mauser99

This is a sword Im being offered. Not typically what I look for but I have to take what comes my way. Im interested in what it says and I assume its single sided ? It has a very nice Harmon on the blade. Its in civilian mounting. Not sure the blade length yet. Thanks .

I wasn't talking about the first sword posted. the second. Looks like a typical Chinese fake to me.. Wouldn't buy it based off that photo. Sorry if Im wrong.

yes the one you just posted is fake. As for a Copper handled NCO there was one recently on Ebay and gunboards "same sword" the guy was trying to sell I think maybe slightly cleaned ??? He ended up taking under 2400.00 for it which I was amazed it went soooo cheap. I see them battled over and driven up to 4k at times. One thing about auctions is they are not consistent. I see the sarute is already broken on one side. There is a product called leather weld that might work attaching it.. That is a great example no matter what.

That's why I wanted to post it here.. So its jan 43 not may. I knew some guys who were good were having issues translating the tang. I will post some more blade photos when I get a chance. Thanks again.

well thanks for the help.. this was one of the first blades I ever bought and got really lucky it was a good one. I paid a lot but wanted one "nice one" as they say... When I had it translated there was some confusion and I think this was before I found this forum.. What I had was : month MAY year 1943 translation was Echigo no Kuni Mitsuoki Zou. meaning made by Mitsuoki of Echigo Province. Not sure if that's true or not ? Here are some shots of the blade.. Its a killer blade.

Type 98 gunto. Seems to be a harder one to translate. Any help would be great thanks.

great discussion on a very common topic. I will come in the end and say. The sword in question I would not buy to all the points being made. Unless it was very very cheap. 400.00usd or less. 300 sounds better. I have no clue the market in the UK but, everything seems more expensive overthere. There are so many of these out there no sense can be made over settling over a lesser example. There are many on ebay usa and I see no reason why one cant be shipped overseas ? Never buy anything you will have to explain when selling.. This one requires to much IMHO. Probably why it was dumped off in an auction..

another example where they got the product near correct but numbered it wrong. And with the wrong type stamps. Serial range could be wrong as well but, I cant see them.

As I said in the other NCO topic. The overall swords are getting better. The best place to look is at the serial Numbers. One, they aren't in the correct range. Second the Font isn't even close. Here is a decent fake Stu W. posted over on WAF. This would fool most entry level guys. The serial #'s are the best place to focus IMHO

I already posted but, here it is again. Right at the end of the aul. grip variants.

very exciting... That one is very close to the one I just purchased. Being 201861 . The wood grip variants seem to start in the 203xxx serial range. I haven't seen one any lower. As anyone else ?

You can always sell a Jinsen blade has the larger font and of course a totally different serial range. On the Nagoya you can see the use of two totally different 7's being used...

Here is one of the better fakes I have seen. Stu W. posted it over on WAF. The overall construction is better than most. The grip is painted very well. Saya color is all wrong but when you get to the # stamps that's when it all goes away.

You are spot on as far as evaluating fakes. The swords are getting better and better but, When you look at the serial # on the blade and scabbard it sint even close to an orig. Same with some forged German items. They don't get the small detail correct. We all must be detailed oriented when spotting fakes.

I looked at my other this morning and its in the 133k range with the deep wide font. Arsenal markings on the ferrule are non-existent for the most part. When I get the other I will do a side by side comparison. As the early one was under Kokura and the other under Nagoya.

I mostlycollect weapons ww2 German. Hence the Mauser99. Serial fonts are seriously studied in that side of the hobby as the forgeries are crazy. As for a factory its not uncommon for them to be changed as they did break or wear out. But, you see a gradual deterioration of the stamp then replacement. The font differences here could be two things. One a different factory or just two sets of stamps for different shifts maybe ? Or two separate lines in the factory.

Now that I invested the time to sit and digest what you wrote it makes more sense what Im asking. As you can see where the change was made possibly? As the different factories had different font number stamps . Bruce's Id say was made in a different location than the other two. Type set proves it. What do others think of this ? If the inspection stamps weren't so small they may also differ. I can also see without knowing all this info by looking at the huge range of serial # differences One could think they made a hell of a lot more of these than they did !

I haven't looked @ my other yet but, I was looking @ Bruce's example and that one has the heavy struck deep wide serial font. IJA's example as a lesser struck narrower font. Mine in the 200k range has the typical narrow lightly struck font. I thought the ones with the Deep struck broad font were made at a different plant than the poorly struck ones ??? seems odd the later blade has the deeper bolder font ? 132423 typical narrow font. 134112 DEEP WIDE FONT. 201861 narrow thin font. staggered hand applied #'s This follows the range and just 2k below the earliest wood grip type Nco's.

Here Is the one I just bought. This one is in just over the 200k range which seems correct as this is just before the wood grip type show up. They made these only a short time. I thought only Nagoya made these ? The serial ranges are quite a bit apart ?

nice grab. I just picked up my second. These are sooooo much harder to find than the wood grip variant. The wood grip variant seems almost common to me now.. Im sure a lot has to do with them more than likely just sitting in a finished state when the war ended and were never used and were there for the taking after the war. Like lots of other late war booty.

Don't buy just the handle ! what's the point ???

There are two real ones for sale right now. One on Ebay and the other on the Pre98 website.. Both are nice but slightly overpriced IMHO. Both have numbered saya's. You might find one cheaper with a non-numbered saya but, there will always be questions. I don't have the $$ to pay close to 4k for just one NCO so I probably will never own one.

The topic was to collect. Not what is the best sword I think ? Any are fine to collect I guess it boils down to what you want to collect. This is a great forum but, it's geared more toward the Art sword side of the hobby. This small sub forum for Military swords is where I spend my limited time here. I wanted to just focus on WW2 period swords. As far as collecting I focus on WW2 period mounting and blades. I focus on NON damaged items and prefer items that show use and were carried in battle. I really started to focus on Type3 mounting and have a few of those now. I would say one of each variant would be a nice place to start. One nice NCO. One nice type 98 One nice Kai Gunto This can be done fairly inexpensively or very depending on the variations you want to purchase. All this is personal preference. There is really no wrong collection.

same guy I think.. Swordbuyer is Ed Hicks.

very similar looking sword. Had a wide blank spot where the swivel band had been. Not the typical narrow type seen on certain saya's with combat covers. Blade looks similar have a wavy Harmon and tang was very smooth looking. Had no painted kanji or any markings what so ever.