Help with a stamping

[Neil]

Hello,

 

I've a Type 98 sword whose blade is, I believe, signed (Kojima) Katsumasa and dated Nov/Dec 1942 (I'd be glad of confirmation of latter). Whilst I've read whats been written about this gentleman on here and Sword Forum, any additional info. would be welcome.

 

The blade is, I'm sure, a non-traditional one, its got a suguha hamon with a ko-maru boshi - puts his book down - and there's no visible activity that I can make out. The mounts appear to be fairly average, though its got a gold over copper habaki if thats unusual?

 

The thing thats got me scratching my head is the numbers stamped on the tang. These swords seem to be fairly well documented - albeit I'm confined to the web for any detail, and much I read says there's many exceptions to the norm - but the only ref. I can find to stamped numbers is to NCO swords, and mounts aside, this blade is clearly a much better item and stamped on the nakago rather than the blade.

 

Any thoughts, musings are more than welcome, any help gratefully received.

 

Cheers,

 

Neil

[Neil]

Sorry,

 

Forgot to say no sign of any other stamp, though you'll note the heavy rusting..

 

Cheers

[SwordGuyJoe]

You are right on the mei and probably right on traditional/non-traditional. That said, it was not just NCO swords that were given serial numbers. Some officer swords were also stamped with numbers, some painted with kanji numbers - for example grab a copy of Slough's and you'll find plenty of examples. Also, these stamps were given to both traditional gendaito as well as showa-to (example: Slough's pg. 177).

[huntershooter]

I've a KaneHide (Rikugun Jumei Tosho) gunto with star stamp and numbers stamped on nakago. Don't believe it was all that unusual.

[Ted Tenold]

Neil,

 

Numbers on the nakago, whether stamped or painted are a product of tracking individual blades among tens or hundreds of others in a production environment. Even as mass produced swords, each has somewhat individual measurements and must be more or less "married" to it's mountings, that in turn must be kept together through the process of completion and production numbers accounted for by the factory or company. The mountings also often have numbers inscribed on them to help identify their group and to which blade they belong. Handmade blades (those with star stamps) can also have stamped or painted numbers. Whether they are a product of tracking completion by the arsenal after the smith supplied it, the company that mounted it for the purchasing officer, or the arsenal that completed it, is a matter of speculation. Because they rarely exceed three digits, my hunch is that they restarted the numbering process every month or so.

[Neil]

Gents,

 

Thanks for the prompt and informative replies. I'd always made the assumption that 'assembly' marks were purely painted on.

 

And, rather embarrasingly, since posting the question I've come across a UK dealers web site who is advertising a Katsumasa sword from March '43 which apparently bears "A very small Nagoya acceptance stamp and the number ‘1404’ stamped to the tang. No Showa or arsenal marks" so it seems Mr. Katsumasa was busy compared to most!

 

Now, if my son can remember where he put the family magnifying glass I'll go away and look for a stamp.

 

Thanks again,

 

Neil

[Stephen]

Now, if my son can remember where he put the family magnifying glass I'll go away and look for a stamp.

 

Maybe first knock off the bubble rust, use a brass hammer or wood and a light tap tap tap, the layered rust should come off, if you want to take it to another step after that, PM me and well talk about it.

[Neil]

Stephen,

 

Thanks for the tip. I will probably leave it at simply (and carefully!) removing the blistered parts.

 

As I'm in little doubt that is a Showata piece I'll probably satisfy myself with the fact that this is really just an ageing piece of militaria and do as little as possible aside from preservation.

 

Many thanks,

 

Neil