John C

Bruce: This quote is from a site on plating brass with copper. Might explain the peeling you are seeing: "The activation in Sulfamic acid suggested in another response is acceptable, but it must be rinsed well so it does not carry over to the plating bath. Please note that Plating peels off when the base has not been cleaned or activated sufficiently well." John C.

Thank you, Steve. It was the last character that threw me off. Below is Sgt. Takehira Ogawa (English name order). John C.

Hello: I think I see Ogawa Ryohei. Thank you, John C.

Thank you very much! I could not figure out the 3rd character in line 3 (the date) so I assumed it was a season. This information will help me to associate typed kanji with handwritten kanji. John C.

Hello: This is what I think some of it says. Please correct my mistakes and help fill in the gaps. Line 1 (right to left): Alumni association _ _ _ _. Line 2: (name) Primary school _ _ _ _ 3rd year?? Line 3: Showa 9 (1934) Summer?? Line 4: unknown Line 5: Rei (?) seventeen at the time?? Thank you, John C.

For me, the dichotomy is between the crudeness of these types of swords versus the number of hours it must have taken to produce them. Somebody had a lot of time on his/her hands to hand stamp all of the details. John C.

Bruce: I think you nailed it...as usual! Found this pic of police officers wearing the same uniform from 1945/46. Even down to the pocket pens. John C.

I tried looking at the original under a loop, however I think it's as clear as it is going to get. The symbol on the backstrap looked vaguely like the standard sakura. John C.

Hello: I would appreciate any help you all (y'all) could provide in identifying these uniforms. The star pips on the collars (as well as the pocket pens) could indicate cadets, however the different caps are throwing me off. I'm also having some difficulty identifying the shoulder boards. The cap badge on the first looks similar to a police badge but I could not find an exact match. Thank you, John C.

JC: Are these from the same sword or do you have two with assembly number 45? John C.

Mich: To add to what Bruce said, the ito wrap looks like it has had a fresh coat of lacquer applied. Still bright and shiny, not dull and dirty. Not saying it isn't legit, just some things to think about. John C.

Garbage in; garbage out. As long as Chatgbt continues to use the internet as its source, it cannot be accurate. If it had access to refereed journal articles written by professional researchers, that may change. But for now, I wouldn't trust it. In addition, the paragraphs in this case are far too simplistic, grammatically incorrect, and linguistically unsophisticated to be representative of a learned colleague providing advice. If one of my students had turned something like that in for an assignment, it would have kicked back for a re-write. John C. (Maybe I'm just being too hard on technology).

Adam: This sounds like a good reason to submit it. I would pick the two items I know the least about. Shinsa may be a good educational experience. John C.

Thank you, Trystan. This helps me piece together the origin of the album as a whole. John C.

Thank you, Steve. I didn't even think of checking for a proper name. John C.

This is a follow-up to the picture posted above. I have been able to scrape the top layer of tape off of the stamp on the left. I went through my glossary of military terms and could not find these exact characters. I believe the first kanji is platoon/shidai and the fourth character may be "police." I assume it is some sort of regimental approval stamp. Any additional help would be appreciated. Thank you, John C.

@Bruce Pennington Is that the same type of orange tassel found on the souvenir sword bags? John C.

Could that have to do with the seller? John C.

Dan: Bottom line is that the sword is in a bit of rough shape and not particularly valuable. But it is a valid piece of WW2 history and you should preserve it. Have some fun looking up the smith and finding out about the sword on NMB! John C.

It would be interesting to see if this Takeyasu is double stamped. John C.

I think the note says Takeyasu. I have seen that handwriting before, though I cannot remember where. Yes. A record for seppa in order to make it fit! John C.

Here's one listed for 49 dollars. https://www.ebay.com/itm/284750401368 John C.

Without the sword in hand, no one here can be 100 percent sure. But if the sword received valid NBTHK papers, then it is definitely a gendaito and not showato. Also, as Brian said, it is easy to tell the sword is hand-made and not machine made. In addition, we can also tell it has been water quenched, which is not typical of machine made swords. And lastly, the signature is very well done. Again, not something you would typically see on a showato. Hope this helps. John C.

Stegel: Are the initials on the whistle written in Cyrillic or is it just a stylized RK? John C.

From what I have seen, admittedly not much, is that boys day swords are not only shorter, but also thinner (skinnier) than adult swords. I believe in most cases they were ordered. John C.