Bruce Pennington

Thanks for the clarifications Steve! It's almost impossible to tell proportionality in a pic! And I have seen parade saya with that fat-drag look. I've seen a few habaki with the strange IIIIX markings and have one on a nice kaigunto myself. Seems to speek "custom" to me. VERY interesting piece buddy-boy!

Steve, If this post were brought by a stranger everyone would be yelling "Frankenstein!!!!" Buy you have been at this much longer than I and have the balde in hand, which by itself can tell a person a lot, so for the first time, one of our odd-balls is getting a serious look! First, The paint job is gold, not green, sorry dude! Since I've been collecting, I've seen 8 others painted that way, and own 2 of them. I can't clearly see the underlying color in your shots, but it looks red from the ones you've given us. The nakago is so bad, it would normally be an immediate: fake or made in Occupied Islands. But Occupied Island blade makers don't mount with legit IJA parts (very good ones at that), and neither do the fakers. The aluminum seppa were widely used, so no worries there. The saya seems to be a Nagoya NCO, but as you know, they have a screw hole centered on the side, where this one seems to have been made with this offset setting for a nicely made custom throat-cover. My first thought was "No officer would have a custom gunto made with an NCO saya." But we know that due to shortages, early on, officer were carrying Type95s, so why NOT one with an NCO saya? Someone else will have to chime in on the liner writing. The first character looks like the number 8. I have seen a similiar gunto discussed earlier, I wish I could remember when or where, and wonder if it was this same gunto. Everyone was just as stymied on that one too. It's too well put together with good quality fittings to be a fake. Your theory is just as good as any other. Enjoy! And thanks for the challenging discussion!

Steve, it's there in the second line of my first post, but thanks dude!

Have to share this insight from Nick Komiya on Warrelics: "That is a question similar to asking "why would a rich guy rather buy a spartan sports car than a luxury sedan". The newspapers introducing the sword talked about the sword strictly meaning business and named features like the Kansuke Yamamoto style Tsukamaki for a real fighting man. If one's life may once have to depend on it, many might be made to feel that he would rather have a real fighting sword than the bells and whistles. A name like Kansuke Yamamoto's can go a long way, like a Colt Single Action Army sold as a Wyatt Earp Special. That's marketing and here's Kansuke."

Maybe the "durability" of the 3 attracted guys with money to spend and were willing to upgrade the fittings. I think by "decent" we have differing tastes, though. Mine is the metal saya with a shingunto by Sukekuni. It's a pretty blade. It's dated 1945, so mabye the beauty of many Type 3s hinge on not seeing as much time in the feild?

All, After seeing a couple of very high quality Type 3 gunto, including the koshirae, I got to re-reading Nick Komiya & Chris Bowen's dicussion of the origins of the Type 3 (http://www.warrelics.eu/forum/Japanese-militaria/deflating-another-myth-type-3-army-officer-s-sword-expanded-version-584796/). The predominent thought is that it was designed as a more durable (koshirae) gunto that was also cheaper than the average standard Type 94/98. But almost every one I've seen have really good looking blades (mine included) and a couple of them now, (one owned by IJASWORDS) have REALLY high quality upgrades to the koshirae. Any thoughts about WHY the Type 3s have such nice blades if they were originally designed to be cheap?

Greg, The answer is "yes." Ha! What the Seki stamp tells you is that the blade is "non-traditional." I've learned to never say never or always, but mostly, the stamp is found on blades made in such a manner that they are not considered traditionally made. The blade could be hand made, in the traditional fashion, but if the smith used non-Japanese steel, then it's classified as non-traditional. If the smith used hydraulic hammers to pound out the steel, it's non-traditional. There are 9 variations and all but 1 are classified as non-traditional.

Greg, That's a "Gi" of Gifu stamp. Gifu was a large region the Seki was in. According to Fuller & Gregory, he hasn't seen a Gifu stamp prior to 1943. As your's is undated, I'd use that as the earliest date, unless you find out something else. I wasn't unusual for blades to go unsigned.

Dave, Unusual paint scheme, for sure! I've seen them with the black, and I believe I've seen a couple of Stegel's examples that were red, but I can't say I've ever seen one with both! (everytime I say something like that, Stegel comes in with an actual example! Ha!) I see 2 things that COULD indicate it was post war: 1) A section of the red paint seems to be lifting off on one of the ito folds, and 2) red paint on the cherry blossom - with all the color variations I've seen, the blossom (when the paint was still there) was gold. My very thin opinion is that the black is original and the red was added.

Brad, I use a tool with to points at the end, pic attached:

Brad, Nice pair! I've had a Ko for some time and am finally getting around to bidding on an Otsu, hope I get it! Mine as the leather finger loop. I initially didin't want it because the blade has lots of corrosion, but the loops get so fragile that they break off, and this one was intact, so I got it. I'm a little puzzled by the fact that both yours and mine have the same really bad sharpening marks (I assumed some bozo in the US used a grinder on min). After seeing yours, it seems too coincidental that they are the same marks. SPECULATION ALERT: I wonder if this might indicate poor sharpening attempts in the field??? or it just means there were more than 1 US Bozo after the war with grinders?!

Dang! Highest quality Type 3 fittings I've ever seen! What a great find! Hope your seller didn't know what he had!

Well, Greg, ALL gunto have value!!! With a Seki stamp, it going to be non-traditionally made, so the value will depend upon condition of blade and fittings; then of course, who's buying. Going USA price for a nice one is $1,200 + or -.

Yes, 1944, easy mistake! The tiny stamp above the date is the "Na" of the Nagoya Arsenal. The star stamp "normally" represents a traditionally made blade, but MUCH debate on that. The addition of the arsenal stamp "could" indicate that it is not Japanese tamahagane steel, therefore not traditionally classed. The kanji writing style is high quality, so it would be nice to see pics of the rest of the blade and blade tip.

I haven't talked with the Proxibid folks yet on the phone, but I do know that they are just the auction house for other businesses that have large estates they are selling. I suspect that Proxibid just uses the descriptions provided by the sellers. I'll call them next week and ask about that.

I'm in!

Another "Buyer Beware" item! Proxibid offering this as a Japanese Samurai Sword. I sent them a notice about it. We'll see if they respond.

The painted kanji on the wood are 3 8? Thousand, or probably 128,000

Franco, Just a minor adjustment on that date - it's 1943, not'44, easy mistake to make. The little stamp at the top of the nakago is the "Na" of the Nagoya arsenal. Rather unique, as I've only seen 1 other blade from Nagoya made for army officers. They made lots of NCO gunto, though. I have a Type 3 (or Type 44 as some call it) Officer gunto with the plastic same' and seen a few others. Not common, but not rare. Nice Type 98!

Here is both the Kokura "Ho" and Kokura First Arsenal "Ko." on a nakago mune. 小 　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. ホ 　Army Arsenal Kokura First Factory inspection mark: "Ho" The Ko is above the Ho, and fainter.

Interesting Kokura Arsenal stamps on a mune, both the Kokura "Ho" and Kokura First Arsenal "Ko." 小 　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. ホ 　Army Arsenal Kokura First Factory inspection mark: "Ho" Sorry, the Ko is above the Ho and fainter. Not a good view of it in this pic.

Brad, Thanks for sharing your collection and giving us something to talk about! The full same' wrap, as it was explained to me, is a more expensive upgrade. Thanks, also for the view of the W stamp and the unusual one on the seppa. Does anyone recognize the seppa stamp?

Neil, I use Paypal for a charity that I run and I get an email from them showing the donor's name and email.

Also here: http://ohmura-study.net/913.html I don't know the top kanji, but the bottom 3 are "479". It is not known why Mantetsu numbered their blades. Some have speculated that they relate to a contract or batch numbers. I have found an interesting thread, though, on other things written on nakago mune: http://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/21519-name-on-nakago-mune/

Yes, I noticed the pins in Julian's example above. Never noticed that before! Cool!