last ditch naval rinji?

[IJASWORDS]

No idea of its history, so I will file it with other mysteries of the period.  

[Shamsy]

There's a great deal of those. It's really just a judgement call on each. Dave's information was good though and I'm sure I've also read that the Japanese army made swords in theatre.

[Bruce Pennington]

Neil,

Your last example makes me wonder about the ones that aren't black. I'm wondering if we are seeing last-ditch Army Rinji-seishiki along with the Navy ones posted? Nick's document dictated that the saya be "black lacquered" for Navy. On the otherhand, we already know that the military specs weren't always followed to the letter. And his comment that at the end, all that was required was that they "stab or shoot".

 

Just wondering.

[Shamsy]

For the particular ones I've posted, Bruce, I think those that are not painted were painted, but subsequently have lost the paint. Mine has small traces of black paint, but it is almost all worn away.

[Bruce Pennington]

Wanted to link these two threads.  Similar, but different, and lots of different examples on both threads: Navy Rinji Model

[Kiipu]

A link to another one discussed over at GBF between posts #66 and #75.

Showing Off

 

And another GBF discussion involving several of these swords.

Need help with a Japanese sword found in a pawn shop

[Kiipu]

A little-known fact is that the Imperial Japanese Navy planned on acquiring 300,000 swords over a period of six months starting in April 1945.  This comes to about 50,000 swords per month.  In my opinion, a plan of this scale was simply impossible to achieve.  Could the swords mentioned in this thread be the attempt at achieving this production goal?

[BANGBANGSAN]

35 minutes ago, Kiipu said:

A little-known fact is that the Imperial Japanese Navy planned on acquiring 300,000 swords over a period of six months starting in April 1945.  This comes to about 50,000 swords per month.  In my opinion, a plan of this scale was simply impossible to achieve.  Could the swords mentioned in this thread be the attempt at achieving this production goal?

 

Thomas

Can you point out where this info came from? Do you have the full sheet?

Thanks

[Kiipu]

It is coming from microfilm that I purchased back in the summer of 1988.  I am fairly confident that I have the Japanese language version somewhere, I know how you love those characters, and will see about finding it.

[Kiipu]

See post #10 for an example of a black painted handle and scabbard.

Leather covered sword

@Shamsy & @Stegel

[Shamsy]

Another one. There seem to be a fair few of that style of sword. Some are signed, others like mine, just have the painted numbers. Sadly mine lost all the black paint. I know Stegel's sword has it all intact though and most of the other examples I've seen have the black paint remaining.

[Kiipu]

On 4/11/2020 at 11:14 PM, Shamsy said:

Yep, here it is!

 

This is the same exact sword that is pictured over at WRF.  All the dings and scratches are the same.

[Kiipu]

I found yet another "last ditch" or as the Australians say, a "Pattern 9".

Late War Japanese Sword

@Stegel & @Shamsy

[Kiipu]

Another "last ditch" sword seems to have made an unexpected appearance on NMB.  It has a rather unusual signature of 安浦刀 and seems to be undated.

Help with identifying a signature.

[Kiipu]

Not sure if this is a Japanese "last ditch" or overseas made sword.

Late WW2 Gunto

[Bruce Pennington]

With the plain-wooden tsuka and complete leather wrap, I'd go for last-ditch.

[Kiipu]

Quote

World War 2 Japanese Nco sword with original leather combat cover . Full length blade in average condition has seen some life but a nice original sword of the period

World War 2 Japanese Sword