IanS

Hello Conway, you're absolutely right, the premium is getting so high the buyer is getting fleeced. When you take into account the seller's premium, the auction house is raking in the money and some of them misrepresent the items. When they don't describe them, it's often a warning to look carefully. Sorry to hear about your saya, now there's a challenge for you.

Thanks for the feedback, I suspect it was taken apart to give it a good clean and polish. I was going to bid for it but didn't like the damage to the side of the blade, such a pity as it has a nice low serial number too. It went for £1400. a few days ago.

last one.

Could only get this one uploaded due to size of other. this shows the damaged blade.

Excellent response. You've saved another lot of somebody's hard earned cash. Here are the photos I mentioned. Could only get these three uploaded, will upload the others on following.

Good morning Bruce, I can only tell from one photograph, that is the one with the serial number, it shouldn't have a preceding "0" (zero) and the fuller is too long. The habaki seems to have been hammered into the fuller. I really must get acquainted with stampings! I nearly bought a copper but there was damage to the blade, I'll upload some photos when I can.

The auction took place today, 6th December, '23, still described as Chinese. It didn't sell, whether that was because nobody was interested or the auction house still kept the reserve on it, they had put a value of £400 to £500.

A short update, the auction house selling the fake type 95, serial 50123, has responded to me as follows, "Dear Mr Scott, Thank you for pointing that out, I will amend the description. Kind regards" they now describe it as a Chinese copy. I have suggested they call it a replica.

My thanks to you too Bruce. Thought I'd put up the auction house text. "A Second World War Japanese NCO's Shin Gunto Katana, the 67.5cm machine made steel blade with a narrow fuller to each side, numbered 50123, with brass habaki and tsuba, the fuchi stamped with Kokura arsenal markings, with brown painted aluminium tsuka and spring clip, the green painted steel scabbard numbered 50123 at the mouth, 97cm" Auction is on 6th December.

Thanks John, Ian

Thanks Bruce, glad I didn't embarrass myself. What about the serial number font? I haven't seen it before and it just looked wrong. Ian

Hi Bruce, my first reaction was to the blade, the fuller does not finish correctly at the tsuba end, it tapers out if that's the correct term and looks to have been ground in. The top edge of the fuller to the mune is too wide. The serial number font looks wrong. The saya latch is sharply bent. The photos aren't good enough for much more comment. Ian

I thought I should say thanks to all of you for the education I'm receiving, I've just spotted another two fake type 95's for sale by auction. Both described as WWII NCO swords' one I remember has an estimate of £400 to £500, with just short of a 35% buyers' commission! Photos of this sword attached. Ian

Hi, you guys have beaten me to it. I was going to say that I couldn't see anything that looked wrong with the iron tsuba model, the first one put up by Harbin B, but then, I'm no expert and I could have been wrong. I did say when I joined that I was in awe of the experience on here and hoped some would rub off!! I don't have any type 95's. Ian.

Hello Ron, I cannot agree more. The one I've highlighted here, now looks a doddle to detect having seen the tough ones. Regards, Ian.

Good morning gentlemen, many thanks for your responses, I was pretty certain this was a Chinese fake and asked the auction house for the following, "Please can you show the arsenal stamps on the fuchi and if possible, on the tang too. Is there a habaki with the sword, none shown fitted to the blade. Many tanks, Ian Scott." I hadn't received a reply and on the day prior to the auction I sent the following, "Hi again, I sent a request message earlier regarding this lot and having looked more closely at the photos, this is not a genuine Japanese Type 95 Gunto, probably an early Chinese fake. The fuller has a different section and length compared to a genuine type 95. The tsuka looks to have induced wear or is just extremely badly cast and without a trace of paint. There is no habaki. There is no inspection stamp after the serial number. If it was genuine, according to the serial number it would have been made at the Nagoya Arsenal early in the war." I agree with you on the serial number. The tsuba casting looks rubbish too. The auction house went ahead with describing the sword as Japanese, this to me is misrepresentation, I hope the buyer takes it back and kicks up merry hell. Incidentally, I did add to my message that I thought it had little or no value. The hammer price was £600!! Ian.

Good evening, I'm late in saying hello, I seemed to have lost the correct location to introduce myself, just found it. My name is Ian, I'm getting on a bit and should have started taking interest in Japanese swords a long time ago, there's a lot to learn! Looking forward to meeting message board members. Best wishes, Ian.

Good afternoon, I joined the forum yesterday mainly because I often got "referred" here when I did Google searches on Japanese swords. I never ceased to be in awe of the wealth of knowledge, so here I am to hopefully gain some of it. I apologise for introducing myself here, I lost the section of the forum where I should have done this. Having read your posts on this thread, I thought I would bring to your notice a type 95 for sale at auction, I'm satisfied that my conclusion is correct in that it is a fake, but I'd love to hear your views. I have put the web address below as I'm not sure about putting up the auction house photos in case of copyright problems. https://www.the-sale...cc-a26a-b0a801264bff Best wishes, Ian.