Kiipu

@Putu The arrow in your picture is pointing to the kanji character 伊. This is not unusual for this swordsmith. 伊奈波 = Inaba. Stamp Alert! @Bruce Pennington

Is the scabbard painted black or is it some other color? Is the scabbard serial number matching to the blade serial number?

I have identified the following kanji characters in red ink 陸軍X and in black ink 七四二 so far. @BANGBANGSAN can you pitch in and help with the third kanji character in red? 陸軍? = army ?. 七四二 = 742.

I think the kanji character inside the logo is 田.

I found another one, serial 695 with no inspection mark. Help with inherited Sword The picture is out of focus but maybe 阪 2205? WW2 Japanese Katana Mystery Additional pictures of 阪 3490. Nagamitsu For Sale

The serial number range for these is as below. It is unknown if this was only used on Nagamitsu 長光 or for all production from Ōsaka Arsenal. 0 (zero) series: 阪 1867 to 阪 3991. 1st series: 阪 イ313. Three of them can be seen at this link Stamp Survey while 3991 can be found at Nagamitsu Type44 Mounting. New Today ! . I have one Gassan Sakakatsu but the order is reversed, 1 and then 阪. In addition, it is star stamped unlike the swords above so it could be unrelated. Star Stamped Sword Gassan Sadakatsu Rikugun Jumei Tosho

Is this sword, serial number い142, the same as the one pictured in his book that you illustrate at the link below? Attention Mantetsu Owners: A Survey, Page 17

The sword is a typical commercial sword sold to civilians during this time frame. Civilians wanted "samurai" style swords and not guntō style swords. Many of these swords ended up getting "drafted" [conscripted] into the military at a later date. 寿命十六年

Cross-reference to the same sword. Help with Shigetsugu Mei, Please!

@3rd Wave It is hard for me to tell from the pictures, but is the scabbard painted black? Also, is the scabbard matching to the blade serial number?

Sharp eyes you have there! copper-handle NCO sword questions

It is not unusual to see two logos on naval swords regardless of age. What is unusual is that one of the logos is a constant, the cherry blossom with anchor inside. I have kicked around the idea that it could be the mark of a reseller and not that of a manufacturer. The reason for this is that the older army swords are marked just as often as the naval swords yet have only one logo or sometimes the same logo repeated twice, side by side. I have also seen the same company logos appear on both army and naval swords. Yet the naval swords have the additional cherry blossom & anchor logo. It really is a bit of a mystery.

It's all Greek to me! (Click on the thumbnails at the bottom left to see the brochure.) http://www.venizelosarchives.gr/rec.asp?id=17994 Links to the 1932 correspondence between T. Nagahara and E. Venizelos. http://www.venizelosarchives.gr/en/rec.asp?id=17979 http://www.venizelosarchives.gr/en/rec.asp?id=17987 Thanks for sharing the advert Stegel.

A possible 49th series Mantetsu, serial number い 二八. info about first aquisition Attention @IJASWORDS

The link above no longer works as the thread has been deleted. The picture can be seen below courtesy of @charlie1.

My interest was in determining what the blade was and really did not want to discuss the sword. With that said, I agree with John. The ito wrap is completely wrong for an army sword. I do not know if this was put together immediately after the war by an allied serviceman or by a dealer or collector at a later date. To determine the value of this sword, just add up the value of the individual component parts and then subtract the cost of an ito wrap. At the end of the day, I could be completely wrong, but that is my take until some more show up and then I get mud in the face!

Stumbled upon these GBF pictures today and below is the link to them. Need help with a Japanese sword found in a pawn shop, Post #18

A link to another one discussed over at GBF between posts #66 and #75. Showing Off And another GBF discussion involving several of these swords. Need help with a Japanese sword found in a pawn shop

Thanks for the help everyone and a zōheitō [造兵刀] blade it is then.

Welcome aboard Andrew! Below are the kanji characters for Akihiro that @Bencld suggested. 秋廣 = Akihiro. You can go to the link below and do a search for this swordsmith(s). Swordsmith Index

Going back to the machine made blade. Clearly the blade was modified from its original configuration to fit the renewed "fittings". It is either a Type 95 [九五式] or a zōheitō [造兵刀] blade. It still has a visible 東 inspection mark on the obverse side. Does anyone have any thoughts about which blade was used? Also, could the size or location of the mekugi-ana [目釘孔] (tang hole) be used to tell the difference between the two? Attention: @BANGBANGSAN, @Bruce Pennington, & @Stegel and in alphabetical order no less.

Thanks Corry. I found the second link interesting. Below is the index page and the Japanese swords can be found in chapter 11. This is worthy of further reading but I have been known to be wrong before! Iron, Steel and Swords by Helmut Föll 11.6 Japanese Swords 11.6.1 The Myth and the History of the Japanese Sword 11.6.2 Making a Japanese Sword - Part 1 11.6.3 Making a Japanese Sword - Part 2 11.6.4 Metallurgy of the Japanese Sword

The eBay pictures are still available via the link below for those that would like to take a look. I would not wait too long as they will be taken down at some point. TANTO (sword) w/AIKUCHI KOSHIRAE

Attached is a picture of the overall view of the reverse side of the tang.

Does anyone by chance recognize this tantō signature? The first kanji character is currently unknown while the second character appears to be 廣 [hiro]. 廣 Cross-reference to the WRF thread. Japanese Tanto?