field. My dad lied about his age (16 at the time) and joined the Marines in 1950. They kicked him out when Korea started, but he rejoined in 1956 and served 7 years and seperated as a Staff Sgt. Somewhere along that time, he picked up the Mantetsu. I wish I had asked him how he got it, but as a kid, it never occured to me. He did say that the missing parts were stolen buy guys "looking for jewels." When I got it in 2014, it was missing sarute, rank tassel, tsuba/seppa, semegane, ishizuke, and mekugi. I found a nice tsuba/seppa set from a Japanese seller online, and ordered the mekugi online. Then I found someone selling a tsuka that had the same cloth sarute, which I swapped out to Dad's tsuka. When looking for rank tassels, most Field grade tassels were in the $500 range where the Comapany grade tassels were around $150, so I decided Dad's mantetsu could be a Captain's sword! I later found a semegane. Had to file the inside of it to get it up the saya far enough! And the last piece, the ishizuke, came from another Mantetsu saya from The Ozzy Samurai on one of the forums. After a 2 year wait, my turn came up for the polish. I highly recommend David Hofhine. He did a fabulous job! I really debated about the polish. The blade was stained and scratched and showed that it had a bit of history. So I almost kept it that way. But in the end, it was Dad's and I wanted it to look top-notch, so I went ahead with it, and I'm glad I did. It's quite beautiful. Since I have difficult uploading pictures on this forum, with large enough data and size, I'm just going to link to the same post on Gunboards: http://forums.gunboards.com/showthread.php?828922-Dad-s-Mantetsu-Koa-Issin&p=7427746#post7427746

Thanks Michel! Zodiacal dated (1944)! I'd love to find out why some smiths used zodiac dates vs standard dating.

Corry, Nice gunto buddy! The date is 1943, but I can't read smith names. The black saya is completely normal. You'll see one here, on the Ohmura site (along with many other colors, not normally seen): http://ohmura-study.net/904.html Price: I've paid way over market value for 2 or 3 of my gunto, but I REALLY wanted them, so it's worth it to me!

Very nice addition to the collection Matt! You are officially doomed with the rest of us now! Ha! Enjoy!

Looks like somebody used it for a cane! You're guess is as good as anyone's on the 94/98 question. If this was in the field the removable ashi could have been lost early on. Nice find!