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?

I just saw this one on ebay from Showa22: "Prototype Koa Isshin Mantetsu", serial No. N 1 https://www.ebay.com/itm/235395849937?hash=item36ceaf9ed1:g:dREAAOSwtqVlrF9B&amdata=enc%3AAQAIAAAA4DY2SjvTfA41OFCuE3Awoend%2F5b6BHNgVonp1wojbrNmyBv7UUFvSxf6bDxml1%2FvaZDFumMbLTEGD239o9sDO%2BwJt5CYCIOH7k1fWXoW%2BFBki5Mx%2FAUP6mLDl47xOb8ijq%2Fw0HKLxFplbanUQdYuc6kgzRBc%2FnFRHedWMSReZi4AsJEfQA0JlKYIJcYQ0dGojAJKHM1xbkhWNzkTMznDLQoWp%2BsoBfvDVGn1lUPCTMOkchgAlLY3dO%2F9qAS5Ufom%2FZUoP2uoKdrjzYVqXJNGWLxAy%2Fya8qovGrCOwpIq%2Bwt7|tkp%3ABk9SR_DA8sKnYw

Thank you for the translation @David Flynn. I really appreciate the help! -John

I will if I can get my hands on it. I'm going to hopefully talk to the guy tomorrow, and if we can work something out, I'll post clear pictures when I get it.

Good evening everyone. I am hoping someone can help with the translation of this mei. Any help would be greatly appreciated! -John

Glad to hear it! More to learn! All I saw there was the bad font, bad stamp, and bohi starting too far from the habaki. Ooooh, the numbers are turned the wrong way for a Tokyo blade. Otherwise I await the correct answer.

Hanger is too far down the saya, wrong font for the serial number, Tokyo stamp is too big by the serial number, bohi starts too far from the tsuba, stamps are too big and completely wrong on the fuchi, tsuka is not detailed enough, seppa is badly done and no dished cuts in the "petals", shouldn't be kanji on the blade. Only been at this for a little over a month but that is a bad one lol.

Thanks Bruce! That’s exactly what I was looking for. Wow, I would have immediately discounted that Nagoya as a fake from the shape of the bohi. Now off to start learning stamps too 🤦‍♂️ lol. I will say, even though I’ve only been researching for a couple weeks, and very little research on stamps yet, the stamps and serial number font on the one John posted are atrocious. Not to mention the undefined tsuka and unevenly ground seppa.

I am sorry if this is a foolish question or if I misunderstood something in all of my reading. I have been reading everything I can find from multiple sources (including the entirety of this message thread) to learn about identifying real vs fake/replica type 95's. (I am also taking a page from your book and I'm filling up a reference folder on my computer of pictures of fake vs real 94's, 95's & 98's.) I read some discussion somewhere in the middle of this message thread that there may be some examples of legitimate type 95 swords with a bohi that don't begin and/or end as cleanly and crisply as we expect to see on legitimate NCO swords, due to quality controls slipping from time to time. The bohi seems to be one of the major indicators to easily identify fakes at a simple glance without having to look further. Do any of you have an example where the sword is a known legitimate type 95, but with a less than stellar bohi beginning or ending? I am curious and would love to see how far out of spec they got so that I know when to look further and when not to. And if I misread that somewhere on here, I apologize for wasting your time, but I'm at least glad to nail it down concrete in my noggin. Thank you all for the education I have been getting. There is an unreal amount of knowledge concentrated here, and you have done us newcomers a great service by spreading your knowledge, especially as the fakes are getting better and better. Second question, has anyone run across a fake/copy type 97 naval gunto or a type 3? Haven't seen much discussion on fakes with an iron tsuba. I may need to start another reference folder if they're around too. I feel like I have been sucked down a rabbit hole and there's no chance I'm climbing back out now lol. -John

A close friend of mine bought this sword quite a few years ago and doesn't know it's history beyond it being a type 98. I am trying to help him out. I apologize for the orientation of the pictures with the bare blade and that there are no better pictures of the blade or hamon. The damage to the saya is from a bullet strike! It looks like the bullet skimmed off the blade when it struck! Any help in mei translation or information about dating would be greatly appreciated.

@Bruce Pennington @vajo @John C All of you, I really appreciate the helpful information. One last question. I have read that tang should not be cleaned to preserve the patina, but on the side with the mei, can I use blade oil on the area of the tang between the peg-hole and the habaki to clean up the active rust? I don't want to do something I shouldn't, but I also don't want to let it deteriorate from neglect. Thoughts?