Bruce Pennington

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.

Found this on the wooden liner of my newly acquired Type95 ver 2 NCO gonto. Any help?

Update: Just got a Type 95, ver 2, with a "W" stamp on the nakago! That makes 3 NCO gunto. The ver 1 and 2 are both made by the Ijima Tōken Seisakusho contractor. Unfortunately, the 2a has a steel fuchi, so I don't know who made it. Any bets it was Ijima?! The ver 1 has a Kokura Arsenal stamp, and the 2 has a Tokyo First, but they both have Ijima in common.

Shamsy, You should get Stegel. He could probably run this thread out for several pages!!! I'm not educated on the variants of the late-war 95s, but from your pic, is it the metal ashi on the wooden saya that makes the 2 different than the "original?" I guess I have the original style, then. It has a Seki stamp by the serial number, and strangely, has multiple tiny seki stamps on the back edge of the nakago. Don't hate me for this, but I didn't see them until I cleaned the nakago! Here are some pics:

All, Someone recommended I post this here for a broader audience, sorry if you've already seen it on the nihonto forum: Found this on another forum and thought I'd see if anyone recognizes it. I'd like to post it on the "Stamp" thread, but don't want to just throw fake stuff on there along with the good stuff. You can see more pics of the gunto at this link, but it's a beater, an odd-ball, maybe a fake, but strange enough to make me wonder:http://forums.gunboards.com/showthread.php?585969-Unknown-sword-tang-stamp

Thanks to all for the inputs! I'll pass them along to the owner. Seems like the really good gunto are slowly being collected and taken out of circulation, not all of course. But it seems the odd-balls are popping up more now.

Here's the link where all his pics are: http://forums.gunboards.com/showthread.php?585969-Unknown-sword-tang-stamp

All, Found this on another forum and thought I'd see if anyone recognizes the stamp before I post it to the "Stamp" thread.

From a military gunto collector's perspctive, this is a beautiful kai-gunto! But for war swords, this is way overpriced. I bought my kai for $1,200 USD. I've seen them go as high as $2,400 (this one would qualify for that price). The high dollar gunto sell high usually more because of who owned them, and sometimes because the smith was famous or it was a shrine sword.

Steve, I normally try to defend odd gunto when there's doubt, but this one is a mess. The handle (tsuka) is very poor immitation. Aluminum doesn't corrode like that. The hole where the tassel loop ring is, is very ugly and poorly made. There is no chrysanthimum flower. Then there are many issues with the rest of the fittings. I can't speak about the blade as much. I agree it had a bad polish. The tang (nakago) isn't that well made and the end has been lopped off. Now, were it a legit war sword, that end might have been lopped off to fit into the handle. NCO gunto (which the handle is NCO style) have another hole at the end of the nakago. If things were better looking on this rig, I was going to propose that it was a Warrant Officer gunto, as discussed in Fuller & Gregory, with a family heirloom blade. But I doubt a warrant officer would have settled for such a poorly fitted arrangement.

I have benefitted greatly from both books mentioned above as well as from The Ohmura Study, online at: http://ohmura-study.net/900.html Each of them brings unique and valuable knowledge and I refer to them often.

Ha! Yes the auction sites are pretty bad about knowing what and how to show a sword! I'm still learning and was anxious to hear and learn by getting the opinions of more experienced collectors, like yourself!

Saw this on an auction site, what do you think? My first thought was poor WWII fake gunto. The kabuto-gane, if it's supposed to be WWII, is off, but it's better made than most fakes. The seppa looks WWII legit, though, but with civilian tsuba. The blade has a good look to it, but the habaki looks like a new replacement. Then I noticed the double mekugi, therefore long nakago. I vaguely remember seeing some old katanas with kabu and other fittings that resembled WWII fittings (or should I say it the other way around!) and started to wonder if this is maybe something old. Thoughts? https://new.liveauctioneers.com/item/47230197_antique-Japanese-wwii-samuri-sword-1945-with

Shamsy, quite an interesting nakago! Is it something old?

Dang! I knew I'd seen something like this before! Fuller & Gregory, pg 105, has a waki in the same kind of koshirae. He said it was in "wooden mounts adapted for military use by the addition of a brown leather covering". The tsuka on his looks like the leather cover and the kabuto-gane went missing. Same style.

I doubt we'll get any closer than "not Japanese made". The kanji could be a clue if someone with Chinese knowledge can take a look. There are a couple of guys at Warrelics or Gunboards that have that capability. If the kanji defies all nationality recognition, then I'd put it down as a repro, but until then I've never seen one in such nice koshirae, and I'd leave it open to occupied lands potential.

????

Just makes the detective work more challenging, eh! Your point is true for all mankind, isn't it, though.