Kiipu

I have never heard of such a feature on either a sword or dirk. The Japanese did have a sheet metal reinforcement for the hilt though. There is a collector by the name of "Kai-Gunto" who owns a good many dirks. An example of his collection can be seen over at WRF. Help to authenticate Japanese Dirks Dagger The book mentioned above by Marcin is just a picture book and unlikely to help you with your scholarly research. And finally, it would be of interest to hear from "drb 1643" in regards to your questions.

Ditto the above. Conway, how in the world do you keep finding these swords! Are you Irish?

Thanks John for posting the pictures. Based upon past conversations, @Ray Singer would probably like to look at it too.

The Imperial Ordinance No. 775 can be accessed via JACAR. The citation is at the bottom of the webpage and can be cut and pasted. Good luck with your scholarly studies. 御署名原本・昭和十四年・勅令第七七五号・海軍工廠令中改正

Thanks for all the updates. Even today, many advanced collectors recommend these newsletters for beginning collectors.

FYI, Eric's sword is serial number 16416. Extract of his postmarked letter of 1999-0202 is below. Hope this helps in your research.

That is one of the books that you can "borrow" but not download. Might be different for some depending upon what country you are logging in from. Below are the rules for it. FYI, archive.org (and Google Books) is a safe web site and have used it for many moons. Borrowing From The Lending Library

I downloaded my copy via the link below. According to Bruce, it was a JSSUS article. Attention Mantetsu Owners: A Survey

And that is why I go by water quenched for traditional and oil quenched for nontraditional. I thus avoid what type of steel was used.

I do not recall running into that character before on a sword. Thanks for bringing it to our attention.

It is Hidetoshi as Bruce states. However, the characters appear reversed? Not sure how that happened. Hidetoshi???

I have not looked into that topic but you might want check with Jussi Ekholm first.

An unusual place to find a matchlock! He,p with Flintlock ID

Sorry, it is a Chinese reproduction. Probably made within the last thirty years.

Correct John, one needs to factor in the quantity of blades that were being made. The Mantetsu was a modernized Nihontō and was water quenched. I see three basic blade construction types for this time frame: 2 or more layers and water quenched, 2 or more layers and oil quenched, and finally one piece construction (such as a Type 95) and usually oil quenched. I see the whole Imperial Japanese era (1868-1952) as falling into the realm of Japanese militaria collecting and not Nihontō collecting. This is where the collecting market is at. Your gas mileage my differ though!