Mottled Green Paint on Type 95s

[Bruce Pennington]

Another collector bought a late war 95 with mottled green paint on the saya with a black-painted drag. Which was a surprise, as the green paint exactly matched the paint job on a version 3 95 I had picked up a couple of years ago. Assuming it to be a really bad Bubba-job, I stripped it down. Luckily, there was original base paint still there.

 

But it bugs me that these two Bubba-jobs are so alike. The other member's saya even shows that the black was laid first and the green overtop. The similarity causes me to wonder if it could have been a wartime laymans job rather than post-war. Also, the paint looks old with lots of wear, gouges, etc on both (the gold paint on my late war didn't look old, nor did the black on the drag).

 

One obvious possibility is that both gunto were, at some time, in the hands of the same Bubba. That seems the most likley answer, but I put this out there for your input.

 

Early in my collecting, I went throught the same issue over gold-painted gunto, after finding at least 6 of them over time. I've since decided they were all post-war (theater groups painted swords for their plays, among other reasons). But the identical-ness of these two made me wonder.

 

{added note:After reviewing this, I realized that all 3 gunto were Nagoya made, Hmmmm....}

 

Thoughts?

The late war, owned by another collector:

 

My version 3:

 

My late war, painted gold, but similar black drag:

[Shamsy]

Looks like the 'other collector' has a nice variation of the 95s. Ask them what the serial number of the sword and saya are

 

Here's mine.

 

Oh, remember that a number of swords were painted gold to celebrate... think it was the emperors birthday... I can't remember details, but pretty sure Nick gave us some info about that.

 

Also, as is most obvious with copper handle, there were undercoatings and repainting of swords. I believe that all period black saya are repaints of original green/brown saya.

[vajo]

This is mine.

 

[Bruce Pennington]

Steve,

 

Now I REALLY regret stripping my version 3!!! Crap! Looks like it's wartime paint, just don't know who might have done it. It's just so freaking ugly that it's hard to believe a professional did it, yet they are so identical, now all 3, that I can't see it as random soldier DIY jobs.

 

As I recall, on the gold, there was gold colored saya glinting in the sun at the emperor's coronation, but that was in 1926, well before the Type 95 was invented. I don't recall a birthday celebration discussed.

 

Here's the serial number, matching:

 

[Bruce Pennington]

This is mine.

 

Chris, you pic is pretty dark, but it looks like it had a black base-coat with green over it? If so, it adds confimation of the black on all these, with topcoating of green.

[vajo]

The black groundig could be anti rust protection?

[Shamsy]

Here's the serial number, matching:

 

Ah, not the variation after all. I'd based that hope the look of the sword, but not the case this time. Even so, what I said about refurbished saya stands.