Bruce Pennington

Shamsy, You should get Stegel. He could probably run this thread out for several pages!!! I'm not educated on the variants of the late-war 95s, but from your pic, is it the metal ashi on the wooden saya that makes the 2 different than the "original?" I guess I have the original style, then. It has a Seki stamp by the serial number, and strangely, has multiple tiny seki stamps on the back edge of the nakago. Don't hate me for this, but I didn't see them until I cleaned the nakago! Here are some pics:

All, Someone recommended I post this here for a broader audience, sorry if you've already seen it on the nihonto forum: Found this on another forum and thought I'd see if anyone recognizes it. I'd like to post it on the "Stamp" thread, but don't want to just throw fake stuff on there along with the good stuff. You can see more pics of the gunto at this link, but it's a beater, an odd-ball, maybe a fake, but strange enough to make me wonder:http://forums.gunboards.com/showthread.php?585969-Unknown-sword-tang-stamp

Thanks to all for the inputs! I'll pass them along to the owner. Seems like the really good gunto are slowly being collected and taken out of circulation, not all of course. But it seems the odd-balls are popping up more now.

Here's the link where all his pics are: http://forums.gunboards.com/showthread.php?585969-Unknown-sword-tang-stamp

All, Found this on another forum and thought I'd see if anyone recognizes the stamp before I post it to the "Stamp" thread.

From a military gunto collector's perspctive, this is a beautiful kai-gunto! But for war swords, this is way overpriced. I bought my kai for $1,200 USD. I've seen them go as high as $2,400 (this one would qualify for that price). The high dollar gunto sell high usually more because of who owned them, and sometimes because the smith was famous or it was a shrine sword.

Steve, I normally try to defend odd gunto when there's doubt, but this one is a mess. The handle (tsuka) is very poor immitation. Aluminum doesn't corrode like that. The hole where the tassel loop ring is, is very ugly and poorly made. There is no chrysanthimum flower. Then there are many issues with the rest of the fittings. I can't speak about the blade as much. I agree it had a bad polish. The tang (nakago) isn't that well made and the end has been lopped off. Now, were it a legit war sword, that end might have been lopped off to fit into the handle. NCO gunto (which the handle is NCO style) have another hole at the end of the nakago. If things were better looking on this rig, I was going to propose that it was a Warrant Officer gunto, as discussed in Fuller & Gregory, with a family heirloom blade. But I doubt a warrant officer would have settled for such a poorly fitted arrangement.

I have benefitted greatly from both books mentioned above as well as from The Ohmura Study, online at: http://ohmura-study.net/900.html Each of them brings unique and valuable knowledge and I refer to them often.

Ha! Yes the auction sites are pretty bad about knowing what and how to show a sword! I'm still learning and was anxious to hear and learn by getting the opinions of more experienced collectors, like yourself!

Saw this on an auction site, what do you think? My first thought was poor WWII fake gunto. The kabuto-gane, if it's supposed to be WWII, is off, but it's better made than most fakes. The seppa looks WWII legit, though, but with civilian tsuba. The blade has a good look to it, but the habaki looks like a new replacement. Then I noticed the double mekugi, therefore long nakago. I vaguely remember seeing some old katanas with kabu and other fittings that resembled WWII fittings (or should I say it the other way around!) and started to wonder if this is maybe something old. Thoughts? https://new.liveauctioneers.com/item/47230197_antique-Japanese-wwii-samuri-sword-1945-with

Shamsy, quite an interesting nakago! Is it something old?

Dang! I knew I'd seen something like this before! Fuller & Gregory, pg 105, has a waki in the same kind of koshirae. He said it was in "wooden mounts adapted for military use by the addition of a brown leather covering". The tsuka on his looks like the leather cover and the kabuto-gane went missing. Same style.

I doubt we'll get any closer than "not Japanese made". The kanji could be a clue if someone with Chinese knowledge can take a look. There are a couple of guys at Warrelics or Gunboards that have that capability. If the kanji defies all nationality recognition, then I'd put it down as a repro, but until then I've never seen one in such nice koshirae, and I'd leave it open to occupied lands potential.

????

Just makes the detective work more challenging, eh! Your point is true for all mankind, isn't it, though.

Andrew, it would really help to see a couple of close-up stills of the blade and blade tip.

David, you made me do some research, thanks! For educational purposes: David and I were both half right. The Seki Swords Co, Ltd, was a sword manufacturing company. Dawson discusses them on several pages. Their stamp is different and a pic is included below from a Type 95. The "Seki" stamp we see more often is an inspector's acceptance stamp from the Seki Inspection Unit of the Nagoya Arsenal, created, according to Fuller (page 213) to "...coordinate the manufacture and acceptance of blades in the centres where they were supplied direct to the Army."

Sort of looks like something from occupied lands manufacture. Be nice to see the blade.

Hey, I get it wrong every time! I am making some progress though. I had one half right a couple days ago!

Chuck, The last pic shows a Seki stamp. The Seki factory had several swordsmiths working for them. The all-brown tassel is a late-war tassel for any officer rank. Looks like a cool hamon (temper line). Need to take some better pics and post them with the blade tip up so the pro's can read them.

Here's a reply from Stegel at Warrelics: They are both genuine. Two subcontractors manufactured Type 95's under Nagoya Arsenal Administration Gifu and Seki Token Co,Ltd. Serial numbers for Nagoya start from about 12k-160k and then the 200k range. Gifu was the first manufacturer for Nagoya, eventually being replaced with Seki. As far as font's go, there are many variations between all the contractors. The faint inspection mark on the blade is a feature of many Nagoya blades, as it appears that they stamped them after the hardening of the steel, whereas the Tokyo blades were stamped before. If you're considering to bid on one of these, you can feel confident that they are not reproductions

I didn't know Nagoya made top-latch design.

Haven't seen that stamp before, Stephen! Is that off a shrine sword?!

Here's another one! http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/MTYwMFgxMjAw/z/-kcAAOSwxehXPMRF/$_3.JPG

Somebody HELP! Tell me what I'm looking at! This eBay offering (from a Texas seller) looks legit is everyway UNTIL - the serial number is punched in with an odd type stamp, is Nagoya-style being read with cutting edge up, has a faint Nagoya inspection stamp, BUT the saya latch is on top, not on the side. Plus the serial number is in the 100,000s, which I've never seen before. Either this is something from Nagoya I've never seen, or it's one of the best fakes I've ever seen. Thoughts? http://m.ebay.com/itm/291840054917