Gunner1171

Thank you Bruce

This is a sword I’m looking at tomorrow. These are the only pictures I have so far. I’m pretty excited about it but looking to see if anyone smarter than me can translate the wooden tag. interested in anyone’s opinions and thoughts as well. thank you in advance!

Wow! That’s a good catch. My brain didn’t even register that! were these sets serialized by hand or at least by a person on a machine? Was this a human error like maybe the end of a long day and they were cruising along and thought the 3 was an 8 or visa versa? its just funny how close the two numbers look. im interested in this. What are your thoughts?

Haha in the end it doesn’t really matter as I’m the end “user” but it’s just nice if you can keep artifacts of militaria original when possible. Thats all

I think you’re right! I think it’s going to be challenging ordering from that page tho! Haha I need a translator 🤣 thank you very much!

Thank you Bruce! I got him down to $900 and I can pick it up tomorrow. I just wanted to make sure that wasn’t too much for this sword in this condition. is the missing screw a big concern? I see they possible make reproduction ones. I’ve read on the forum that they are hard to find originals

I found this sword at an antique shop. The owner said he found it in a barn and the guy he bought it from said his dad brought it home from the war. It’s a matching number sword and saya. The blade is mostly clean but does have some patina. No cracks or chips. The saya has some missing paint and surface rust but it’s pretty solid. The paint on the aluminum tsuka is mostly intact. only think I can see that is missing is the screw/ mekugi. I have never found one of these in the wild and am not sure what this particular one would be worth. just making sure there is nothing wrong with this and I make an educated offer before I make a mistake. I know condition is everything. also I apologize for not having awesome pictures. This was on the fly with my phone with the person over my shoulder…

I appreciate everyone’s help. It has been a learning curve but I’m enjoying the process! lots of different ideas about this one and I’m looking forward to getting some books and learning more.

You guys are amazing! some of the fellas on some fb groups just mentioned to me that it was strange that there is no hole in the handle for a D ring to mount an officers silk tassel. Is that true? There was also a lot of debate over the mounts being military”ish” but not the normal ones seen… they said this suggested possible prewar production or something. I’m not sure. Others said this sword is indicative or a late war blade however one guy said that the swordsmith died in 1944… one individual said that the mountings were typical late war military. Here is a quote from one of the group members: “The brass Tsuba / hand guard is a Shin Gunto military Army as is the Menuki ( ornament s) under the silk wrapping also Shin Gunto. The rest of the mounts are a non military type special order for what ever reason they never had a hole made to take a D ring for the Silk a rank Officers Tassel.” everything has been so contradictory on those fb groups. the biggest debate however has been of the saya (scabbard I think?) if it’s civilian or military or what exactly it is and why it’s in it. Also I would love to hear what would your appraisal of value for this sword be?

Firstly I’d like to introduce myself and thank you for the opportunity to be a member of the forum. my name is Shawn and I am a long time militaria enthusiast and collector. I am just recently able to start collecting Japanese ww2 items but Japanese swords have always been a fascination of mine ever since I was young. History of Samurai and the art of hand forging traditional blades etc etc is just incredible and I’m excited to start learning and hopefully one day be able to collect more and more amazing pieces! this sword I wanted to share is my very first sword ever and I know very little about it. I started by joining some Facebook groups dedicated to the subject but the responses have been a very disappointing mix of snarky, and over my head. A few people have given me the time of day with genuinely helpful responses but most are very vague or contradictory to each other. I bought this sword from a friend who is a militaria dealer but proclaims to not know too much about swords. He does have a guy who validated it for him as a proper ww2 officers blade but that’s as far as I got. I dont typically make purchases when I’m not totally confident of an item and have a knowledge base to back me up but this was what I thought was a very fair price and I was super excited for the opportunity. also please forgive me if there is a proper way to show photos of the sword I am very ignorant but if I’m doing something wrong let me know and I will make the corrections and I apologize about being so new and uneducated about this I promise to learn all the lingo eventually but when you help me on this particular post please remember I probably have no idea what your telling me so please dumb it down. My knowledge base is very beginner but I do know a little of the terminology. anyways… I greatly appreciate you all! sincerely, -Shawn