Bruce Pennington

Here's how it looked when I first inherited it:

Just a shout-out to Kurt "Obiwanknabbe" for the terrific saya-jiri I got from him. It fit my Dad's Mantetsu saya perfectly and even had just the right wear and look to match the kabuto-gane and other fittings! Just waiting for my turn in line to have it polished.

Vladimir, The writing on the tsuba and seppa (handguard and spacers) are 2240, just assembly numbers from the factory to keep fitted parts together. Someone should be able to give you some info on the kamon (family crest). Very beautiful! Do you know any of it's story? How did you come across it?

Julian, that's actually quite gorgeous! Maybe you've discovered a new hobby! Even the pros say it takes them 3 weeks or so to polish a blade. Nice job. Hey check your pm's!

OH MY GOSH!!!! If it was a snake, it would have bit me; as they say!!! I actually laughed out loud when I went back to see that. Thanks Malcolm. Ok, I take back everything I've postulated about an NCO putting that together (howsomever, I HAVE known some NCOs over the years that could have done something as bone-headed as that!!!)

Here's another one from Chris Franklin, Sword Forum International: http://www.swordforum.com/forums/showthread.php?118190-Curious-hybrid-sword

Any swordsmith experts know where Tenshin worked?

Thanks Cory! Does anyone know what province Tenshin worked in?

I am open to ideas, certainly the serial number looks identical, but it's possible they are using a fixed number and stamping multiple items with it. The ends of these saya look different to me if you ignore the numbers. The corners of the actual saya tip, not the drag, on the top are rounded, where the corners of the bottom one are squared off. In fact, though, the number pattern on each is different. One is "up, down, up, up, up" where the other is "up, down, up, down, down." Nope, not the same saya.

Wow, good catch! The saya are different, so the blades probably are too! But the number stamp is identical, even to the pattern of the numbers.

Fuller & Gregory has one on page 84, that shows which arsenal supervised each serial number group. I've never seen a list that shows the manufacturing progress for each plant by serial number. I'll attach some charts provided for years 1944, 45, from Nick Komiya at Warrelics, but they're in Japanese. Word on the street is that they were making 3,000 Type 95s per month! The copper handled guntos were made in a one year span from 1937 to 1938, then the aluminum handles started. Wooden handles begining in the 200,000 and 300,000 range began roughly in 1944 to 1945. So, between 1938 and 1944 (6 years) all the aluminum handled serial numbers were cranked out, and not necessarily sequentially, since number blocks were portioned out to the various arsenals. So you can do some very rough mental math, and say what you like about a serial number in the 45,000 range, but I'd say 1940ish??? Someone with more expertise PLEASE stop me!!!

I see - don't give good intel to the bad guys! Never thought of that. I just thought Stegel was using it like a fun challenge game!

I've seen 2 or 3 of this style lately!!! 1. Ugly cross-hatching, 2. wrong tuska retention screw nut, 3. Serial number way too early, 4. Serial number stamped on drag, 5. UGLY kissaki, 6. No retaining screw for the throat piece.

Corry, nice going for a first shot off eBay! I've gotten about a third of mine from there, but there are some real clunkers out there! Sword was made by Ījima Tōken Seisakusho (left stamp); Inspected by Tokyo First Army Arsenal (center stamp) for the Tokyo Kokura Army Arsenal (right stamp). Likely year - 1939-41ish. Great place to learn about these: http://ohmura-study.net/957.html#6

From Kapp & Yoshihara, "Modern Japanese Swords and Swordsmiths", "The Japanese military authorities became concerned about the difficulty of distinguishing between traditional swords and Showa-to, and decided in 1937 that all non-tamahagane blades were to be stamped on their tangs to indicate that they were not traditional blades. This was fully implemented in 1940." and From Fuller & Gregory, "Japanese Military and Civil Swords and Dirks," "Neither the 'Sho' or 'Seki' stamps indicate the method of blade manufacture, only that they are not tamahagane gendaito." So this blade may have been handmade, just not using tamahagane.

Gorgeous Koa Isshin, Ed! If I didn't already have one, and didn't have a gunto I'm trying to pay off, not to mention my brother's motorcycle that I'm buying - I jump on that! Good price! On another note, my dad's Mantetsu saya is missing the sayajiri. Any chance you have one that I could buy from you? There are many out there with various sellers, but I've learned by experience that you can't just get any fitting and expect it to fit.

Dang, I hate it when I do that! No habaki.

But removing it would show if the nakago had been modified to fit the NCO tsuka. There's no kissaki, but there are marks visable where a kissaki once was. I've seen a version 1 without a bohi (fuller groove), plenty on the late-war, but not the aluminum handle. Dawson, page 192-3 has a copper handle prototype that is really aluminum, coated with copper, but EVERYTHING is aluminum - blade, saya, tsuba, tsuka. It was the first of the breed so I could understand why there would be prototypes. Honestly what this gunto makes me think of are the days when they were short of gunto (early stages of the war) and officers were having to use NCO gunto because there just weren't enough officer gunto. This blade without serial number (and fuchi without stamps) may have been fitted with NCO tsuka and saya simply because there were no officer fittings available. Another possibility is that an NCO with a broken blade (pics of such available) got his hands on an officer blade and swapped them out.

Yes, it's tough to get pics that show it but I think I've got some better ones here. You can't see it, but running my finger along the edge, it gets concave right there, and very rough. The color is different. In these pics, you'll see a half-teardrop shape. Different texture, different color. The blade is in great shape, but there are 2 other nicks and dings in the edge with a few perpendicular slash marks across the surface.

Here's more pics of the gunto:

Just picked up a decent Type 95, ver 2, with a very good spot just aft of the kissaki where some damage had been repaired. It was a very good job, slightly difficult to photograph. By the quality of the job, I feel like it was probably done by the Japanese during the war.

Bob, The "Gi" or Gifu stamp on the blade is a poor imitation. I've seen a few of these popping up lately. The imitators must have cranked out a bunch of these recently. The quality has gone up considerably on the gunto overall, but they are still getting some things wrong (luck for us!). The saya (scabbard) is early war style on a late-war blade - so wrong. Also the early war sayas never had the serial number stamped on the drag tip. Finally, the serial number is WAY too early for late-war gunto. The EARLIEST number I've seen is in the 155,000 range, and most are 200,000 and 300,000. For a cheap (under $150) man-cave decoration, it's not bad, but don't buy it if you're collecting WWII collectables.

This does have a hamon, it's the darker line along the cutting edge. Most war blades had a straight temper line not the wavy kind.

Thanks, Steve, that makes sense!

Yes! Checking the name, there was a Nakagomi town established in 1919. It's part of Saku now. There's also a famous orchard named Nakagomi. I wonder if the kanji is saying that the wood for the liner came from there.