Is this a real WWII Gunto

[Kent C]

Hello,

Is this a real WWII officer sword?

thanks for any help - Dog

 

 

[Mark]

yes. real WWII army officers sword but the blade is older made by Sukesada from Bizen

[Kent C]

Thanks for the reply Mark.

The blade has 3 very minute chips in it. Does this devalue it badly?

Kent

[Kent C]

About how old is the blade?

[Mark]

chips can affect value. cant say how much without inspecting the entire blade

 

hard to know exact age, i am guessing it is not dated. probably circa 1500s

[Kent C]

Here are the chips:

[PNSSHOGUN]

Nothing to be concerned about as they don't go past the Hamon.

[Kent C]

Upon closer inspection, I found these marks at the 2:00 o’clock position of the Mekugi-ana (peg hole). I had to use a magnifying glass to try and get a decent image. Any help to identify them would be much appreciated.

Thanks - Kent 

[Bruce Pennington]

Kent,

That looks like a lightly struck, partial Seki stamp.  The kanji below the hole looks like the beginning of a showa date.  Can you show the rest?

[ROKUJURO]

Doesn't look like the same blade.

[Kent C]

The pictures above my post last night were the guy’s who I bought it from.

Here are some I took.

Thanks - Kent

[Kent C]

The pictures above my post last night were the guy’s who I bought it from.

Here are some I took.

 

[Brian]

Showato, wartime arsenal blade.

[Bruce Pennington]

I agree with Jean Collin, these are different swords and different mei.  The one you have is a Masa-something.

[Kent C]

Rokujuro, I think you may be right. I never compared his pictures to what I received.

Kent

[Kent C]

My concern is it a real Japanese WWII sword?

I was extremely busy this last week when I received it, and didn’t check it closely.

 

Kent 

[Brian]

Yes

[Kent C]

So, is this is a machine made blade?

Also, about what year was it made?

I really want to thank all that have helped out a new guy. It means a lot to me.

Thanks again - Kent

[John C]

  On 9/26/2023 at 1:36 AM, Kent C said:

Also, about what year was it made?

Expand  

The picture you took with the magnifying glass looks like the start of a date (sho). Do you have a picture of the entire nakago (tang)?

John C.

[SteveM]

Swordsmith is Hattori Masahiro (服部正廣). He was a Seki smith, making mostly arsenal swords (I think, others will correct me if I'm wrong).

Wartime swordsmith, so date of manufacture is, say, 1938 - 1945.

[mecox]

Kent, info on your smith Masahiro and examples:  

 

[Bruce Pennington]

The blade appears to be non-traditionally made.  Blades with the large Seki stamp were made between 1940 - 1945, with most of them found in the 1941 - 1943 range and the massive majority of them in 1942:

STAMP SURVEY

Stamp	1935	1937	1938	1939	1940	1941	1942	1943	1944	1945	No Date
Showa	1	1	1	7	28	24	1			3	218
Seki, large 5mm		1**			5	11	62	10	3	1	233

[Kent C]

I don’t know why, but the sight is wanting me to resize my photos. All of my other post did not want me to do that. Anyway I put it on Imgur. I hope this link works. Well I guess it did,

Kent

 

[Kent C]

The story I got, from the guy I bought it from, said he got it from the Marine who brought it back from Peleliu in 1945. He, the Marine, said they were on higher ground and wiped out a company who were in a lower swampy area. He said they had a water cooled 1917 Browning, 6 BAR’s, a lot of Garands and lots of grenades. He said it only took 30 minutes. He, the Marine, had the sword, a Nambu pistol and a flag. He only let go of the sword. 
Kent

[Kent C]

Thanks to everyone for all the input, please keep it coming.

mecox, I uploaded the file, lots of helpful information there - Thanks 

Kent