Bruce Pennington

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)

Ow, that hurts my eyes!

Out of the 15 I have on file, 2 have a cursive style mei. Let me know if this is what you are looking for.

I have 2 other Kazunori, showa-stamped, blades on file and they are both in civil fittings:

Hi Shawn! Welcome to Japanese sword collecting! Your mixed fittings are typical for a sword that was originally owned and fitted as a civilian sword. Many blades made in during the war were still bought and owned by civilians. But due to sword shortages, the government/military made a couple of big public drives to get civilians to donate or sell their swords for the war effort. These civil swords then got re-fitted in widely varying combinations to militarize them. The Kabutogane (end cap) and wooden saya (scabbard) were likely how the sword came to the military. The re-fitting operation simply left them in place and put military menugi, tsuba, and seppa. The saya would have been covered with a leather cover, and a belt ring added. Both have gone missing in the post-war timeframe. Lots of free education available on these sites: THE Japanese SWORD GUIDE (japaneseswordindex.com) Military Swords of Imperial Japan (Guntō) (ohmura-study.net) Master Index for Reference Articles written by Nick Komiya (warrelics.eu) You can read about the stamps on this article: Stamps of the Japanese Sword And lots of other topics here: Member Articles

John, You may have read a post or 2 of mine where I comment that the Nagoya Arsenal didn't seem to have quite as tight quality control as the Tokyo 1st Arsenal. They still had good quality, you just see very slight variances that aren't as prevalent on Tokyo blades. But, their bohi, or fuller groove was open-ended (for lack of better word) compared to the Tokyo bohi. Here is an example of the Nagoya bohi: Whereas, Tokyo bohi have a more distinct shape: Now, having said that, I have actual examples from both arsenals of just the opposite. But they are the exception, not the norm. As to the other types - I have fake 19s, 95s, and 98s on file, but no kaigunto or Rinji seishiki (Type 3). I believe I have seen fake kaigunto, but didn't think to file photos at the time.

I am away from my books, and will look up the smith later, unless someone beats me to it. The fittings obviously had a rough life and the handle (tsuka) has been re-wrapped recently. Still, a legitimate Type 98 in combat saya.

Yasuyo https://en.m.wikiped...wiki/Yasuyo_Yamasaki commander of the Attu raid. I have no idea, but this came up when I searched the name. Maybe the fittings craftsman with numbers in the middle of his name. I don’t see why he would put numbers in the middle of his name, though, instead of after. OK, I’ll sit down and be quiet.

Thanks Alex and Trystan! So the OP dirk is a Korean Governor dirk. A 3:5:3 would be a Railway Board, Junior officer dirk. Thanks guys!

This dirk is extremely unusual, too, as it only has 1 belt loop. I've sent this link to "Ortos" at Warrelics to see if he can identify it. He's got quite a dirk collection and has some dirk reference material that I don't have. Here's a recent thread he started, in case anyone wants to contact him about dirks: A collection of Japanese dirks (warrelics.eu)

Trystan, Curious to know your source on that. The only reference book I have that discusses various dirks is F&G Japanese Military and Civil Swords and Dirks. On pages 183, 184, he shows this exact pattern, for the National Railways Board Dirks, Junior and Senior. In his discussion, he states they both carried the 5:7:5. He states that the drawing of a 3:5:3 in Swords of Imperial Japan 1868-1945 was an error.

Jackson, I went through this when I decided to re-paint a Type 95 I had that was totally painted gold, even the blade. You can read what I went through here: The short version is I had a friend that painted model airplanes do the tsuka, and I ordered a WWII helmet paint for the saya. It turned out to be too green to match my other legit 95s, so I mixed some brown spray paint as I sprayed the green. It's still not exact, but for what you're describing, it should help. Here are pics of the spray can. You can see a website at the bottom of one side, for contact info. I haven't tried it, so I don't know if it's active.

James, The small stamp, Showa stamp, is seen on blades from 1935 - 1942, with the massive majority of them in 1940-41. Just to give you an idea of it's age. They tend to be above average quality, and 1 or 2 have even been papered by Shinsa. Maybe you could give us a couple close-ups of the blade showing the hamon (temper line)?

There's a good one posted by @JohnWB HERE Looks like the bullet glanced off the blade. Testimony to the quality of of the blade, I'd say!

Ooo, nice!

I'm no bayonet guy, but that's a bayonet frog. If original, the owner must have lost/damaged his sword belt and gotten creative!

Still having trouble with the Warrelics site. But the guy discussing the variations on his dirk collection said there were many more variations seen in the early years of dirk production. So, maybe yours is quite early.