Dave R

I know, this diagram surprised me as well when I found it!

Or one of these... From personal experience, percussion is more reliable but the powder fouling still clogs and sticks in wet weather.

You need one of these.

All the way round.

Swords did not figure largely in the Satsuma rebellion anyway, both sides meant business and they used imported guns for the most part, from entrenched positions and siege lines.

There are some well complicated blade sections there...

A nice piece indeed, though I understand how it rankles to have the price suddenly boosted on you. I suspect you had the last laugh though!

Thank you. Makes the illustration much more useful.

I was going to post elsewhere, but thought it more relevant here. In Western armies officers bought their swords privately, and NCO's had them issued, and the two types are distinctive and separate, but.... Officers swords for the (British) Imperial Indian Army sometimes turn up with the stamps and numbers seen on NCO swords. The best guess among collectors is that these are swords bought in bulk by the administration, and then issued or sold to native Indian Officers who could not buy their swords directly for one reason or another. I suggest that stamped habaki on genuine Shin Gunto possibly have a similar story behind them.

Well.... for some reason most of the photo's have disappeared from the page there, but I would say that some bits are original, and the rest much less so. There is a thread about numbered Habaki on NMB that is worth reading, they are not all Chinese fakes though most probably are.

Hiya Juan, this is why I advocate that these swords be referred to as Okashi-to (loaned swords)rather than Satsuma rebellion pieces. There is already a category of Satsuma style swords, and generally fine swords they are. Why the other type got given the name is one of those bits of history, along with Type 3's, Naval Landing Swords, and Kamikaze daggers..... and probably from the same date and the same reasons.....Post War dealers! If you are unfamiliar with the term Okashi-to it refers to swords held in armouries and issued out to lower class Samurai or Ashigaru as and when needed. There are other threads here covering the subject in more detail.

While searching for information of traditional blade manufacturing methods I came across this diagram. There are some interesting blade sections shown, but the captions stump me. I would be grateful if someone here could help. Are these the names of the smiths known to use these, or are they descriptive of the steels used. Picture is original size as downloaded, I looked at enlarging it but the definition broke up a little.

Funny enough, the binding is in classic Chinese military style, as in correct for a Ming Dynasty Dao..... and no I would not take a punt on that one.

You call it a "satsuma" sword, and I would have liked to see the mounts to confirm this. My experience and research tells me that "satsuma" style mounts are the mark of a blade considered to be at the end of it's usable life during the era when swords were weapons not collectable. They rarely if ever reward further work, because they were not considered worth the effort, even in an era with numerous polishers and craftsmen to do the job. I do like them, and consider them collectable as is though. But they are not diamonds in the rough with hidden potential. You were lucky to be able to remove the hilt, these are known to have sometimes been glued in with resin or lacquer because they were never going to be maintained further.

I keep going back to Ohmura as well, very well worth a look, but the research keeps moving on.