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Bruce Pennington

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Posts posted by Bruce Pennington

  1. An update.  For anyone filing/tracking these, it turns out Jonathan's sword is the same sword posted earlier by @Yoshimichi.  Don't know why the tsuba was swapped for another, but the nakago, and saya marks are identical.

     

    Edit: Disregard the mention of tsuba.  I had mind-melded the sword from Stegel into this, which has a different tsuba.  I checked my files and don't have a shot of the Yoshimichi tsuba.  It's likely the same one.

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  2. These kind of swords are always controversial. The problem is that there is no documentation to verify their source. Another problem is that the lower quality workmanship of the occupied lands is so similar to the workmanship of Chinese fakes that it is almost impossible to tell them apart.

     

    We do know for a fact that swords were made in occupied lands. And I think there are some telltale signs one can go by. For example, the alternating direction of the wrapping, and the quality of the metal fittings. Both are typical Japanese and not normally found on fakes.

     

    I believe many of our top experts on nihonto have very little experience studying World War II gunto  and almost no experience studying late war and occupied land swords.  It is just not their area of expertise.

    • Like 3
  3. Hello Jonathan, and welcome!  I'm down in Colorado Springs, and would love to see that sword personally some day.  Life is crazy-busy for the near future, but when it settles down, I'd love to get up there to meet you and see the sword.

     

    Can you post pics of the full rig and closeups of various parts like the tsuka, tsuba, and a couple of blade shots including the tip?

     

    I have 3 others like this on file.  No one has been able to translate the mark.  That, combined with the late-war style fittings, point toward an island-made sword for the local forces teamed up with the Japanese, or for the Japanese themselves.  Many thousand troops were essentially stranded with no reinforcements and no re-supply until the end of the war.  There were some local smithing being done in some of the occupied lands, Java being the most famous, and these swords could be from one of those places.

     

    Of course they also could be from a Chinese fake operation, but in this case, I don't think they are.

     

    Here's one from @Stegel

    post-1868-0-25639000-1542754091_thumb.jpg.10cde1c07d06dddedf0bd53bd09dc1b8.jpgpost-1868-0-41933100-1542754155_thumb.jpg.9471068d4001929fbf974c8d1dcc0073.jpg

    post-1868-0-99698800-1542754144_thumb.jpg.7f9f5aaae2445ff21b6aeec4a13164d5.jpgWechatIMG2593.thumb.jpeg.ab1e138fabce70ce27e0a76dc49abb56.jpeg.2dbab6a77a4bbf73ef6156235c974370.jpeg

     

    and from @Yoshimichi

    Emer1.thumb.jpg.8358f5749aca57ec1f65a7b673b0ca22.jpg.29a72941699ad0f97e0dfa54315a76af.jpgEmer2.thumb.jpg.841c0f9b7fd2a427eae29590ab8873b6.jpg.5aeaf48f9a1da147bbfd377ecc4d74df.jpgEmer9.thumb.jpg.8ef6557052b9f4827ed9338b898994cd.jpg.86383e449dfdc0a24fd11a66a19413aa.jpgEmer12.jpg.6806c1f86a28e03b78ccaa273a84519f.jpg.b1777380b3becef9cf5f949dde88f013.jpg.af1db204a79cbe73e0efeee306354ed7.jpg

     

  4. Mathieu,

    This peg holds the handle to the blade. 

    417339983_InkedRemoveThis.jpg.af246cbd0a5845fda98b2c06fc2fb0b5.jpg

     

    The end you see is likely the fatter end, so it must be tapped/pushed out from the other side.  The other side is hidden under the wrap, so simply push gently under the wrap to tap it out

    Peg1.thumb.jpeg.022e3c0d4ef9a72c461b69c67e92b99d.jpeg

     

    The handle and handguard should easily slide off the blade at that point.  Sometimes they are stuck with grime and/or a little rust.  Don't let that bother you.  Simply wiggle the handguard and/or tap it some, and everything will eventually break loose.

    • Like 5
  5. Not a "marine" sword.  No official title to this model, but it was an attempt to simplify the Type 98.  Called many things by collectors - Type 44; Marine landing sword; Type 3; Type 100; Rinji Seishiki; Contengency model.  Designed in 1938 off a variation loophole to the Type 98 Imperial Order, introduced in 1940, and sort of finally got popular in 1943/44.  Definitely Army, though, not Navy (or Marine).

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  6. Well, @IJASWORDS, there's a potential Shop logo to find in your book! - "&"

     

    Feeling 90% sure this is a shop stamp, as it is on the seppa/tsuba, this adds to the evidence that shops stamped blade nakago, with logo at least, as well as used painted numbers.  The most famous is the Suya Shoten operation.   But, I feel stongly (75%) that the stamped numbers on nakago are almost always done by the Army (Navy evidence is too scarce to say), so the numbers on this blade COULD be done by the Army, while the added "&" behind the number simply means the fittings shop used the Army number, plus logo, as the assembly number in their shop.  But that's just my current theory.

  7. 22 hours ago, Kiipu said:

    As I linked to above, the wartime zōhei-tō 造兵刀 came about via the Type 95.  Mass production began in earnest in 1943 and more zōhei-tō were made late in the war than Type 95s.  The Japanese army needed officer's swords and they needed lots of them.  Hence the development of the zōhei-tō.  It took the best features of the Type 95 and ported it over to the requirements of an officer's sword.

     

    A noobie question - Murata-to began in the late 1800's.  Did they simply not take off in production?  Were the zoheito derived from Murata's blade ideas or are the 2 completely unrelated to each other?

  8. 17 hours ago, blackpowder said:

    What do you think about how old it can be?

    There are some guys on this forum that may address that, but you'll find a lot more of them at the Nihonto Forum of NMB.  They'll need a full length shot of the bare blade, good close-ups of the blade tip and mid-section, showing hamon (temper line) and steel texture, and good shots of the nakago.  Measurements help too:

     

    measure.gif

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  9. Well.  After reviewing several nakago of Type 95s and Zoheito, I'd have to lean toward John's zoheito idea too.  While the blades and blade tips are almost identical, the T95 nakago are longer, narrower, and lack a fully discernable yakote.  This one has the same shape and look of other zoheito nakago I have on file.

     

    Steve, if this were an officer sword made with a Type 95 NCO blade, it would be a rare one to have in hand, as actual ones are very rare to come by.  If it's a zoheito, then it's not all that rare.  Less common than standard Type 94/98 gunto, but there are plenty of them around the collecting world.

     

    Zoheito were an attempt to mass produce blades for officers during the sword shortage years after switching from the western styled kyugunto over to the samurai styled Japanese swords.  Single piece of steel, not made the traditional way.  The look and feel is almost identical to the Type 95 blade.

     

    On a side note: Do any of our zoheito experts know if the factories churning out zoheito were completely separate from the Type 95 ones?  Seems to me the only difference is the shape of the nakago.  Could they have been from the same specs, or from the same factories? 

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