Bruce Pennington

Strange. I can see them. I did a "Copy picture" and pasted. I'll edit the post and upload them. Should fix it.

Posting this one from @Bridges thread HERE. Identified as Inaba clan.

The color could be a trick of the lighting. To all appearances, it looks original to me.

Steve, For the record, your sword, other than the leather stack, was a very nice Type 98 Japanese officer sword (gunto). Could be a Type 94, with that centered release button, but the thinner tsuba (handguard) probably pushes it to a 98. @PNSSHOGUN, John may confirm that for us. I like the nice, fat seppa (spacers) and find them more often on upgraded gunto. In other words, the original officer paid a little more money for the sword. (Officers had to buy their own swords). You can see how they originally looked on Ohmura's excellent site Army Commisioned Officers Shingunto. That round spot on the end, to me, looks like a filler or plug, probably covering the access to the end of the tang and how it's secured. If there's no obvious way to get that plug out, and still want to explore it further, you might find a metal/machine shop and ask their opinion.

Please let me know what you think. I have my opinion and looking for confirmation. Don't want to bias by saying mine, or showing nakago. I'll post it after. Thanks guys!

English Before the war, Kisaku Ibe of Yasugi Steel Co., Ltd., the predecessor of Hitachi Metal Yasugi Factory, and others developed high-speed tool steel with electric steel for the first time in the East with the cooperation of Matsue Electric Light, establishing a further brand in modern steelmaking. Currently, it is developed at the Hitachi Metallurgy Laboratory in Yasugi City, Shimane Prefecture and is defined as the names of all special steels represented by tool steels for high-performance machines, such as blades and molds that require the strength of materials manufactured using advanced technology. These are registered trademarks as "YSS Yasugi Speciality Steel" (YSS stands for Yasugi Speciality Steel).

I have one like that. I made the mistake of messing around with it one too many times, and it broke! Now it’s glued back together.

The saya is a very dark green. At first glance, I thought it was black, but in good light you can see it is a dark, dark green. The ito seems to be a very dark grey, or light black.

The 2nd and 3rd sound like plug-in jacks/locations on the device, and the 'filament' one was for the power cord/source.

Hmm, the plot thickens. I don't know anything about WWII electronic equipment. Can't picture what device would use "filaments". If someone here at NMB doesn't pop in with an answer by tomorrow, I'll run it by the Warrelics collectors. Thanks Thomas & Trystan!

Thanks for posting this Vitaly, @GoldenDrachen, I was considering doing a post myself for info purposes. For everyone else - Vitaly put this up for discussion on This Warrelics Thread. Another guy popped in with an identical one, saying he bought it from a dealer at a show, and 2 hours later, saw that the dealer had dropped another identical one on the table after he left! Vitaly just received the dagger and with it in hand, doesn't feel it is legit.

Thanks Trystan! The guys on the Translation forum said they came from some sort of phone or communication equipment. Maybe a field radio? I'll post them on Warrelics. They seem to have a bunch of guys that collect that kind of equipment. BTW, do you know what is meant by "fiber power supply"?

How in the world did the haikan ring to missing? Those things are sturdy, welded together.

Could post this on the Mantetsu Survey thread, too, but since there aren't that many Mantetsu on file with the MRS fittings, I thought this would be a good place to post. Got the privilege of examining this one personally. Thanks Erns! @Stegel A Spring 1944 Mantetsu, with MRS fittings, double stamp "連工"; serial セ 2521. It has ivory or plastic (after removing them for photos, I think they are plastic) items in the ito, like menugi. Awaiting translation from the Translation Assistance guys.

3 possibly ivory menugi. 2 on one side, 1 on the other. One looks like tensho, or seal script. Thanks guys! Edit: I just realized a couple kanji are obscured. I'll see if they can slide out without any trouble. If so, I'll update. WELL!! Turns out there was a good deal more underneath, except for that one ! @Stegel

Made me check my Naohiro! Faint temper line but no hamon:

The sword on the right is the Type 19 officer dress sword.

I noticed that point when you made it earlier, and it’s a very good point. I’m going to keep an open mind about it all.

You may be right. Seems a little unusual that the handle cord would be two tone colored. The tassel seems to be darker on one side than the other. Such a railway tassel would add considerable weight to the legitimacy of the sword. Fakers wouldn't likely know about the brown/tan or brown/cream colored tassels.

Trystan, Isn't this tassel the Brown/Tan Railway tassel? Do you have more photos showing the tassel?

Thanks Bryce, great collage of kao! And you're right about my post above coming from Sadakatsu rather than Sadakazu. Took me a while, but I've finally got the two mei down. Out of time for now, but I still want to see if there are any distinguishing features that set the two kakihan apart. So, just to be sure: Sadakazu mei Sadakatsu mei

Pretty amazing stuff!

$400 used to be the going price for a leather tassel. Last couple of years, because of the Covid, slow down, the prices have fallen a little bit, but not much. They are harder to come by because the leather, over 80 years, degrades.

Agree with Chris, stamps are good. I was also thinking “why would a fake have old cosmoline?” Good photos make all the difference.

I wondered about that! But I assumed it just held the fuchi to the backstrap. Well, learned something today.