Strange to me type 98. Thoughts?

[Tensho]

I picked up this gunto. I have owned several in the past, currently own just this one.

 

The silver foiled cat scratch habaki made me think it was going to be a "decent" i.e signed blade. Well, I was wrong. Mumei, showato blade with what "looks" like a FAKE polished in hamon. And a weird "star" punch mark under the habaki. 

 

The Tsuba has sekigane to fit the nakago. I have never seen this on a gunto. The remaining seppa(one missing) are all scratched with kanji that matches the tsuba and fuchi. Seppa are NOT for this nakago as well, but match the original nakago-ana of the tsuba(before sekigane) 

 

Not pictured is a wood saya that is missing leather cover, has single hanger and metal collar with "tab" for locking chuso.

[Tensho]

[PNSSHOGUN]

Blade looks like some sort of Murata-To process sword, oil forged with cosmetic Hamon applied. Can't speak if the mounts are original to the sword without more pictures, however the Tsuka and Tsuba are the early pre 1940's style.

[Tensho]

Thanks for the reply. Murata-to makes sense, and it crossed my mind as well. It has rust pitting in spots, but is flawless besides that. It's a very lightweight blade also.

 

The fittings are what made me question if it was pieced together, as like you said I always thought the pierced tsuba was an earlier design.  And why the seppa, fuchi and tsuba nakago ana are all a match, but are larger than the tsuka and nakago threw me off. I would have assumed they would be fitted to the blade The tsuka is definitely fit for the blade.

 

If it didn't have sekigane applied to the tsuba I would have immediately thought postwar replacement.

 

Edit: When putting the tsuka back on after taken the above photo I noticed the end of the nakago is scratched with the same kanji. Hard to see, but is there. So, I don't know what to think?

[John C]

Not sure if it is the case here, however I have seen "0" marked as an "X" on fittings. So 720? Does that number show up anywhere else? Any roman numerals on the edge of the habaki (VII II X).

John C. 

[Tensho]

21 minutes ago, John C said:

Not sure if it is the case here, however I have seen "0" marked as an "X" on fittings. So 720? Does that number show up anywhere else? Any roman numerals on the edge of the habaki (VII II X).

John C. 

Wow, crazy John. I was curious so, dismantled it again and the habaki has something on it, but doesn't match the rest? It was pretty dirty but wiped it with alcohol and got this. Not sure what it means. 

 

 

BTW, those "numbers" show up on the fuchi, tsuba, all seppa, and end of nakago(its partially rusty and hard to make out)

[Bruce Pennington]

Putting this one - the small star - in the "Unknown" category of the stamps files.

[Guest Simon R]

I could be completely wrong but does it appear to have celluloid same?

[vajo]

The blade looks like a tsunagi for the koshirae. 

 

some years ago i bought on blury pictures a cheap katana and it had the same little star stamp on the nakago after dissambling. The blade was not real metal in my case. I found out that it was an Japanese iiato training sword. 

 

 

 

 

 

The martial arts member could possible say more about the little stamp.

 

 

 

 

[Bruce Pennington]

3 hours ago, vajo said:

 

 

some years ago i bought on blury pictures a cheap katana and it had the same little star stamp on the nakago after dissambling. The blade was not real metal in my case. I found out that it was an Japanese iiato training sword. 

That's interesting, Chris!  No yasurime on yours?  I thought the yasurime on the OP nakago looked wrong, but since I know next to nothing on the topic, I didn't say so initially.  I've just searched the web for yasurime sites, and don't see this particular pattern.  

[John C]

The overall shape of the nakago and alignment of the machi seem legit, though. Bohi looks okay. Not sure about this one.

Just my one-and-a-half cents.

John C.

[vajo]

Bruce the sword i had bought was this zinc-alloy material or something like that. I have no knowledge about iiato swords production. The nakago had no yasurime. The sword above look like made from steel. But the little stamp is exactly the same as the iiato sword. Maybe a an old manufacture of such swords?

 

Btw that was the sword i bought.

 

[Tensho]

To answer a few things. The samegawa is real and not the plastic type. The blade is razor sharp and not a tsunagi. The habaki is a perfect fit, the tsuka was definitely cut out for this nakago and the saya fits everything perfectly as well. The seppa and tsuba are the only questionable things to me. 

 

The star stamp on the blade above is interesting.  

[Jcstroud]

The seppa appear to have been bondo filled maybe to cover mis-matched assembly numbers. Not meaning to be critical only observant. Pardon

[The Blacksmith]

Is the star possibly an acceptance stamp?

 

Regarding the unusual yasurimei, this looks to me the work of an engineer/ machinist, not a swordsmith. The longitudinal file marks are the result of a technique called 'draw filing', which is quite common amongst engineers. It leaves a similar, but much finer marks to sensuri. Possibly, this blade was made in a machine workshop?

 

Russ

[Tensho]

As to what PNSSHOGUN said, its probably Murata-to.  I have seen similar nakago on them and zohei-to.

[Bruce Pennington]

Offset machi, common Chinese style.  Only seen on Type 95 NCO blades in WWII Japan.

[Tensho]

1 hour ago, Bruce Pennington said:

Offset machi, common Chinese style.  Only seen on Type 95 NCO blades in WWII Japan.

Not mine, an example of a zohei-to blade I found in kyu gunto mounts. Pretty sure ita just the photos making it look like that.