Bruce Pennington

Alex, Haven't EVER seen anything like that! But since we're in the guessing mode - looks to me like there were numbers on the right side that have been "x"ed out with the same kind of X seen at the top of the numbers on the left. I've seen numbers filed off of saya drags by factory repair teams, then a new number re-struck. Maybe this is what we're seeing, but I can't see why fittings would be re-numbered. But then, as I wrote that, I realized the piece may have come from an original gunto that was damaged, and as they were being re-fitted onto a new blade, the fitters wanted to number it accordingly to the new pieces during assembly. Just an idea.

Taylor, Dawson says your emblem is for Lt and Superintendant swords, and the backstrap shows it is for a Lt. You can see where the original nakago was before it was cut down for the police handle, so I agree the blade is a fighting blade, not for show. Interesting piece!

Kenny, Great sword, but I like your wife better!!! I can trade you a nice copper-handled Type 95 for her! Ha! Yours is a Type 97 Navy Officer gunto. Definitely has some personality to it. You can read about them here: http://ohmura-study.net/945.html Click on the links at the bottom for more pictures.

David, I more think that kanji is a "4". For some reason, the 4 kanji gets some pretty sloppy versions done.

I haven't been collecting koshirae stamps on a large scale. I have a small section in the Stamps Doc about them. I just thought you had started a thread on it, but couldn't find it. Here's the one I came across

Sorry Thomas, I have not been keeping pictures of the koshirae of the vast majority of the blades I've recorded. And don't have any pics of '42s with W stamp.

Oh ok.

I’d forgotten that conversation. It confirms Ohmura’s reason for stating that the Showa stamp had been assigned to the Seki Guild. I’ll have to add that to the Stamps Showa discussion.

JP, The email for the site is: imperial_military-swords@s8.dion.ne.jp I tried writing to them when I was compiling the Stamps Doc, but got no reply. Nick Komiya thought they would only reply if you wrote to them in Japanese. Someone composed my email in Japanese and I sent that out, but still no reply.

I tried to bid, but it says I'm blocked because they're not sure they can ship to me. ???

Neil! Is it possible to get a photo of the '37 in Slough? I don't have ANY '37s,

Don't stop!!! I would love to have it in PDF form for my files!

'38 is the earliest blade I've seen. Ohmura says they started planning the blades in 1937, so it's possible there were some produced that year. He also states that the Koa Isshin came out in July '39, but I've got a Winter '38 Koa on record.

While we're on smiths - I have a Winter '42 blade with a mei that says "Takanobu quenched this." The NMB discussion says he was Suzuki Takanobu, a Mantetsu manager in '38. Have no idea if he was an actual smith. If anyone is able to dig up more on him, I'd appreciate it.

Nick Komiya didn't like my use of just "Rinji" for short of Rinji Seishiki. I've forgotten his actual words, but he said it's like saying "Junk" when using the Rinji without the Seishiki! Ha! I just hate taking the time to type both words. I'm considering calling it the "RS" model; but then no one would know what I'm talking about.

Thank you Trystan! Valuable info! So, I won't list his son as a Mantetsu smith for now. You did just give us another smith, 栗原昭秀 Akira Kurihara, that worked there "short-term"!

Steve, Thank you for taking the time to go through all that! You have a lot on your plate, so your contribution is greatly appreciated, and respected. Sure hope I live long enough to see a book from you on the 95s!!!

Bruce, I like your thinking. And it supports Fuller's idea of it being a last-ditch officer gunto. Since we're way out in la-la-land with speculation, Do you think, though, that since these were being made by Jinsen, maybe they had access to more resources than mainland Japan at the end of the war? I honestly don't know, just wondering. Overall, though, lacking other evidence, I lean toward yours and Fuller's idea about these.

Trystan, that's some really good history! Where did you find this? Also, we're talking about Shigetsugu, right? If so, this implies that he must have gone back to work at Mantetsu after his trip to Tokyo in '41? It also means his son - could you give us an English version of his name? - was a smith at Mantetsu. Unless I'm taking the story wrong. The title makes it sound like all the blades he took back were Mantetsu, but the paragraphs don't specify where he made them or how he made them. Do you understand this story to mean he was working at Mantetsu, or at least making blades for Mantetsu at the end of the war? Also, do you know where Wakamatsu was located. Google isn’t really sure!

Ran into this trying to ship via USPS, from USA to Australia. No restrictions in US or AUS, but gunto came back to me TWICE! Through making phone calls, turns out USPS contracts out international air shipping. A regular vendor they use is Emirates Air - who will not even ship knives!. And there is no way to find out which airline will be used on a given day as it varies on the day and city. I switched to FedEx, even knowing their reputation and their frustrating practices with invoices.

Thanks Steve! It's going in the files!

Thanks guys, and thanks Trystan, interesting reading! So it's just his name on the nakago. There is a blade or 2 out there where the mei says it was made by Manchurian steel or Mantetsu steel. I thought this might have been one, but clearly not. Still, a great contribution to the Mantetsu Study files!

Yes, that second link confirmed the two swordsmiths. I had not cosidered Mr Kohdo a smith as he was referred to as an engineer.

My wooden handle is in the 211xxx range and none of the numbers are lined up like that (pluse mine has a Seki stamp, so different operators).

An update from a couple of other threads on the known smiths that worked the SMR Dalian operation. 1. We know of Hisakatsu, real name Takeshima Masao, who "directed the production of Koa Isshin blades" 2. Wakabayashi Shigetsugu, who instructed production workers (source: K. Morita - http://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/7445-tang-your-opinion/?hl=%2Bshigetsugu+%2Bdalian&do=findComment&comment=73318)