Fittings Thread

[Bruce Pennington]

An unusual method of attaching the leather snap strap.  Posted by @Itomagoi HERE

[Bruce Pennington]

I think I've seen this before, but don't recall.  The kabutogane was made without the normal sakura/leaves on the top and sides.  It's on a large-Seki stamped Yoshihisa blade, no date.  The large stamp was used to 1944, so, late war?

 

[GeorgeLuucas]

On 7/18/2024 at 5:48 AM, Bruce Pennington said:

An unusual method of attaching the leather snap strap.  Posted by @Itomagoi HERE

Here’s another unusual method that I saw on a late war setup on eBay a while back. It attached to a peg on the saya. 
 

Unfortunately I did not save more photos.  

[Bruce Pennington]

22 minutes ago, GeorgeLuucas said:

a late war setup on eBay a while back. It attached to a peg on the saya

Seems like I remember a conversation about that a while ago.  Thanks for posting it here!

[GeorgeLuucas]

I did a little digging and found my post about it. Here it is! With some images for posterity:

https://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/48491-weird-showa-to-with-seppa-latchlock/#comment-504210

 

[Bruce Pennington]

A good discussion of a variation, possibly early version, of the patented drag posted by @RobCarter3 here:

[Bruce Pennington]

Akira Komiya made a very interesting post today on this Wehrmacht-awards Thread.  He covered a number of topics ranging from army tsuba, to RS and Zoheito, issue of Type 95s to officers.  Here's the part about the army tsuba gold plating:

 

"I checked the specifications of the Type 94 and Type 98 swords regarding the piercing of the Tsuba and found that there is no mention of piercing so it is possible that such was an optional feature. (The specifications only state that there should be four raised engraving cherry blossoms on all four corners of both the obverse and reverse of the Tsuba and does not specify that the Tsuba be pierced.)

As for your sword, in the history of the Type 94/ 98 officer's swords, 1941 would not be considered "early" as it would already have seen various austerity measures applied in connection with the rapid expansion of the armed forces and the commensurate increase in the demand for swords as well as the shift towards the wartime economy.

For example, the specifications for both the Type 94 and Type 98 swords specify that the Tsuba be made of gold plated brass but the use of gold plating would later be abolished in connection with a series of directives issued by the Ministry of Finance in 1937 and 1938."

[Bruce Pennington]

I found this Kanezane Gunzoku sword for sale on this Showa22 ebay page.  Sohei swords ebay sale.  It's got it all!  Large Seki stamp, Kanezane kokuin, Yasugi steel mei, sakura Gunzoku tsuba and brown tassel, and to top it off, a double haikan wooden saya which is the reason for putting it here:

 

It's an army sword with army tsuka:

 

 

But that saya looks like something we would see on a navy combat saya rig.  My first thought was, maybe this was set up during the Type 94 years, but the large Seki stamp should make this no earlier than 1940, so Type 98 era.  Maybe the saya was navy, and put there by someone post war. 

 

[John C]

6 hours ago, Bruce Pennington said:

sword for sale

Just to clarify, the link to that sword is sohei_swords (Matt).

 

John C.

[Bruce Pennington]

Thanks John!  Corrected.

[Bruce Pennington]

Ever seen a seppa with artwork?  This is on a Kawasaki Nagamitsu, large Seki stamp, in custom leather found on this CV Auction LLC page.

[Bruce Pennington]

Adding to the revelation that the 1-piece fuchi/seppa found on the souvenirs wasn't a new invention for the souvenir.  A few have been found on wartime kaigunto, but here is one on a Type 98 zoheito.  At this CV Auction.

 

[John C]

28 minutes ago, Bruce Pennington said:

one on a Type 98 zoheito

Since we know that swords were repaired frequently, could these just be very late war replacements?

 

John C.

[PNSSHOGUN]

It may simply be stuck with grime and oil.

[Bruce Pennington]

Here is a classy leather cover set on a civil sword, posted by @Glenn HERE.

Unique method for attaching the tassel, and the haikan appears to straddle the kurikata