barnejp Posted December 23, 2016 Report Share Posted December 23, 2016 Why would a WW2 fuchi pin be on top of the nakago to hold the scabbard together and not on the side? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruce Pennington Posted December 23, 2016 Report Share Posted December 23, 2016 Greg, This style was predominantly made by the Nagoya Aresenal, though I just recently saw one with a Tokyo 1st stamp. If you look by the serial number, there should be an inspector stamp and it will be either a Seki or a Nagoya. If you don't know what those are, post a good closeup and we'll tell you. As to "why" they did it - who knows - but personally I like the feel better of the side latch. When pulling a top-latch gunto out of the saya, your thumb is on top and your grip is a bit open until you can move your thumb back into position. With the side-latch your grip fully incircles the handle while unlatching and you never have to move it once the gunto is unsheathed. But I've never read their actual reasoning on the different style. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baka Gaijin Posted December 23, 2016 Report Share Posted December 23, 2016 Hi Bruce & Greg., Just an observation, the Officer's type has the push button on the side. As to the practicality of either, I don't know. There was a method of Gunto use devised by the Army known as Gunto Soho, but I don't have any in depth experience of it. Here's the Gunto Soho/Toyama Ryu training manual lodged in the National Diet Library: http://dl.ndl.go.jp/info:ndljp/pid/1460369?itemId=info%3Andljp%2Fpid%2F1460369&__lang=en However some of our members practice the modern styles of swordsmanship derived from this and may have the answer. Here's something to be going on with: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nakamura-ry%C5%AB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shamsy Posted December 24, 2016 Report Share Posted December 24, 2016 A fair question. As a guess, though hopefully a logical one; since these swords were worn as tachi, one would draw it with the thumb resting on the latch in a high grip on the handle. The second hand would then grip the scabbard as the blade is drawn before transferring to the lower hilt for a two handed grip. I suspect this was changed due to some shortcoming. Possibly that it is trickier to get your thumb, which may be in a glove or slick, running vertically along the bar than it would be to use the whole of two fingers horizontally in depressing the spring and drawing. You also seem to get more grip strength from those two fingers than thumb. Or it may simply be easier to make! That's my 2 cents, for what little it's worth. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
barnejp Posted December 25, 2016 Author Report Share Posted December 25, 2016 Thank you for your responses. Are these 1944-1945? I'm somewhat confused. I understand late WW2 Shin Gunto were made to represent ito wrapping but some were made in the late 1930's..is this correct? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruce Pennington Posted December 25, 2016 Report Share Posted December 25, 2016 Stu W over at Warrelics wrote a very educational post about the Type 95 NCO you would enjoy reading: http://www.warrelics.eu/forum/Japanese-militaria/ija-type-95-nco-sword-info-228172/ The gunto in the picture above are NCO swords, not officer swords. Only officer gunto used real silk wrapping (ito). NCO gunto handles (tsuka) were metal except for the late '44-'45 versions that had wooden tsuka. The actual date of production of your sword is difficult to pinpoint, but could have been anywhere between 1938 and 1943. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
barnejp Posted December 28, 2016 Author Report Share Posted December 28, 2016 Thanks everyone for all your help-much appreciated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
barnejp Posted January 1, 2017 Author Report Share Posted January 1, 2017 Anyone interested in purchasing these (3) NCO swords? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IJASWORDS Posted January 1, 2017 Report Share Posted January 1, 2017 Where is photos? Neil. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IJASWORDS Posted January 1, 2017 Report Share Posted January 1, 2017 Sorry, didn't see your first post, Neil. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Posted January 1, 2017 Report Share Posted January 1, 2017 Please create a new For Sale post in that section, and make sure to post an idea of pricing. Thanks, Brian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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