Bruce Pennington

Other than just color, I couldn't say. Aluminum is white/silver, brass is a light copper color. This one is going to go down as a mystery. Many will call it a Chinese fake, which it may be, but I see too much age, certain aspects look right, the blade looks well made and aged. But the fuchi, the band at the base of the handle is odd and what I can see of the stamps look odd. The hakaki stamps, flags and other symbols, are totally out of line for an NCO Type 95. Do you feel up to removing the handle? It simply requires unscrewing the two barrel screws and pulling the handle off. If it's rusted, tapping the hand guard with a plastic screwdriver handle or rubber mallet will get it moving. The tangs of fakes are usually made poorly. Mind having a look at it?

Is it the lighting, or is the handle made if brass?

Welcome Chris! Your sword looks well made, but the stamps don't look right, and there is no inspector stamp by the serial number (if this is a Nagoya blade, their stamp is often faint and hard to see). Can you give us some shots of the screws that go through the handle and a good view of the end cap of the handle? Also a closeup of the sword tip is helpful. Ive attached a couple of examples

John, the copper-handled gunto were the first 6,500, out of 180,000 made during the war. The production was only for 1 year. So they are considered more desirable than the "average" Type 95. Changes were made to make them lighter (aluminum handle, lighter saya, lighter blade) after that. I've seen the prices rise over the past year, but this seems hard to believe.

Yes, sorry, Neil, it's just the lighting. It's your standard aluminum tsuka.

Title says it all: http://www.ebay.com/itm/WWII-Japanese-COPPER-HANDLE-NCO-SAMURAI-SWORD-NICE-MATCHING-/172702847804?hash=item2835e4533c:g:kUwAAOSwcB5ZJh6b

Just picked this up from Chris (Coloradocowboy). I've already got a good selection of 95s but I've always wanted one with a black saya, plus this is SO early in serial number AND it has the exact same 4 stamps as the example on Ohmura's webpage. It really needs a new habaki. The original is really beat up, curved sides, and a split. It's also got an odd inset notch that sets against the mune-machi - all resulting in a pretty significant gap before the first seppa. It came with an ungly, hand-made brass spacer (I hesitate to call it a seppa!) that tightened it up, but kept the latch from engaging the saya. So I'm searching for a good replacement habaki. I've tried a couple of habaki from other 95s I own but they're too small - the mune of the nakago on this baby is slightly thicker! I haven't had a chance to try my late-war 95, I think it's got a thick nakago mune. I'll update when I get a chance (on a work trip for a while).

That's a pretty normal price for a replica, so like John said, it'll look good on the wall! The one's like yours are usually higher quality, with real steel, than the usual "Samurai" sets you see in shops. Welcome to the club!

I agree. With the limited picture, it still appears the tsuba and hibaki look wrong.

It was a common practice, prior to the shingunto, to send in Type 32 gunto for repair. When the saya was damaged, the repair facility would often file off the serial number of another saya, restamp a matching number and fit the gunto with another saya (I have one myself). While I have no knowledge that this practice was continued with the Type 95, I don't see why it couldn't have been done. To me, it looks like original saya paint is in the grooves of the restamped numbers.

Thanks Ed. Sure. I was just hoping there would be a senior manager there who had some overlap and/or corporate knowledge of those days. Plus, I am aware that culutural differences may account for some reluctance to share any actual info that they DO have. Added to that is the still-lingering shame/imbarrassment of WWII subject matter. But it was worth a shot at it!

Well, a dissapointing turn in the NLF - Japanese Sword Co. investigation. I just got word back from them in answer to clarifying questions, and they deny neither finding already assembled gunto in this style nor assembling surplus parts to make them. Yet, we have fairly good evidence from Bob Coleman that US G.I.s did buy this style gunto from them after the war. This COULD mean I missed a third question - Did you manufacture, or contract out for manufacture, new, this style gunto. Or it could mean someone simply brought a few of these in to sell, and the JSC bought and resold them. Or, and I would hate to think this of them, they are simply lying about it for their own reasons

Here's how they look:

The seller was "maggiebaifucheng" incase someone ever considers buying. Package shipped from Beijing. Of course, Buyer Beware, as always, not all items a seller sells are equally legit.

Scored 2 NCO leather tassels from eBay! All I need is one more, without tassel to deck-out my Type 95 collection. One is clearly shorter than normal, at 11 inches. Someone speculated that it looked like it might have been broken and re-stitched. I concur. The stitching looks legit and it only has 1 buckle-hole vs the 3 on the one of standard length. Pics below. They are both old and fragile, though the long one is darker and appears to have been coated with a leather oil. It is still fragile and shows cracks when you bend it. The one from China worried me. I could have sworn it was coming from Japan, but when the package arrived, it was from China! After close examination, it is clearly legit. So just backs up someone's statement that there are true collecters in China too

Patryn, It would help to have a better pic of that bottom kanji. I'm a complete novice, but aren't the top 2 kanji the province Yasa shiro? The "yasa" is obvious, but the second kanji is pretty poor if it is "shiro".

Tony, the guys that translate don't always come by this forum as often as the does the "Translation Assistance" forum. Here's the link if you want to post it there http://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/forum/15-translation-assistance/

Thanks Jay! I thought I would just continue the conversation on Messenger, but in Japanese. I'll get you my question below. If you post the Japanese version, I'll copy and paste into Messenger. When they reply, I'll bring it back here for you to translate back into English. Here goes: "Thank you for your answer. We know of some gentlemen who bought swords like this from The Japanese Sword Company after the war. Is it possible to find out whether the Company, after the war, found the swords already assembled in this way,and sold them, or if they used surplus parts and had them assembled as souvenirs? There are many collectors who truly appreciate Japanese swords, even the war swords, and would love to learn more about this particular style." Please feel free to rearrange, or rephrase, as necessary for language or custom needs. Again, THANK YOU!

Fellow Collectors, I tried to contact The Japanese Sword Co. via Facebook Messenger (they don't list an email on their website) and got a response, but it was confusing, no doubt, due to translation issues. I don't speak Japanese and their English speaker (maybe computer translation?) needs work! I'm looking for someone who can take my request, written in English, and write it out in Japanese. Then when they respond, translate their response back to English for me. Just to let you know what I'm doing - Many of you are familiar with the mystery gunto often called a "Marine Landing Sword" or "Navy Landing Sword." They are Toyokawa arsenal blades with Navy black canvas same' and black saya, but fitted with gold-gilded ARMY metal fittings. Fuller & Gregory mentions these gunto and offer several ideas, but it is their opinion that they were post-war assemblies. I recently got a tip from another forum member that he bought 4 of these from former G.I.s who said they bought them from The Japanese Sword Co. in Tokyo shortly after the war. I wrote to the Company, asking if this were true, speculating that they were allowed to assemble non-regulation arrangements, thereby getting around the prohibition to sell war weapons, and the MacArthur regime permitted it to keep business and craftsmen going. Their response was "It may not be a reason only business. But your knowledge should be so important to announce." That SOUNDS to me like they are acknowledging the fact (the first part seems to say that my reasoning for the sale is off?). If true, this would be HUGE for those of us who collect war swords! If anyone can help me with this, please respond here or via PM! I would like to confirm their answer in Japanese and get a clarification - Did they assemble the parts, or were the gunto fully assembled already when they got them? The latter would indicate that they were war-assembled for the war, the former would mean they are souvenirs made by surplus war parts. Thanks in advance for your help!

Interesting idea Trystan. Have a close look at the tassel on this copper-handled 95 that Matt mentioned. It just sold for almost 5,000 USD, and the tassel is only 11 in. long and appears to have a rivet or tiny bolt holding the severed ends together. http://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/22507-copper-handle-nco/ (sorry the pic I copied off the thread is blurry. You can get a better look at it from the thread above)

Steve, the seller clearly doesn't know what he is talking about! My impression of this one is of a civilian blade pressed into service during the war. The very loose fit at the fuchi makes it appear to be missing several seppa, too.

Stephen, I don't understand the meaning of this link.

Wow, Bob, quite a piece! Such a unique saya covering, too.

It's beautiful! I see nothing but a great looking Type 95, copper-handle gunto that's probably going to cost you, but it's worth it!

Peter, Very nice find!!! Dawson, pg 63, calls that pattern one of a company grade kyu-gunto. Whether it's a Type 19 or not, someone with more experience with these will have to comment. Dawson, page 416-417, shows the belt buckle and blue backing as a company grade officer as well. I have no experience with these, though, and others will have to answer your questions about the box and translation.