Shamsy

How weird.... some unusual things done to perfectly good swords during the war. I have a 95 with a similar new hilt of leather and plexiglass

An easy $3,000 for the pair would be fair to the seller and a good saving to you.

A great little bit of history there! Tha k you for sharing with us all here, Dave.

Very good, Dave. I think you're right. They look very much like 95s and the tsuka to me look stripped back to aluminium. The brass fuchi and tsuba are bright and gold in the photo, the tsuka look white, more silver. The saya are dark... hard to tell what colour they are. Do you have the context of the photo?

Would be nice to see clear photos of the fuchi, bit dark. The stamps on the fuchi just look to me like they have some impact marks around them. Not sure it's anything more. Sometimes deep dents look a little like stamps. The re-stamped saya is a nice oddity really. Would only be a guess but maybe the wrong numbers were put on first, maybe the original saya was lost... who knows. Wasn't going to comment since Bruce and Tom pretty much answered the question in their posts, but hey, there's my two cents.

I keep getting asked for dates. I've roughly explained to Trystan how it's done, very simple. I planned to make a post so people can look it up themselves, but just haven't gotten to it. Maybe tomorrow... Absolutely gorgeous Gifu sword too!

Not NCO. Nice to have matching numbered fittings, looks like an old blade. Definitely a Type 98 for officers though.

Completely legitimate. Unmatched numbers are a detractor though. On the plus side, you get the extra stamp on the reverse side of the fuchi.

Completely legitimate. I would look for a nicer example though, unless you want one which was repainted at some time for some reason (we can guess, but have no idea really). A great example is not hard to find, there have been a few listed recently.

It's been heartening to see members here concerned about the sale of fake 95s to new collectors who don't have the knowledge or experience to differentiate real from fake. While I am sure it is a waste of time and eBay would rather make their cut, these are the categories to use to report fake swords. Just be very careful in making reports. Do this only for swords you are absolutely, one hundred percent certain are fake.

Must be a new batch of these swords from China! One was listed today at nearly $5,000 They surely must know these are fake?

I'm assuming you are talking about the fake Rob posted that sold for $900? The extremely poor quality is the main thing that shouldstand out. Even the worst 95 in the latest pattern is leagues above the quality of this one. Now, into specifics. Handle is incorrect wrap design were you to pretend it was a copper, but it's actually brass which was never used. Bohi is horrible, thin and incorrectly located at termination points. Stamps wrong and hideously ugly and deep on a cheap fuchi. Saya ring located too low to the throat. Total lack of patina but obvious signs of falsified age. Incorrect paint colours. Latch design is different and really flat and flimsy looking, wrong shape too sharp tsuba, tsuka screw is incorrect material and design, seppa will be wrong and missing details. Serial number font and spacing incorrect. Sarute incorrect length and shape, kissaki is a a sharp chisel point instead of rounded. There is basically nothing right. This is only just better than the worst Chinese fakes, though it is assuredly Chinese in origin. I'm not trying to be rude, we all started somewhere. I remember when I couldn't be sure either. Luckily my first swords were from a reputable dealer. I overpaid for the prices at the time, but it paid off in the long run. Good luck getting the money back and I would insist on postage being paid by the seller both ways. eBay may support you on that seeing as you were sold a fake sword, promised to be original.

I enjoyed the video. Got a bit of a twitch when he started on the crew-gunto myth... not sure I agree with a few other points either and a bit behind current knowledge... hopefully the book is well edited. God forbid there are 'Type 3' swords listed. That designation needs to die. It's good though to drum up more interest though in my favourite Japanese swords.

Looks like someone jammed a different blade into a Type 32 hilt. Some weird stuff was done by bored soldiers.

Sadly it happens. Trying to make a sword 'more desirable' to collectors by ruining art. In the end it's not going to impress either. Fittings are okay, but without a blade that actually fits, nothing special.

Well it is 100% genuine, original Chinese! Don't waste your time trying to tell them. Most of the sellers of these on eBay think they know better or already know it is not genuine and want to sell it so they can pass on their mistake or make an unscrupulous buck.

Sword looks alright. You could ask for $3,000 and I expect you'd get that. It is matching, after all. There are a couple of issues with the condition, but not major. You don't need to be so paranoid about selling it. Toss it up on eBay or put in the for sale section and use PayPal. Just use common sense and you'll be fine.

It really does entirely depend on condition, John. As the roughest guide, you should be looking at $2,000USD for a poor condition but complete and original sword, up to $8,000USD for a really nice matched example. There are some variations to the earlier numbers that makes them a little more desirable to collectors, but 2,400 will be outside that range. Based on what you're describing the condition to be, I'm going to guess you are at the middle to lower end of the scale. Green paint (any amount of) is far more desirable than the gilt you describe on the saya. Marks and pitting on the blade sound like a detractor too... but we need photos to judge the extent. I'll add that there is a great example of one of these coopers on eBay right now. It's set to $5,000US ONO. It has been there for months, I'm assuming becausethe serial numbers are mismatched. There was (and I assume still is) a far poorer example, which is priced higher, but matching. You can take this as an indication that the market currently considers $5,000USD too much for a really nice but mismatched copper and $6,000USD too much for a matching but poor condition sword.

Wow... that's insane for one book. I had a play and it looks like the rate is somewhat fixed. I added 5 copies to cart and postage was $85US. It's possible that Aussies could do a 'bulk' order to save postage.

Ah, the six monthly maintenance regime. I can't say I particularly enjoy it, myself. It is useful though, when I pick up a sword, wonder why I have it and then remember/discover what made it unique. And Rob, it always starts with "just wanted one".

More likely we know more about swords than tassels, Stephen 😉

Have a look at my above post. If that's not clear, I'll provide a summary. Paint on handles is reasonably important, but no more so than the condition of any other part of the sword. A sword with perfect paint and a rusty blade is no good, likewise a sword with an outstanding blade and ruined handle and scabbard is no good.

You can read up about the tsuka-ito patterns in this thread On the first page, Bruce posts an example of his Gifu with pictures of the tsuka. You can see from those what I'm referring to. As to value, whatever someone will pay. I wouldn't pay current prices because I'm a dinosaur, but the value just goes steadily up, so I don't think the prices are bad. I'd expect, based on eBay's trends, $1200USD to $2,000USD?

Go ahead and remove the cosmoline. It's just a preservative, it doesn't affect the sword value or originality. You have a nice early variation from Gifu there. You can tell from the slightly offset tsuka-ito pattern on the cast handle. Gifu only did this on their earliest swords and not for very long, so hard to find these. Fabulous condition, just how I like it. A little patina and wear from age, but close to mint. Is the knot a reproduction though? Leather that is over seventy years old like that looks too good to be true. While a variation to the norm, I'm afraid that unless you get a die-hard collector like me hooked, small differences mean almost nothing to the average 95 buyer. Being earlier means nothing to collectors either. We are after variations and don't really care when it was made. I doubt that it would make any difference to non-collectors buying either. The only 95 swords where early production matters are the coppers (Pattern 1) because the closer you get to the magical '1' the closer you are to having the first sword made in this model. There are also a number of variations in saya for earlier coppers, but I digress. Given the condition, the brass tsuba (more desirable for some reason) and the ever soaring prices, you should get good money if you were to sell it.

Yep. Absolutely. Most are older, traditional blades remounted for military use. May have a military koshirae, may be civilian koshirae with a leather combat cover, maybe be a leather covered shirasaya even. Some rarer blade examples are wartime made, as with those in this thread. This topic has been extensively covered in the short gunto thread which is likely where you read it.