Bruce Pennington

It’s certainly just as possible as it is for Nanman to have been manufacturing them. But we already have a document ordering 5,500 unfinished blades to make up for Tokyo’s shortfall. Still not out of the question though.

Austus, Yes, I have an old blade that tapers from the nakago ana all the way down to the kissaki. Can't get the habaki off either. Mine is likely between 1400 and 1600 on the year. That's as close as I was able to narrow it down.

Great find, Chris! Looks pretty old to me by the sight of that nakago.

The nakago looks really thick! Or is it just camera angles? The second mekugi ana is quite common for older blades pressed into service for the war. The one closer to the habaki is usually the one fitting the military tsukas.

Sad.

"Worth polishing" is something that depends on you. If you're planning to sell, then, yes the cost may put your expenses higher than market value. If you're keeping it, then the decision is really based on your taste. Some folks love the aged look while others want to bring out the full beauty of the blade. Just depends.

Thanks Omar, that made my day! I ran into one of these guys when I tried selling a Rinji (Type 3) gunto on Craigslist. He asked me to hold the sword while he sent his team to pick it up. He would send me a check for the full amount, plus $900 extra. The extra was for me to pay his delivery guy! The check arrived, which I promptly took to my bank. The bank has several of these on file as they are all forgeries. I asked how the scam works, since he said he was willing for the check to clear before I mailed the sword. Turns out that the bank sits on the check for approx 9 days while they confirm that the bank & account are real on the other end. At that point, they clear the money to my account (in this case $1,900). After I cash out, and the scammer cancel the delivery guy, the scammer will want me to mail them the $900. After about 3 WEEKS, when the bank at the other end goes through all their checks and realizes the check is a forgery, they notify MY bank of the fraud and then my bank comes to me wanting their money back (or they just take it in shorts, depending upon the bank).

Austus, I agree with Steve on the intermingling of the brass-aoi and iron-round tsubas. Fuller has a chart showing this, and blades in-hand verify it. My Tokyo (Kokura) stamped 95, ser # 92605, has the brass tsuba. It was myth, begun by early speculation about the iron tsubas, that they were late-war production. A little more on the stamps, Ron - the "stacked cannonballs" was used by the Kokura Arseanl who oversaw Type 95 production of both the Tokyo 1st and the Nagoya Arsenals up to 1942ish. You'll know which one by the smaller inspection mark, the middle of the 3, and/or the mark on the blade. When the Kokura oversight was cancelled, you'll see Tokyo 1st (star) or Nagoya (circular symbol) in place of the cannonballs. I also wanted to comment on the maker's stamp, commonly called the "Ichi". Steve's idea of it representing the Tokyo 1st Arsenal (because Ichi is Japanese for 1), is one of the ideas about this stamp. But unless Steve has some corroboration for this, I'll posit the other theory - that this comes from the Kobe sword company. The owner's name was 神戸 一幸 or Kobe Ikko. Two of the unknowns, the "K" and the "一", in my mind, are possibly from the same shop. The "K" from "Kobe" was seen on the initial 95s, then the "一" from 一幸 showed up for the latter run. I think it's just too coincidental that the first "letter" of the owner's names, one english the other Japanese, are the unknowns.

I'm on a work-trip, so hopefully someone can make some measurements of their anchor stamps for Thomas. I'll measure mine when I get home. In the meantime I'm trying to firm up the dateline on the use of the Showa stamp. From what I read in the Fuller and Ohmura works: Prior to 1939 - Seki Guild used the Seki Stamp 1939 - early 1942 - Seki Guild assigned to use the Showa Stamp; Nagoya Arsenal used Seki Stamp 1942 - 1945 - Arsenals went back to own stamps, smith groups (Seki, Gifu, etc) reclaimed their stamps This seems to fit, but as in "All things Gunto" Ohmura shows a blade, on the very page he lays out this discussion, that has a Showa stamp, yet is dated Oct 12, 1937 (Showa 12).!!! Here again, the exception to the rule. Ohmura's discussion found here: http://ohmura-study.net/211.html

I see what you're thinking with this At a certain level, the kabutogane stamped "To" supports the idea that these blades had been sent to Tokyo Arsenal for "finish" work. (posting the pics, in case the linked site goes inactive in the future)

Can't say I've ever seen one with ridges like that. You should PM Neil (IJASWORDS). He's quite up on koshirae.

I got lucky at first too, Steve, with the Mantetsu I inherited from Dad. But when I went to find parts for the saya, I bit on what turned out to be a real junker! Did good after that experience!

John, mine is the same way. I want to say it's some sort of undercoat or steel sealant, before the army green was applied; but I don't really know.

Oh, he knows what he is doing. I had an exchange with him on a fake he was selling. He never denied it, but simply told me to leave him alone as I was affecting his business.

I know there is thread on this guy on the Auctions/Sales forum, but I'd like to get one going here, as there are many of us that never read that forum and almost exclusively hang out here. (there could already be one on this forum, but my poor search attempts didn't come up with any. He's trying to sell a FrankenFake as a copper-handled NCO. The handle is a fake, the serial number is in the 13,xxx (too high) and the saya is from an aluminum handled 95. Noobies/Rookies - beware of this seller! https://www.ebay.com/itm/WWII-Japanese-OFFICERS-SWORD-NCO-TYPE-95-COLLECTIBLE-RARE-COPPER-HANDLE/113703961728?hash=item1a7948c480:g:dmcAAOSwALdcmsZn&redirect=mobile

And again:https://www.ebay.com/itm/WWII-Japanese-OFFICERS-SWORD-NCO-TYPE-95-COLLECTIBLE-RARE-COPPER-HANDLE/113703961728?hash=item1a7948c480:g:dmcAAOSwALdcmsZn&redirect=mobile It's supposed to be a copper-handles Type 95, but it's got a serial number in the 13,xxx range and the wrong saya.

Found another one Steve: https://www.ebay.com/itm/WWII-Japanese-OFFICERS-SWORD-NCO-TYPE-95-COLLECTIBLE-RARE-COPPER-HANDLE/113703961728?hash=item1a7948c480:g:dmcAAOSwALdcmsZn&redirect=mobile Seems like the Nagoya side-latch must have had a run where they were making them with black saya. This is like mine.

Thomas, You are a very thorough man! Thank you for what you are doing! I don't know why I got that mixed up, but sure enough, in my file for the '38, I had placed the pictures of the '41. I've separated them now. The presentation blade is a '41 and the C17 blade is the '38.

He's likely refering to the chart posted by Nick Komiya:

Thomas,I was refering to the 1980 book found by K. Morita and discussed on post 279. I don't thing he gave the name of the book, but you can see it was pg 335 in the picture he posted

It’s in post #5.

I’m good! Thanks BW.

Hmmm.... I found a Magaroku discussion on Warrelics, so maybe my brain melded the two discussion over time. I'm good at that. https://www.warrelics.eu/forum/Japanese-militaria/ww2-Japanese-swords-up-review-authentication-727600/ Thanks guys!

George, after reading the thread, I think you were all correct. Thanks for the update. Quite an interesting story, and quite an interesting character! I'm still nagged by the [something] roku memory though. This thread didn't mention the $100,000 or the fact that the guy taking the blade to Japan already had 3 or 4 buyers lined up, pushing possibly $400,000. The carrier was going to take a 20% cut for his referal work, too.

I know it wasn't the guy Ray named, and might have been the one John mentioned. All I know is that it was a 2-kanji mei and 六 was one of the characters. Something like Mago Roku? Everyone was saying that there were only 5 known in existance, and this would be number 6 if legit.