Stegel

Very Interesting, and a nice find John. Dawson mentions zig-zag stitching, but he hasn't shown us an example. Do we 'assume' it to be the same as an Army Generals in appearance?? From what i see of your very nice example is more of a 'band' in one direction, and a haze in the other. So not a true zig-zag when viewed vertically from above. Does it appear to be made of silk as we would expect, or a cotton?? I have an example which i found on a Pattern7 NCO sword, which i believe is cotton, not silk, as it doesn't have the 'shine' to it . Mine is a darker colour but the stitching has more of a haphazard appearance than a 'zig-zag'. Up close it has a 'fur' like look of a worn rope. Untortunately, the actual tassels had been cut off. (which i had heard was one of the practices some Japanese did upon surrendering their swords) I think DaveR is right though, it needs to be mentioned in the Navy uniform regs, until then i think we keep our fingers crossed and put it down to a manufacturing anomaly. The nature of the weave itself, lends it to diagonal threads and hence zig-zag like stitches, when one or more spools of thread in a different shade are used. I hope all collectors are scrambling to see what they have, and more of these show up! I've never actually heard of this with navy tassels before, but now yours is only the second example i've ever seen. What other references apart from Dawson mention this?

Looks nice to me, are there any other pictures on the listing?? Seeing the full tang would be handy, to see if any stamps are there, then also the asking price would be handy to know, what is it?

Hi BangBangSan, Check this link: Mukden It gives the complete history, is it incorrect?? as it states the symbol on the rifle was Proofmark of Mukden Arsenal between 1918-1931

Thought i'd mention that the screw described, is different between the Copper handled Pattern 1 and the Aluminium Handled Pattern 2. (not talking about the type 94/98 screw) It is longer by a few millimetres in the pattern2

Here's a photo of the tang on one of mine to compare with the original swords tang. Identical except for the repair on the topic piece. I am experienced with metal work/welding etc and in my opinion it appears to have been brazed, not welded, as can be seen by the slag and residues left over from being coated in flux. I would not think that this is not a repair done 'in period' ... remember war is raging, swords are in short supply and who's going to look under there anyway? I think this could also be true 'post war' but not my first choice. The tang phot was the smallest in size and would have been nicer if it wasn't. An 'in hand inspection' would be ideal and help date the repair better. To Vayo, you are correct in saying any welding/ heat applied would render the blade in need of re-tempering, however, it is possible it do repairs such as this. The key here is the location... the extreme tip of the tang, a wrapped wet cloth would be enough, this is evidenced by the limited range shown in the heat 'rainbow'

No, not x-ray vision, i wish! In fact i found the original sellers pictures quite reasonable quality even at the small size of the files. They showed enough to see the details of the whole sword. Here's the pics to preserve the thread and make it useful for future readers. You should be able to see 2532 quite clearly. In my opinion, it is a reasonably good piece, even if it has a mismatched scabbard. Depending on the price, it could be a good addition to a new collector until something better comes along.

Just for your info guys.....that particular sword surfaced one day earlier over at Gunboards Forum: https://www.gunboards.com/threads/Japanese-sword-found-in-the-trash.291010/#post-2361496 before showing up at warrelics the next day. A great find and the fellow was very excited as nearly everyone else was for him too! This was November 2012 ! When found it had NO scabbard as you can read in the links. The next time it made an appearance, was in a dealers site in March 2019. Here it amazingly now had a matching scabbard, as can be seen here now: The likely hood of actually HAVING the scabbard and finding the CORRECT sword would HAVE TO BE A VERY LONG SHOT in my opinion. Looks like a good job ,but the fonts are the give away clues to me. Here's the sales pitch from back in March 2019: After 7 years i cannot point fingers at the dealer directly, so have refrained from actually naming him here.

Well, i think i entered the twilight zone by reading this thread.... the stamping on the blade is 2532.... not 2552 !! The Tang is original, with repaired end.

It's all COOL, just Shakin' da tree BOSS !! Shakin da tree BOSS.mp4

i was writing a reply as he sent his response.........sorry if you take it the wrong way.

"Sword humour" - nice! and wasn't wasted on me! Unfortunately went straight over the heads of some people. Contained tang stamps so has relevance here, and also 35 .. which would be model 95 and the throw off. The give away was in the last statement ->(On a serious note.... Yes, that's an old thread. I've already got that referenced away. Very interesting scabbard and haven't seen any other like it since.

Excellent find! Thanks for sharing it Trystan.

Last one, an ordinary 'Normal' tsuba, but with the same loop 'appendage' added It has the first seppa moulded as part of the tsuba, so perhaps it was intended, but never got to be used in the Iida latch set up

One more.... so far they all have different numbers stamped, probably like seppa numbering, used in the initial fit outs?

Here's an Army one, notice the second mekugi position in the handle not being used (1st pic)

While transferring files after a computer melt down, i came across these, i'm sure i've posted them before, but thought i'd add them here also. It seems there this latch method was not reserved just for Army use, the Navy got to use these aswell. I found these posted on a forum some 5 years ago Edit- found the forum , it was Gunboards.

@ Stephen.... Hehehe, i have those moments too sometimes! I'm also getting used to this new format. Hale, Thats a very nice sword for your first one! and welcome to the asylum! Lol As Mr Gunto said.. they can become quite addictive, so watch out! Depending on how hard the bug bites, you could be an addict like us real soon. I've just seen the next pattern with steel tsuba in the For Sale section, just FYI. Good luck with your collecting and keep reading here on the forum, you'll pick up some good info along the way.

Very nice Copper handled type 95 you got there Neil! In the early stages of production, and a carry over issue from the type 32's, was the problem of corrosion with scabbards. Some very few had a grey primer below the top coat, while others had what appears to be a 'gold wash' applied. The application has the appearance of being an electroplating style and not sprayed on type. This has been mentioned in F&G and has been found only on the very first patterns. I have a similar 'gold/brass' one in the 4000 range. These are very desirable in my opinion. I have actually seen this sword in hand some years back,( before you snapped it up!) and it has good provenance and a real beautiful patina on the copper handle..... very nice!!

This thread WAS hard to find.... thought i'd add to it and bring it back to the top. Not the best pictures, but a really nice blade to hold in hand and look at. Ujifusa circa 1770

Vajo, The first two serial numbers are i think, owned by Shigezo from the Wehrmacht awards forum. Also, i don't see your list here.

Scabbard colours come in many shades, the standard is the OD, but there are Dk and Lt Browns, jungle greens which are darker than the OD, winter camo in a white which is usually found as an off white/cream after 70 yrs and of course the controversial black amongst a few others such as almost a Salmon red/brown. Some are period paint overs, others appear to be arsenal done, however, i don't think every colour was sprayed on from what i've seen. The trend seems to be that Tokyo 1st favoured a semi-matt in the black, while nearly all gloss blacks have been from Nagoya.

Here's one i came across just recently on a Navy dirk. Adding it here as i don't remember seeing it in this thread before. Toyokawa Naval Arsenal Stamp

There's also a whitish colour in the same area Neil, i had one a while back. Let's not forget that Commissioned Officers could choose the fittings and schemes that they liked, personally tailored, so to speak. If the officer liked the 'look', then why couldn't he get black? as long as the overall finished product meets the basic Army requirements. Remember that fittings come in all sorts, from shiny brass, painted and even darkened/silvered styles, we don't get too excited and immediately say that its been tampered with post war, (unless it's blatantly obvious) like we seem to do with black. It's your call on what to do Dave, but i've always been of the 'leave it as found' thought when i come across these things. If i wanted the general 'text' book example, then i'd get one. Interesting Same by the way, i haven't seen one quite like that before.

Which picture are you looking at?? i can't see any fresh paint at all?

Hmmm, it's a bit out of polish, i think a good polisher could fix that!😉