Help To Identify Sword

[Taylor]

Hello, my late father had a sword which I have acquired. It looks like a world war 2 NCO sword but it has some anomalys.

It has some stamps on the handle (see pic) but the blade has no serial number when the handle is removed. Also , the blade is steel but it is quite blunt. I have heard that there are copies that exist of Japanese swords and wondered if this could be genuine or not. Any help greatly appreciated.

 

[Kai-Gunto]

Looks original. The numbers should stand out on the blade near habaki.

[Taylor]

Thanks for your reply, I looked all over the blade to no avail. Is it possible for the blade to be stainless steel?

[Bruce Pennington]

Taylor,

 

Your stamps are the Tokyo First Arsenal (1940-1945) [star]; middle stamp is final inspector Tokyo Kokura Arsenal; and round stamp is private contractor Ijima Token Seisashima.

 

I have an NCO blade that feels like it was never sharpened, too. It is odd about the missing serial number, although Fuller & Gregory has a couple of "unexplainable" blades without markings too. Yours has a Very unusual spacer (seppa). Could we temp you into taking them off and posting some pictures for us? Also pics of both sides of the blade near the handle would help.

[Taylor]

Hello, many thanks for your help. I have attached some more pics

 

 

 

[Stephen]

my experience its best not to take NCOs apart, others may differ, they never are quite as tight again. 

[Taylor]

Point taken

[Bruce Pennington]

Thanks for the pics! I'm sorry about thinking the seppa were unusual, the lighting in your first photo cussed my eyes to imagine something that wasn't there!

 

Your sword looks legit. My personal opinion on blades not sharpened and missing numbers is that humans were doing all the work. Hundreds of factories were making thousands of swords with people involved in the process. People miss things.

 

Sometimes the unusual things makes a collectible item all the more interesting. Enjoy!

[Dave R]

 Western Military protocol was that a sword was not sharpened until/unless the unit or individual was preparing to go into the field. Sharpening without orders was a chargeable offence, so at a guess blunt/unsharpened Gunto had been carried in Japan only, or never issued.

 A bit like not loading a pistol or rifle until you needed to use it.

[Taylor]

Thank you all for your time and expertise.

[Johncstroud]

Typically unsharpened blades were for ceremonial use such as parades and formal processions,and drills.

[Shamsy]

Not sure how I missed this post...

 

Not the first 95 I've seen to be missing the serial numbers. These are vetted as 100% authentic. There are far more little oddities like this on 95's than one may think, which is why the are worthy of study by themselves.