Bruce Pennington

Wow, Thomas, where have you been all my life! Ha! Sounds like I could use your input on the Stamps of the Japanese Sword document! Do you have examples of the other stamps Masahide used?

I see now, that paper uses 正秀 which would be MASA hide not 天秀 known as AMA hide The kanji on the blade doesn't seem to precisely fit either one, to me. When I first saw it, I was thinking "Masa" because of the bottom of it. Yet the hotstamp is the one seen on Amahide blades. I wonder if @mecox can add some enlightenment? Could the stamp be a forge logo like the one used by the Showa Amahide and seen on all the smiths that worked there? It hinges on whether Masahide worked with the Amahide of the 1800s. The Nihontoclub page shows Masahide working Active Period1781-1820.

Found this on an auction site. First time I've seen both a hotstamp (kokuin) and kao (kakihan) on a blade, but I'd like to confirm that the last character is, in fact, a kao rather than something else, please! If I have the date right, it's 1806.

Adding this Type 95 posted by Hamish on Type 95 NCO got an Upgrade thread

Thanks for the added pics Paul! The "10" on the fittings seem to me to be fitters taking part of the "510" of the nakago, which, to me, seems to indicate the 510 was put there by the smith or forge, not the fitters. The 2 letters seem to be "S 九" or "S 9" which is WAY out of my experience with the whole stamped-numbers gamut.

Good visual glossary: http://japaneseswordindex.com/glossary.htm and http://japaneseswordindex.com/military.htm and many more pages at the homepage.

Steve, To your question of "too much trouble" - I used to wonder that myself. It seems a lot of work to produce something that sells for $150 USD when advertised honestly. But have since seen posts with photos from factories in China making dozens of these at a time. If they can make them for a profit at $150, imagine their profit at $1,500! And China is only one of several countries doing this. The fakes began actually DURING the war! So many of these came home with returning soldiers. Lots were made in the occupation years with G.I.s swarming all previously held Japanese lands. But there are known fakers (one of them IN Japan!) producing them today. Fake aging is becoming a science. Now to the angle that it's produced by an occupied land, you're best bet is to find someone with language skills in from the Southeast Asian nations. If you can find someone that recognizes the characters, then you're in business. But for now, they look like someone trying to imitate Japanese characters, badly.

Steve, I would have assumed just the opposite. An NCO with "Emperor property" (i.e. the Type 95 fittings) putting a personal/private blade in them. Probably would have kept the issue blade on the side. To the undercoat - the brown looks like rust. The bluish-green is really odd.

Thanks to both Thomas and Paul! Paul, to the fittings have the "510" on them?

Steve, I'd post the pics for the thread, but when I click the link now, the pics are gone. I saw it the first time I went, but not now. Hope someone will copy and post them here. After reading the list of officer swords turned in by NCOs in @BANGBANGSAN's thread, nothing would surprise me.

This one is at a Affiliated Auction. Tells: Bad Tokyo stamps on blade and fuchi and missing contractor stamp on fuchi Grinder marks inside tsuba cut-out Bad bohi, which even has perpendicular grinder marks in it! Oddly, it appears to have cosmoline on the blade! That might just be rust, though. If cosmoline, it means the fakers really went overboard to try to give it some age. Finally, look at the dimples in the tsuka diamonds (which are painted silver!). They are punched, i.e. concave. Real ones are convex little dots.

Here's one in bad shape. On a Kanemichi at a Bagwell Auction: https://www.proxibid.com/Firearms-Military-Artifacts/Military-Artifacts/U-S-Vet-Estate-Hand-Forged-Japanese-Samurai-katana-Sword-Kanemichi-Saku-W-Capture-Photo/lotInformation/62012792#topoflot

Well, the numbered habaki says it's Chinese-made. There were legit Japanese swords made in Manchuria for officers stationed with the North China Railway, but the differences are obvious. In spite of the apparent age, I'd have to place this one in the fake category. There were fairly poor looking swords made in occupied lands for collaboration forces, but they are different than this. This one is trying, in every way to present itself as an IJA gunto.

No, these are sufficient. I cannot tell the age of this very accurately. To me it doesn't look older than early 1900s, but maybe one of the Nihonto experts can give you an estimate.

Feb '44. You have to subtract 1. Showa 19 is 1926 + 19 - 1 = 1944.

The fittings are at best imitation Japanese, and at worst intentional fakes. Yet the thing has age. I'm aware that the professional fakers can artificially age stuff, so that's no guarantee the item is legit. Please give a full photo of the nakago (tang). But unless someone can come up with an island/SE Asian language the kanji fit, then the mei alone shows the whole thing to be a fake. I checked the Java (Sumaran) mei and it's not even close to the same. I'll post a pic for comparison.

The kyu-gunto had great many variations. Either Fuller or Dawson (or both) mentioned this.

Sorry! Couldn't resist that! Ha! Thomas, I honestly tried but couldn't make it out. Does it give any data like date or serial number? And is that one of the swords that went to an NCO?

Is it the floral pattern at the top of the saya, instead of a plain surface?

Steve, Did you buy it? If so, I hope they take returns. Even the fittings are fake.

Just posted the question on Warrelics. I'll update on the military thread if anything pops up.

I don't buy or sell anymore, so don't follow the market. On the occasions I've checked fleabay, prices took a big hit during the past COVID year, but of late have seemed to rebound even higher than they were before the virus hit.

A nice variation of the maze on a Sukenaga blade at Yakiba.com (not advertising for Ed, simply found a nice source of high-quality blades which tend to have high-quality fittings!).

Speaking of mon, found an excellent example of the crest just hinted at on post #37. It's on a Nobushige tanto at Ed's Yakiba.com

Brian, When I click on that link, I had to download and add something to my Firefox browser. Now when I click on it again, all I get are ads.