BANGBANGSAN

If anyone has " Japanese Pattern Dirks .The Banks Collection"for sale ,please contact me. Thanks

Dm'd

Appreciated your work ,Mal。It's always nice to chat with you!

東神正茂　Tojin Masashige 。The implified version of "義" is 义

The meaning of the TEC mark is unknown,it should from some sword shop, it only appears on naval swords. Can you post more photo of the fitting ?

Thanks for your hard work,Mal!

More like 海軍卷 (Navy style wrapping)

And a 羽州永井住齋藤國吉，but unfortunately no photo of the Mei only has register paper.

There is a 齋藤國吉

Bruce The Kanemune you post is January 1944 NOT 1943.The steel scanbbard RS most likly starts from 1944-1945,maybe that's why some collector call it Type 44.

@Bruce Pennington Unfinished Mantetsu made in China

The mark on the left of the number "2" is "関" (Seki). The wooden-handled Type 95 were using the "名" (Na) mark before the 205xxx serial number.

I would say this is a Chinese puppet army sword (伪军刀). Please check out the photos. The sword at the very bottom is an exhibit in the Military Museum in Beijing. The tag reads: 冀热察挺进军第三科科长贾顺林缴获的日伪军战刀 "A battle sword seized by Jia Shunlin, head of the Third Section of the Ji-Re-Cha Advance Army, from the Japanese puppet army." Notice that the metal parts of this puppet army sword are very similar to the one Dave posted.

Thanks Bruce!

Bruce Do you have more photos of this sword?

I’m not an expert for the Java swords. But I think this type of Gunto is a purely combat weapon made in the battlefield. It may have been produced with the involvement of Japanese blacksmith/sword maker who were responsible for maintaining the army swords(軍刀維修団）, and the materials used were probably something from old car springs. I would like to add one of those Java sword to my collection one day for research purposes.

Swedish steel Company " Shellberg from Höganäs AB" mentioned 日支事変勃発のニュースは、端典の各地の工場視察を終わり、ストックホルムの旅舎に 帰った直後に聞いた。 その時瑞典の銑鉄は、二二〇クローネ（当時の為替平価、五三銭七厘）迄にはね上って いることを知った。これは二ヶ月前には九〇クローネだったということに対し、実に二倍 半の値上りである。その頃、チェルベルジーを経て買付た瑞典のフーフォース社の原料フ ープ三八ポンド（当時の為替時価、二〇円）という、東京よりの知らせがあった。このこ とは正に、原料価格が数ヶ月前に於ける、吾々の製品価格に相当するところ迄騰貴したこ とで、真に容易ならぬ場面が展開して来た訳である. I heard the news of the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese Incident just after returning to my lodging in Stockholm, following inspections at various factories in Denmark. At that time, I learned that the price of Swedish pig iron had soared to 220 kronor (equivalent to 53.7 sen at the exchange rate then). This was an astonishing increase, as it had been 90 kronor just two months earlier, representing a rise of two and a half times. Around that time, I received news from Tokyo that Swedish raw material hoop iron weighing 38 pounds, purchased via Shellberg from Höganäs AB, was priced at 20 yen (based on the current exchange rate at the time). This meant that the price of raw materials had surged to a level equivalent to the price of our products a few months earlier, signaling the beginning of a truly challenging situation.

Typo 烏（乌 Black） instead of 鳥（鸟 bird)

濃州関住福田兼次 Noshu Seki ju Fukuda Kanetsugu

以餅鐵 Motte Mochi Tetsu (Using Mochi Iron) 盛岡住 Morioka ju 山內 Yamauchi 藤原國多作 Fujiwara Kunimasa Saku

鳥城 Okayama Castle 鍛刀舎 Tantosha(Forge) 三田住 Mita Ju 蛟龍斎 Koryusai(House of Water Dragon) 義光作 Yoshimitsu saku

I read this interview with 大崎靖宗 Osaki Yasumune, and the interviewer is 栗原謙二 Kurihara Kenji, a apprentice of the second-generation 小林康広 Kobayashi Yasuhiro. In the article, some interesting story is mentioned, where 靖宗 Yasumune talks about"In fact,we use oil to soften the blade after water quenching to improve it's flexibility.And this method was invented by Dr.Kuto Haruto 工藤治人(The chariman of Yasuki Steel Mill Company 安來鋼製作所 ）.It was certainly a better method for cooling down the entire blade more evenly than the traditional method."