Bruce Pennington

Thanks a bunch Ray! Is that other part a forge name?

The WWII smith's often used the "chippy" style in their mei. Pretty beat up kaigunto, with navy tassel.

Interesting piece. The double release buttons usually carry a star-stamped RJT blade. Here's the mei. Admittedly, the habaki is still in place, but I think we would still the a star if it were there:

Thanks Trysan! Didn't have those. My only other "3" on mune is a Norisada, May 1940, with "Na Ho 3"

Ha! Sorry dude, my life is a whorl-wind on the back of a tornado falling down Alice's rabbit hole, right now.

Thanks Trystan!!! An interesting update: As I was filing this, I found that I also have a Tsukushi Shigemitsu 234, and in the Japanese sword Index, there is a "Tsukushi Suetsugu Shigemitsu" mei! shigmits.jpg (61×550) (japaneseswordindex.com) It appears to be the same guy! For some reason, he's signed this blade with only his province and first name. Hm. And the sale is from our own @matthewbrice - Good luck with the sale Matt, it's a gorgeous kaigunto!

Great one John, thanks! That's on a REALLY nice kaigunto, custom saya. The mei says "Tsukushi Suetsugu". Don't see a Showe era Suetsugu, but Sesko lists some from early eras, so it's likely a WWII smith assuming the name. After some eye-balling, I'd put the number at "316". You can just see the faint line angling down to make the 3. @SteveM @Kiipu @BANGBANGSAN somebody care to double check my translation? If BTW, what is the meaning of the "Tsukushi"?

Found this blade with a kiku-mon. Could I get a translation of both sides, Por Favor, Please, Пожалуйста, お願いします?

Found this blade with a kiku-mon. Could I get a translation of both sides, Por Favor, Please, Пожалуйста, お願いします?

Here's one with the standard late-war kabutonage. Braxtons Auction- Hibid

I have 2 95s, one of them a copper-handle with no serial number. I believe they were factory, or field repair, replacements.

From the 3 photos, which is hardly enough, everything looks legit to me.

When they go sideways, edit the photo just a bit, then repost. Fixes it every time.

Many officer swords had bohi. Many. Some were family blades, and some were made during the war for private purchase.

Gorgeous Keith, I've always loved the look of the long kissaki! You might already know, but that's a Field grade (Maj-Col) tassel. Nice item. You anywhere near Colorado Springs?

An interesting Type 32, painted black, even the blade, but worn heavily, by @Bridges HERE,

Noah, Have you read the Type 95 Black Saya thread? If I bought this, I'd leave it intact. There is a reasonable chance this was painted during the war. We've not discovered the reason, but there is growing evidence that several gunto were painted like this, and other variations, during the war. Whether you buy depends on your collecting taste.

Ditto! Bing! Thanks guys!

Noah, Kudos for your ongoing study. Ohmura is a fabulous site for studying the real thing. I've written to Legacy informing them about the souvenir sword. Hopefully they'll take the correction in good faith. If you've finished the NLF Gunto article, you already know, but for future readers, I'll summarize - the metal fittings are Army, but gold-gilded like Navy. The rounded tsuba is similar to Navy, but is distinctly different than a true kaigunto tsuba. The black saya and ito, with the gold-gilding gives the outward appearance of a Navy kaigunto, but like the guys at Legacy recognized, the metal fittings are all Army! They apparently intentionally made a mish-mash of Army and Navy fittings so that this sword would qualify to military officials as a souvenir, not a war trophy. Some of the blades seem to be legit, Navy blades made for WWII, but were probably sitting in an arsenal awaiting fittings when the war ended. Some were clearly made by Tenshozan after the war for the souvenir contract. I own one, and honor these swords for what they are - the final Japanese sword made due to war. I honestly don't know if modern Japanese officers carry swords today, but these were the "period" in the last sentence of the history of Japanese war sword from the beginning of time to the end of WWII.

A blade with a fuller groove (bohi) isn't an NCO blade. They were putting bohi on blades for centuries.

Your right! @BANGBANGSAN Isn't this one you were discussing recently? It has that "fan" shaped kanji.

Well at least my track record as the worst kanji reader is still intact! Thank you Moriyamasan!

With the plain-wooden tsuka and complete leather wrap, I'd go for last-ditch.

Hey guys! Found this on fleabay. I think it's a Seki xx Kanenaga. Can't find one in Sesko's book with that first name though. Translation please?

Hello Kaito! Welcome to NMB! Your goals overwhelm my mind. A global database swords? I have been working a database of Mantetsu blades, and have over 300 recorded, but have not kept track of the owners or blade location. One difficulty I face is my accesses to blades is limited to the internet. I only see blades posted by owners and sellers. Blades quietly sitting in a collector's home, who has no interest in posting his collection online will never be known or recorded. Another problem I see is that many blades move about as they are sold and traded. To your interest in learning how a collector obtained a sword, you probably already know that approximately 250,000 swords were exported by the Allies after WWII. This doesn't count the number of war trophies taken during the war. Many of that number are still sitting in the old soldier's closets, but many have made it into collector's hands via auction houses, eBay, gun shows, online dealers, and online club sales. The Mantetsu I have from my dad was was gotten from his days in the Marines, after the Korea conflict. Today, there are dealers in Japan selling swords on a daily basis. I apologize if you already know these things, I don't mean to be discouraging. It is an ambitious mission! Good luck. On another note, with the slowly growing list of countries that want to ban and confiscate weapons, you might find resistance from collectors in sharing their collections and locations with a global data collector. Again, sorry for being a bit negative. As a fellow data collector, I'm just venting my frustrations at the difficulty of our research. But it has been fun and rewarding, and worth the effort!