flightlessgreeb

As promised! Picked up the sword yesterday, took some pics this afternoon in the setting sun. Some of them didn't come out with great detail - let me know if there are any additional shots I should try to take or retake. It appears to be Kokura Arsenal if I know my Arisaka stamps anyway - not sure about the other markings. At least with rifles I know it's very difficult to nail down a year of manufacture - would anyone care to hazard a guess in this case? gallery: https://imgur.com/a/zdMwRz2

Thanks so much everyone for your nuanced and detailed replies! Extremely gratifying to find a forum with such quick and easy expertise - definitely better than some of the experiences I've had in the gun world haha - I have made plans to pick this sword up and will definitely be posting additional photos of it once I have it in my possession. Thanks also for the note about leaving the tsuka intact, I've seen a lot of pics with the blade removed but I'd also noted that these machine made mass production ones may not have much useful info under there, good to have it confirmed. I don't currently have any books on the topic but I have pre-ordered Plimpton's new work from Headstamp Publishing - lets just hope I can keep this hobby to a reasonable limit of one or maybe two items haha

Hello all! I discovered this forum in the course of trying to bring myself up to speed on shin gunto NCO swords as thats become a recent topic of interest for me. I'm mainly a firearms collector but have been thinking about branching out into the world of edged weapons and, having some Japanese heritage I thought this might be the right path for me. By coincidence, a collector I've had dealings with in the past offered me a Type 95 (I believe?) that he indicated has been in his family for decades as part of his late father's collection. This would be part of a package deal with another piece and, since I'm such a neophyte in this area, I thought it prudent to reach out to the experts to determine if there were any issues with this potential purchase. Unfortunately the images I've been sent are quite small and a few of the markings are out of focus - from reading the very helpful fake Type 95 thread the fonts and font placement of the serials looks about right to me? The tsuka looks to be fairly detailed and not poorly cast as in some reproductions, the fuller looks about the right length on the blade, the wear looks fairly consistent with the age. The things that give me pause are the blades overall very even appearance and the fact that the tsuba looks brass colored - I think it's actually aluminum and the lighting is making it look like brass but I'd have to see it in person to know. Would anyone care to chime in regarding this swords authenticity? Any replies are welcome! I've tried to do a bit of research on my own but things like serial number ranges and proper arsenal stamps still elude me.