Bruce Pennington

Jay, The fact that this blade was cut in two supports the probability that this was surrendered after the war. Thousands of blades were destroyed this way beacase they were war weapons. Very tragic. I've seen several pictures of soldiers carrying old blades in combat saya. It was common. There was a serious shortage of officer swords and many private blades were donated to the war effort. Some were totally refitted with army or navy fittings, while others were simply put into combat saya. This looks legit.

According to Nick, the images showing the cutting edge horizontal were showing how to sharpen. The images with the edge up are readied for dulling. So, when you say all the blades were issued without edge, do you mean that every blade made had to be sharpened by the soldier? The thing that really got Nick's discussion going was the "cring-worthy" requirement to dull the cutting edge of weapons once in a peacetime setting - something I was completely unaware of.

Thanks to Nick Komiya at Warrelics for this very important insight to the practice of sharpening and dulling blades for wartime and peace. This went for all blades including bayonetes: http://www.warrelics.eu/forum/Japanese-militaria/sharpening-dulling-blades-were-taken-granted-675938/

Just when you think you've seen it all!!! And the boar's eye holes on the tsuba are filled!

Update: I tried the habaki from my Late-war 95 and it fit pretty good. Before I go searching for another like it, I've decided to pack some steel putty in the top edge to see if I can get the original one to fit better. I'll update that tomorrow.

Soooo - "2178" means that you've bought that many swords over the years?!?!

Jean, I'm sorry if you thought my comment was aimed at you- it wasn't. I was speaking generically. Even Matt's statement above highlights the differences in perspective - he's looking for nihonto art - where the military collector is looking at a beautiful weapon made for WWII soldiers. Not the same thing. Not the same beauty.

I agree Wayne. It reminds me of "wine snobs" that look down on California wines or Chilean wines. We all have our "tastes" and specialties. It is when one starts looking down on other's tastes that we are getting into character issues not item values.

Very nice Sean! You'll be enjoying that one for a long time! I especially like the addition of the combat saya.

Yes, a special order. Ohmura has several examples like it. I was puzzled by the kyugunto style tassel. Maybe the tassels changed a little later than the shingunto release date?

Wow, STARTING price over $9,000 USD! But it's clearly special. I'm puzzled by the tassel. I thought that style was kyugunto. But maybe the shingunto came out before they changed tassel styles.

A great place to start is Ohmura's website: http://ohmura-study.net/900.html

Sorry Steve, we were typing at the same time and I didn't see your post until I posted! Chris, Steve is a true expert on these, so I don't doubt his opinion. Would still clinch it for me to see the tang.

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