Dave R

This is what a late war type 98 kabutogane looks like. It's actually plated iron/steel so it is very late. For me the clincher in the original post was the sharp edge/corner between the sides and the profile rather than the smooth transition on the originals. One or two anomalies are passable, but a build up of small faults are the killer.

It has the look of a higher end replica, possibly Paul Chen, Hanwei and a manufacturers signature ground off the tang. The Paul Chen swords were discontinued by 2014 so would be showing some age by now.

I think a new "Nakago" has been welded on to keep the blade length as it was. I have seen this done with a rat tail tang blade to make it "usable". We need to know more of the swords history to make sense of it.

We really need to see beneath the habaki, I have in the past seen a a genuine signed nakago joined to a spurious blade with the join hidden by an immovable habaki......

Shanghai 1930s.

Probably seen repeatedly, but this is one of my favourites....

The tsuka looks legit, but frankly that nakago is as dubious as you can get.

The problem with these "Koshirae" is that without the blade you can only guess how long they have been together. I used an old tsunagi I had knocking around to mount the pieces up and from the alterations I had to do and proportions resulting I think the saya and tsuka match up. It was an old blade (short nakago) mounted up late in the war, and the leather cover and haikan lost to time. The tsuba I am not so sure, it's very nice under the paint, and is gilded brass with burnishing, so you get both matt and bright areas. Those 94 - 98 tsuba are very handsome when it good condition as opposed to the sad plain brass that we usually see after 70 years of wear and polishing, late war they tended to be plated cast iron. No matter though, it's what it is. Regarding the same, I did think it might be sandpaper as seen on some late war stuff, but inspection under a lens confirms it to be shark of one sort or another. I have an Edo period tsuka with similar, but smoothed down and lacquered over all. Good quality same is and was an import to Japan from further South.

Well it's getting more interesting. The Same on the tsuka is Same not sandpaper, but very fine scaled rather than the larger nodules normally seen., possibly Dogfish? The Fuchi is ferrous, iron or steel, as are the menuki and the kabutogane, the menuki gilded and the kabutogane plated, possibly with copper. The fuchi heavily corroded but the usual pattern just about visible, the floor-plate pierced for a retaining clip, but not the side, and so never had a clip. This really looks like it is a late war type 98 tsuka. I tried the paint on the tsuba with acetone, it didn't shift at all, so it looks to be wartime paint. I will be leaving it as is for now, and possibly the future.

Seppa and habaki are unpainted copper, natural oxide surface. I need to do better pics!

The "same" is a bit odd, and the fuchi might not belong and might be iron or steel. Like I say, a put together or assemblage, which is what I thought when I bought it. It's the tsuba I am concerned with though, under the paint it's a cracker, really nice... but I don't want to strip it if the paint is legit wartime. The Ito is nice and tight and the knots well defined, an expert job. Looking at the same again, it is very like sandpaper, which we know was used late war. The kabutogane fits very tight and well. I think late war, but done as well as was possible at the time.

Only the tsuba is painted. Everything else is as expected, brown ito, copper coloured fittings and etc.

No arms fairs in my area currently, so I am buying from the internet. My latest purchase purports to be a full koshirae of type 98 in field mounts. I doubt it, but it's a nice traditional saya with some age, and the rest is type 98. The tsuba is a nice one, under the black paint it still has a lot of the gilding, and is burnished to a glitter in the right places..... But it has been painted black over most of the surface. What I would like to know is if this is most likely a post war jobby to make it look more like a traditional one, or if there were circumstances where this would have been a legitimate wartime practice. If the latter, I will keep it as is, otherwise off comes the paint. The price was right, and it looks quite handsome mounted on a tsunagi and in the rack.

When trawling the 'net for info on Habaki I found these photo's of finds from the ground. Varied condition and sometimes wrecked, but very useful to see how they were put together. Mainly on Ebay and described as casual or metal detector finds.

Here's another example....