JohnWB

Thank y’all for the insight. All of the help and information you have all made available here is the only way someone can learn to start navigating in this minefield of collecting. I have no idea why I love collecting these things so much, but they are, without a doubt, a piece of history.

Just picked this up today. Please correct me if I am wrong about anything: Made by Kobe Shoten under Kokura Army Arsenal, Inspected by Tokyo 1st Army Arsenal. 1. The inspector stamp on the blade is a partial stamp, but can someone confirm that is a Tokyo Arsenal stamp? 2. The saya has a period paint over the original green finish that is either very dark green or black aged to dark green. Can someone explain this? The Sarute is also painted with the same black. From what I can find, this stamp only appears within a serial range of roughly 2000 blades. 3. Do we know if all 2000 swords in that range came from Kobe Shoten? 4. Are they actually all that scarce and is that Kobe stamp something 95 collectors are looking for? 5. More specifically, does it add appreciably to the value of the piece or would I value it like any other type 95? 6. Any idea then this would have been made? Thanks guys! I have learned so much from you!

Thank you for all of the help guys. I can't tell you how much I appreciate it. I'm always trying to learn more, and I feel like this sword has a lot to teach.

@lonely panet I am extremely happy with the sword, but my ignorance is shining through, what is machi-mori? Thank you @Bugyotsuji for the translation help! Anyone have any idea which Sukesada signed with a 3 kanji mei? All of the signatures I can find are longer signatures except for the very early ones.

More pics.

I picked this up today at the Wannamaker show and was hoping to get some help on the translation. I will post more pics of the fittings in a reply to this post. The family mon appears to be the Watanabe family Crest. The tag said "Watanabe Bosh Family Crest", but I cant find any info on the "Bosh" part of that. The blade is unusually straight, but I have not measured the sori. The tassel looks like new, but it appears legit to me and a few others I showed it to. The nakago has a nice dark color and appears several hundred years old to me, but I am definitely not an expert and would appreciate any help with approximate age and translation of the mei. What are your thoughts on the sword and tassel, and I would greatly appreciate any help on the translation of the mei. Thank you!

I have to say, they did a nice clean start on that bohi. It starts too far from the habaki and there's a myriad of other problems, but that is the cleanest start on a bohi that I have seen on one of these brass handled fakes. From the extra tooling marks in the end of the bohi, it looks like they got in there and cleaned it up to make it look a bit more legit at a glance.

Here you go Bruce: Link to the comment:

Aaah, I wish I'd seen this a few weeks ago. I am up in Lampasas, but I'd love to start coming down to meetings if this is going to be a regular thing. I am fairly new to nihonto, and it would be great to connect with others in central Texas with a similar interest. Please let me know if there is another meeting scheduled.

Outstanding! Thank you for the help @Bruce Pennington & @BANGBANGSAN! Bruce, I went through the stamps doc 3 times and never saw that lol. I figured it had to be there somewhere and I had just looked over it. Thank you for putting that together. As far as the list goes, believe me, I am trying to resist, but yeah, all those are on my list, and a 94, and a 97, and a few more lol. I keep telling myself “It’s not a race, it’s a marathon, find the good ones that are also priced right, and you’ll get there eventually.” Temptation is tough though lol.

I just picked up this type 95 and I am really pleased with it. I am hoping y'all can help with a bit more information. If I understand correctly, the stamps on the fuchi are: Suya Shoten, Tokyo 1st Arsenal inspection stamp, and Tokyo 1st Arsenal. Here are my questions: What is the significance of the outer 2 stamps in relation to the manufacturing of the sword? As in were the parts manufactured in one place and assembled in the other, or some parts from both? What is the stamp on the saya drag? Can anyone give an approximate date of manufacture? SN 148224 As always, I really appreciate all the help and expertise everyone here so freely gives. This is an incredible group of people with an inexhaustible wealth of knowledge. -John

Here's this one currently on ebay: https://www.ebay.com...r=artemis&media=COPY

That's fantastic! Thank you for the information. Love getting to see the examples of his other work and the evolution of his mei. Outstanding information and thanks for the help on that Gifu stamp. I had no idea what it was.

Bruce, Here are the stamps you asked about on this type 3. There is a stamp on each side of the nakago at the top and one on the mune. Nagoya arsenal? Any idea what the stamp on the mune is?