unstamped naval blade

[phil reid]

 My naval blade is unstamped, hilt fitting are marked or number stamped but nothing on tang but slashes lll /llll ( 3 and 9 = 39 which is stamped to all hilt guard fittings in Roman numerical), everything fits perfectly, were any blades not anchor marked? 

[phil reid]

[phil reid]

[phil reid]

[phil reid]

[phil reid]

[phil reid]

[John C]

Phil:

In the pics, it looks as if the nakago has been painted. Has it? If so, it could be obscuring a mark. Another possibility is that the blade is a family blade and not made by the military. Does it look like it is rust-free steel?

 

John C.

[phil reid]

hi John, no tang is not painted, assumed it was stainless steel.

[Kiipu]

Phil, I have run into these unmarked Type 97s before.  Not too common, but they do surface from time to time.  I have not recorded them as they have no markings.

[Bruce Pennington]

We see so many army blades that are unmarked and instamped because there are so many more of them.  Current theory is that unmarked blades were sold to private shops, going around the military, because the smith made more money that way.  Maybe these navy blades fall into that category. Maybe they were sold directly to a civilian sword shop, bypassing the Navy Arsenal, and making more money for the sword smith.

[Kiipu]

Fittings

オ39 = katakana O, not zero.

 

Base of Hilt

山オ？.

三九 = 39.

 

Phil, the other example of a stainless, mumei Type 97 was over at GBF.  However, at the time, I was only saving the encircled anchor stamps.  I think I have also seen some stainless blades that had only stamped numbers on them.  If these numbers were via the sword shop, then they would be related your blade.