Bruce Pennington

A naganita turned into a waki with military tsuka. Posted by @chgruener here:

Lots of shrapnel damage on this one:

Ok, good points.

But that's how almost all of them look when civil swords are re-fitted for the war. I've seen literally every combination of mixed parts.

If it is splitting to accommodate the fat blade tip, it’s probably not the original one. The Takayama blades have a very fat tip so a saya and the liners would have to be shaped to fit it.

Here's a sakura pattern Gunzoku tsuba on a civil/military gunto. Blade is a 1943 Seki-stamped Toshimasa. Found on this Antiques-atlas sale page.

Quite interesting, Marsel! Could be a mon, right? The 3:5:3 pattern is found on official swords, though. How about the rest of the fittings? Are they civil, military, or a mix?

Posting photos.

Call to arms for ogre-maiming sword generates huge response “We want to use metals from ‘urban mines’ (stockpiles of rare metals) recovered from discarded computers and smartphones to make koshirae,” said Teppei Eguchi of Kogei Next who is tasked with producing the mountings. “It will be an effort to blend the past and the present to make something that will be remembered by history.” Interesting idea, just don't know how I feel about that. Mixed feelings. Cool blade, though.

I wonder why the late war army swords so often have the black same? Posting photos:

Nice one, Steven! I've always like those gold & brown daiseppa. Any stamps on the nakago?

Sounds good! What does it mean?

Very nice, Brandon! Love it! I had this one on file from Antiques-atlas.com, but I've added your new photos. Thanks for the update.

I don't own these, but a couple of the Mikasa Battleship dirks have been posted over the years; One posted by @BANGBANGSAN and discussed HERE. Another for sale by @matthewbrice HERE.

Mal, "Koanan-issei" is a unique slogan change in the 1945 blades. It's something like "Good luck in the South" and we only have 1 gunto on file with the actual inscription. According to Nick, both Koa Isshin and Koanan Issei were popular marketing slogans during the war that SMR picked up for their blades. As to the student, I realize I had just been assuming the dairy was from a girl. I hear "diary" and I think "girl." So, it's got to be a guy, then. Now it's out of place with your topic, but I'm glad I posted it or I'd still be thinking it was a boy!

Mal, Don't know if your intent for the thread is specific to that forge, or for all "women sword polishing" photos. If it is focused on that shop, let me know and I'll edit and delete. Here are the photos I've filed, but I don't know the shops they were working: We also have a diary entry from a school girl who was polishing blades at the Nanman Army Arsenal.

Well, that's as good a guess as any we've tossed about.

Helping to educate is why many of us are here. While I enjoy living vicariously through each sword that shows up, my real "thrill," now, is helping the newbie along the path. I enjoy my collection, but it is complete. I enjoy our research. And I enjoy educating the knowledge seeker. And like Nick said, all we can do is advise. The responsibility of the next step falls on the newbie.

Yes, that's a Contingency model of the Type 98, or Rinji Seishiki (Or Type 3, Type 100, Naval Landing sword, Type 44, etc). You should be able to simply unscrew the screw. If it doesn't budge, try turning the oposite direction. I haven't run into it personally, but I have read that some WWII screws were reverse threaded.

@Decal I'm attaching the most recent version of the Mantetsu Serial Number Chart. You can use it to see if recently discovered blades are already recorded, if you like. kiipu-mantetsu serial numbers (rev1).docx

Thanks Smith! Got all 3 in the chart.

Thanks Smith (is that your first name? We usually use first names at NMB). I'm glad you posted that. I had it in the files, but realized after your post that I had mis-labled it as a "Spring". I've fixed that now, thanks again!

Good shots, James. Just an FYI - be sure to oil and clean that blade, and don't touch the steel with your bare fingers. Those prints, left long-term, will become permanent in the blade. For the hamon - gorgeous, just like I expected. The nihonto experts change correct me if wrong, but I think I see the tell-tale signs of oil temptering, so a quality showato, not nihonto.

@BANGBANGSAN @Kiipu @Stegel @robinalexander I'm calling in all experts on this one. The bohi is right for a Nagoya blade. The tsuka screw even has the set punch mark on the end, unusual for fakes. The stamps are pretty darn good. And, Tim, there are plenty of examples of 95s with steel tsuba and copper fuchi. Questionable - The Kokura stamp is offset internally, but @Shamsy has shown plenty of examples of Kokura stamp variations. The NA on the blade serial number looks etched onto the blade. I don't study the serial number fonts, so one of the other guys will have to comment. But their orientation is correct for a Nagoya blade. You read their numbers with the cutting edge up. - The leather cover for the saya doesn't look like it was made for this sword, see all the wrinkles? The tan color of the saya might be post-war Bubba, but Stegel needs to comment on that. The serial number on the saya throat is on the wrong side for a Nagoya saya, however, with non-matching numbers, this could be a Tokyo saya mis-matched to the blade? Guys like Thomas and Stegel that track numbers could say. - There is a tell-tale sharp bend in the latch, common to fakes, but by itself, I wouldn't say definitively it's wrong. I'm not completely convinced this is fake. If it is, it's the best I've seen so far.

Don't know if you've seen this or not, but a good reference for studying the stamps: Stamps of the Japanese Sword in our Downloads section Also, for Type 95s, Ohmura has the basics: 造兵廠の標識 An Arsenal trademark and inspection mark (ohmura-study.net)